{"id":69,"date":"2014-11-21T19:22:48","date_gmt":"2014-11-21T19:22:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/?p=69"},"modified":"2014-11-22T02:38:02","modified_gmt":"2014-11-22T02:38:02","slug":"who-decides-whos-the-black-sheep-of-the-family-the-family-scapegoat-serves-a-very-important-purpose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/who-decides-whos-the-black-sheep-of-the-family-the-family-scapegoat-serves-a-very-important-purpose\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Decides Who\u2019s the Black Sheep of the Family? The Family Scapegoat Serves a Very Important Purpose"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/sheep_black-copy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-70\" src=\"http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/sheep_black-copy.jpg\" alt=\"sheep_black copy\" width=\"216\" height=\"152\" \/><\/a>My big brother Jerry was early on dubbed the black sheep, simply because he rebelled.\u00a0 He saw injustice and he stood up for us kids but the patriarch had the power to banish him from the kingdom and no one dare speak his name foreverafter. I\u2019m sure this placed our father in his own particular hell for many years later, although I have long forgiven him.\u00a0 So who gets to decide who\u2019s the black sheep?\u00a0 I\u2019m known as the sweet but misguided one who\u2019s going to hell because of what I believe, and believe so publicly in <a href=\"http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\">Horizons Magazine<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 Wise words from galpal <a href=\"http:\/\/www.drbarbaranowak.com\/\">Barbara Nowak<\/a>:\u00a0 \u201cThe family scapegoat serves an important purpose in a hurting family: it takes the spotlight off of the real issues and projects it all on to one individual who will do \u201cbad\u201d for them. If children can\u2019t get attention for being positive, they will get it anyway they can, including being \u201cbad.\u201d Some get \u201clocked into\u201d the bad drama . . courts, drugs\u2026 violence, victimization, etc. But if the person steps out of the \u201cbad\u201d role, it\u2019s amazing to watch the entire family try to squeeze him\/her back into it so they don\u2019t have to look within. Any family therapist will tell you that the scapegoat is often the \u201chealthiest\u201d member cuz they will tell the truth (actually, scream the truth) while others play games. Long live the Black Sheep!!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>RELATED: <a href=\"http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/?p=66\">I consider it an honor when someone uses me as the scapegoat<\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"s-share-buttons\" class=\"horizontal-w-c-circular s-share-w-c\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/who-decides-whos-the-black-sheep-of-the-family-the-family-scapegoat-serves-a-very-important-purpose\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Share to Facebook\" class=\"s3-facebook hint--top\"><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=Who Decides Who\u2019s the Black Sheep of the Family? The Family Scapegoat Serves a Very Important Purpose&url=http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/who-decides-whos-the-black-sheep-of-the-family-the-family-scapegoat-serves-a-very-important-purpose\/\" target=\"_blank\"  title=\"Share to Twitter\" class=\"s3-twitter hint--top\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/share?url=http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/who-decides-whos-the-black-sheep-of-the-family-the-family-scapegoat-serves-a-very-important-purpose\/\" target=\"_blank\"  title=\"Share to Google Plus\" class=\"s3-google-plus hint--top\"><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/shareArticle?mini=true&url=http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/who-decides-whos-the-black-sheep-of-the-family-the-family-scapegoat-serves-a-very-important-purpose\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Share to LinkedIn\" class=\"s3-linkedin hint--top\"><\/a><div class=\"pinit-btn-div\"><a href=\"\/\/www.pinterest.com\/pin\/create\/button\/\" data-pin-do=\"buttonBookmark\"  data-pin-color=\"red\" title=\"Share to Pinterest\" class=\"s3-pinterest hint--top\"><\/a><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\" async defer src=\"\/\/assets.pinterest.com\/js\/pinit.js\"><\/script><a href=\"mailto:?Subject=Who%20Decides%20Who\u2019s%20the%20Black%20Sheep%20of%20the%20Family?%20The%20Family%20Scapegoat%20Serves%20a%20Very%20Important%20Purpose&Body=Here%20is%20the%20link%20to%20the%20article:%20http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/who-decides-whos-the-black-sheep-of-the-family-the-family-scapegoat-serves-a-very-important-purpose\/\" title=\"Email this article\" class=\"s3-email hint--top\"><\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My big brother Jerry was early on dubbed the black sheep, simply because he rebelled.\u00a0 He saw injustice and he stood up for us kids but the patriarch had the power to banish him from the kingdom and no one dare speak his name foreverafter. I\u2019m sure this placed our father in his own particular [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73,"href":"http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions\/73"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}