In 2007, Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson released a book entitled Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts.1 They were picking up on an expression (“Mistakes were made”) which had gained currency in the halls of government and then spread throughout the culture. President Nixon’s press secretary, Ron Ziegler, introduced it in 1973 when talking about the Watergate break-in.2 Later, President Reagan employed it in connection with the Iran-Contra scandal.3 And then, within the first 36 hours of his administration, President Clinton used it concerning his withdrawal of Zoe Baird’s nomination for the position of attorney general.4

Its popularity is quite understandable. First, the sentence has no human subject. The speaker makes no reference to himself, as in “I sinned” or “I broke the law.” As San Francisco Chronicle columnist Jon Carroll translated it, “We acknowledge the existence of mistakes but have no knowledge of how they got there.”5 Second, the passive voice and the past tense distance the speaker from guilt; whatever might have befallen someone or something is water under the bridge. Third, it collapses the distinction between human fallibility and human culpability. After all, people make innocent mistakes all the time—going to the wrong floor of the parking garage, misdialing a telephone number. But there is nothing innocent about, for instance, a falsified resume or perjured testimony. A misdemeanor is more than a mistake.

As veteran New York Times correspondent, editor, and bureau chief John M. Broder put it, “Mistakes were made,” sounds “like a confession of error or even contrition, but in fact, it is not quite either one. The speaker is not accepting personal responsibility or pointing the finger at anyone else.”6 This evasive expression stands in stark contrast to Robert E. Lee’s words to one of his generals after the Battle of Gettysburg: “[A]ll this has been my fault; it is I that have lost this fight, and you must help me out of it in the best way you can.”7

In their 2007 book, Tavris and Aronson concluded that people have become “mistake-phobic,” and so they suffer moral paralysis. They become oblivious to their faults: “[W]e don’t change because we aren’t aware that we need to. . .” Furthermore, pride trumps repentance: “We see the admission of a mistake not as a sign that something needs to be fixed—even though such an admission often elicits the plaudits of others—but that we are weak.”8

Of course, this shirking maneuver has a distinguished pedigree, extending far back beyond the U.S. presidency. It was Adam himself who tried it on God. When the Lord confronted him at the point of his disobedience, the first man replied, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate” (Gen. 3:12). By his account, “God-inflicted confusions and temptations happened.”

This is the seed of the “therapeutic culture.” It grows whenever men, collectively, run headlong from responsibility. And more than public morals is as stake; personal salvation can rest in the balance. For without repentance, there is no forgiveness of sin.

Ethicists and social scientists publish lists of disturbing social indicators, including the incidence of unwed pregnancy, shoplifting, and school dropout. They might also look toward the popularity of the expression “Mistakes were made” and its kin. Where this excuse flourishes, morality suffers. Far better a people inclined to say, “I did it. It was morally wrong. I’m sorry. Please forgive me.” Of course, it is hard work to utter this, but it is ever so worth it. And the Lord stands ready to empower those who are willing to take this step.
Footnotes:
1
Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson, Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts (Orlando, FL: Harcourt, 2007).
2
“Watergate Press Secretary Dead at 63,” CBS News Website, February 10, 2003, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/10/politics/main540113.shtml (accessed June 10, 2008). Also see Jon Carroll, “The Richard Nixon Playbook,” SFGate.com, May 1, 2002, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/05/01/DD150649.DTL (accessed June 10, 2008).
3
Lou Cannon, President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime (New York: Public Affairs, 2000), 640.
4
John M. Broder, “Familiar Fallback for Officials: ‘Mistakes Were Made,’” New York Times Website, March 14, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/14/washington/14mistakes.html?_r=1&oref=slogin (accessed June 10, 2008).
5
Carroll.
6
Broder.
7
Frank Moore, The Civil War in Song and Story: 1860-1865 (P. F. Collier, 1889), 321.
8
Roger K. Miller, “‘Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me)’ by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Website, May 13, 2007, http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07133/785076-148.stm (accessed June 10, 2008).

from Kairos Journal

The First Baptist Church of Perryville, MD is in Cecil County on Route 40, 1 1/2 miles east of Route 222 across from the Principio Medical Center.