ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the new dimension which in religious education's approach to social and community cohesion. It is one which requires teachers to consider the workings and extent of the scapegoat mechanism and its role in destabilising community life. The basis for this recognition and a deeper understanding of the mechanism is available through Rene Girard's mimetic theory and the secondary literature it has generated. Girard finds further evidence for the ancient nature of the scapegoat mechanism in his study of myth and ritual. Related to myth and religious ritual, the concept of the scapegoat falls within religious studies and thus is the subject matter of Religious Education (RE). All the elements of scapegoating are there: a troubled community plagued by poverty and unemployment, the 'victimary signs' of cultural and religious difference and physical disablement, the accusation of child abuse, the mob violence.
