George Orwell's famous novel Animal Farm provides a parable about how we often treat each other in Christian community, families, and work settings. In Orwell's parable, farm animals rebel against the cruel farmer, but when they overthrow the farmer and the pigs take charge of the place, they become even worse than the farmer.

Two pigs, Napoleon and Snowball, vie for leadership, and Napoleon eventually succeeds in exiling Snowball. But Napoleon's leadership does not bring prosperity and comfort. When the farm experiences a major setback, it's Snowball's fault, even though he no longer lives there. Snowball becomes a convenient scapegoat for Napoleon, so he can deflect criticism from his own poor leadership. Orwell writes:

Whenever anything went wrong it became usual to attribute it to Snowball. If a window was broken or a drain was blocked up, someone was certain to say that Snowball had come in the night and done it, and when the key of the store-shed was lost, the whole farm was convinced that Snowball had thrown it down the well. Curiously enough, they went on believing this even after the mislaid key was found under a sack of meal.

Sadly, many of us humans suffer from this same "Snowball Syndrome." We blame our children, our spouse, our parents, our fellow Christians, our boss, or our employees. Sometimes it really is someone else's fault, but all too often we blame others without examining our own hearts. There's only one cure for the "Snowball Syndrome"—repentance and confession of sin.