The Blame Game

The Blame Game is a favorite American pastime. Soon family rooms across the nation will be filled with Armchair Quarterbacks, sitting in the comfy seat, critiquing sideline decisions and playtime execution. This game is the bread and butter of Monday morning sports radio as commentators assess praise and fault, naming the hero and the goat (not the G.O.A.T.) of each game. Players must have a thick skin to endure the steady stream of critique on split-second decisions and hard-to-execute moves that only a prime athlete would even attempt. The Blame Game is the reason I hated being the mother of the goalie. The goalie always gets blamed even though everyone knows the ball doesn’t reach the goalie unless the defense has failed to do their job. When asked to define blame for a classroom full of third graders, the teacher said, “Blame is when you point your finger and say someone else did it.” Blame is the effort to find fault, to assess responsibility sometimes to explain the inexplicable because we emotionally need someone to take the fall.

2025 began with an unending stream of blame for the fires in California. Influential voices denounced the Governor of California for his water and wildlands management policies. The Mayor of LA was criticized for being in Africa as part of a presidential delegation on the day the fires started, despite weather reports that warned of dangerous wind and wildfire conditions. Yet, if warnings of dangerous conditions is the criteria- the mayor of LA would never leave her office. Many pointed to the aging infrastructure of LA’s water system that failed under the unprecedented demand for water across the county. Yet, how many of our municipalities are just one disaster from collapse. Our aging infrastructure- our roads and bridges, power, water and warning systems- are woefully unprepared for what could come.

Lawsuits have been filed against Southern California Edison for their electrical equipment that likely sparked the Eaton fire that decimated Altadena. Fire Marshalls believe that New Year’s Eve fireworks may be to blame for the Palisades Fire that stole 12 lives and destroyed thousands of homes. Some blame God. The abundance of rain and snow in 2022- 2023 blessed southern CA with green hills accented by bright red poppies. How beautiful! Then the draught of 2024 turned that brush into fuel for the fire. Add hurricane strength Santa Ana winds that blow in from the desert, and one spark becomes an inferno. Do we blame homeowners who chose the scenic vistas of the California foothills even though their homes were built in high-risk fire zones? There seems to be no end to the game, because there is plenty of blame to go around. When tragedy happens, we want to make sense of the loss, so we point a finger as if blame will somehow bring a healing balm.

Today, the game continues, with all eyes focused on Texas. In a matter of hours, the quiet town of Kerrville captured national attention as the rain swollen Lampasas River swept through town claiming 131 lives, with 160 still missing. Who is to blame? There is plenty of culpability in this tragedy. We could blame staffing shortages at the National Weather Service charged with sending out alerts on dangerous weather systems as they form to give communities response time. We could blame the outdated warning system in the county. We could blame the operator who received news of the river swelling her banks but insisted on waiting to send the warning until it was approved by a supervisor. Over an hour of essential response time was lost in that delay. Do we blame the owners of Camp Mystic, who built cabins on a ‘100-year-flood plain’, ignoring the danger to maximize their capacity of campers? Do we blame God for a draught that left the ground baked hard and unable to soak in the rain? Do we blame God when the rains came? There have been some who have inexplicably blamed the Biden administration. Who knows why? Yet, with every name of a child lost, we yearn for some explanation that would make sense of the unthinkable.

Blame- a game that seldom produces any winners. One could argue that assessing blame will help prevent tragedies from happening in the future. There is some merit to that point. Too often in recent days, tragedy is used for political gain, implicating political opponents as perpetrators of all things awful. Blame is played like a shell game, shifting responsibility like Pilate washing his hands when the crowds cried out “Crucify.” Think of Adam and Eve who absolved themselves of responsibility by pointing to the serpent, and Aaron who blamed the people’s demand for the creation of the Golden Calf. Note, we might believe the hoax, but God is never fooled by the pointing of a finger to deflect blame. Often, we use blame to help us deal with grief. Blame can turn our pain into anger. Most of us prefer to be angry than to be torn by grief. Anger feels powerful, while grief makes us feel like a victim. Yet, anger does not lead to healing. Anger ties us to the past, recycling stories and accusations rather than seeking redemption. Blame and its resulting anger leave more wreckage in their wake.

Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome gives us good counsel for today. In chapter 12 we read this admonishment from God’s Word: “Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.” May the people of God refuse to play the game today, so that we will be ready to be God’s instrument of healing in a broken world.

With you, blessed by God so that we can be a blessing,
Anita