Film examines curses, scapegoats

[OldSchool2]

from UUWorld:

"For Chicago Cubs fans, few names say defeat like Steve Bartman’s. He’s the hapless fan who is blamed for the baseball team’s playoff collapse in 2003, when he reached out from the left field stands to catch a foul ball, preventing left fielder Moises Alou from making the play.

"Bartman bears the burden of extending the curse on the Cubs, much like Boston Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner, who let a ground ball—and the collective hopes for a World Series title—roll between his legs in 1986.

"Why did Bartman and Buckner become infamous scapegoats for their teams? Why not the Cubs shortstop Alex Gonzalez or Red Sox pitcher Bob Stanley, who both stumbled in the same innings? Why do sports fans need scapegoats anyway? It’s a topic Oscar-winning film director Alex Gibney explores in his documentary 'Catching Hell' ... Gibney turns to many sources to explain the powerful urge to scapegoat, including the Rev. Kathleen Rolenz, co-minister of the West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church in Rocky River, Ohio...."

http://www.uuworld.org/articles/espn-curses-scapegoats-film

[OldSchool2]

"Rolenz had preached a sermon about scapegoating in October 2008, prior to Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. She opened her sermon with an examination of the purpose of scapegoats ...

"In the sermon, and in the film, Rolenz describes the origins of scapegoating, which go back to the Bible and the book of Leviticus. Each year on the day of atonement, Rolenz said, a priest chose a goat to take to the temple. He prayed over the goat and laid his hands on it. 'That was to confer the sins of the people on the animal. And then the animal would be led out of town and the people of the community would jeer and insult and throw things on the goat,' she said. After the goat was led away, people shut the gates to city so the goat could never return to the fold.

"Rolenz saw a close parallel with Bartman. Cubs fans began to throw food and beer at him. Inside and outside Wrigley Field, they chanted profanities at him. Eventually Cubs’ security was summoned to lead him out of the stands. As Bartman left, fans cursed him and pelted him with food and garbage. 'He was the perfect scapegoat,' said Rolenz. 'The whole idea is you take an innocent thing and you put your sins upon it. Scapegoats are solitary and vulnerable....'"

Although I don't get my theology from Unitarians, Rolenz's sermon and the ESPN documentary was excellent in examining the "scapegoat" phenomenon.