A sacrificial lamb refers to a lamb (or metaphorical parallel) killed or discounted in some way in order to further some other cause. In typical modern usage, it is a metaphorical reference for a person who has no chance of surviving the challenge ahead, but is placed there for the common good. The term is derived from the traditions of Abrahamic religion where a lamb is a highly-valued possession, but is offered to God as a sacrifice to obtain the more highly-valued favour of God. Lamb A lamb being bottle fed A lamb is a young sheep less than a year old. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Western religion. ... Lamb A lamb being bottle fed A lamb is a young sheep less than a year old. ... Michelangelos depiction of God in the painting Creation of the Sun and Moon in the Sistine Chapel This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and derived henotheistic forms. ... Sacrifice (from a Middle English verb meaning to make sacred, from Old Marcus Aurelius and members of the Imperial family offer sacrifice in gratitude for success against Germanic tribes: contemporary bas-relief, Capitoline Museum, Rome French, from Latin sacrificium : sacer, sacred; sacred + facere, to make) is commonly known as the...

A lamb does not bleat when it's killed, making it a suitable object of sacrifice because this signifies its willingness to succumb to its fate.

In politics

In politics, a sacrifical lamb candidate is a candidate chosen to contest an election despite the fact that he or she has little chance of victory. The political party thus appoints the person as a sort of "sacrifice" to the stronger opponent. Politics is a process by which collective decisions are made within groups. ... An election is a decision making process whereby people vote for preferred political candidates or parties to act as representatives in government. ... A political party is an organization that seeks to attain political power within a government, usually by participating in electoral campaigns. ...

In some cases fielding a sacrificial lamb candidate can serve as an opportunity for the party to be more creative in choosing a candidate than would normally be considered acceptable in a closely contested race. For example, they may choose a racial or ethnic minority or a person who would otherwise be considered "too risky" in normal circumstances. For instance, Alan Keyes or Geraldine A. Ferraro. In 2004 Howard Mills was considered a sacrificial lamb candidate for the U.S. Senate from New York against Chuck Schumer. Alan Keyes is a former American diplomat and was a Republican presidential candidate in 1996 and 2000. ... Geraldine Anne Ferraro (born August 26, 1935) is best known as the first and, so far, only woman to be a candidate for Vice President of the United States on a major party ticket (although women on third-party tickets continue to run for the position). ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Howard Mills was a Republican New York assemblyman from Middletown who ran against Senator Charles Schumer of New York in the 2004 U.S. Senate election but lost in a landslide. ... The United States Senate is the upper house of the U.S. Congress, smaller than the United States House of Representatives. ... Official language(s) None, English de facto Capital Albany Largest city New York City Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 27th 141,205 km² 455 km 530 km 13. ... Charles Ellis Chuck Schumer (born November 23, 1950) is the senior Senator from the state of New York and a member of the Democratic Party. ...

In the arts

In cinema and literature, the term sacrificial lamb refers to a supporting character whose sole dramatic purpose is to die, thus galvanizing the protagonist to action and simultaneously demonstrating how evil the villain is. Very often, the sacrificial lamb is a family member, partner, or "old buddy" of the protagonist, with whom he or she has an assumed intimacy, thus requiring no real character development. The term is almost always used critically, with the implication that the character was used transparently as a plot device. Literature is literally acquaintance with letters as in the first sense given in the Oxford English Dictionary (from the Latin littera meaning an individual written character (letter)). The term has generally come to identify a collection of texts, which in Western culture are mainly prose, both fiction and non-fiction... A fictional character is any person who appears in a work of fiction. ... A typical cartoon villain. ... A plot device is a person or an object introduced to a story to affect or advance the plot. ...

See also

• Redshirt, a stock character in science fiction whose sole purpose is to die violently soon after being introduced
• Forlorn hope, the initial wave of troops attacking a fortress or other strongpoint, who usually took horrendous casualties.
• Cannon fodder, an expression used to denote the treatment of armed forces as a worthless commodity to be expended