Michael Brown blames the Governor of Louisiana and the Mayor of New Orleans.
The Governor and Mayor blame the federal government.
Flight attendants blame Jodie Foster for disparaging flight attendants.
Did William Bennett just tie the crime rate to the lack of abortions among blacks?
George Bush is responsible for the 1918 Influenza pandemic.
The disgraced Army reservist blames her ex-boyfriend for her complicity in the Abu Ghraib scandal.

The oldest profession is not what we generally consider it to be.
The oldest profession is casting blame.
It is surely as in vogue today as much as it was in the Garden.
As much as it was among the Israelites during their Exodus and their wilderness wanderings.

“It was this woman that made me eat”
“The Devil made me do it”
“If only you had never led us out of Egypt”

Why is it that we are so quick to place blame on others?
Why is it that we are so slow to say, “I was wrong”?
“Forgive me”
To take ownership for our own failures, our own mistakes.
To say unequivocally, “The buck stops here”

But don’t we all do it?
How many of us seek to diminish our partnership with transgression and iniquity?
How many of us blame our spouses for our own bad mood?
How many of us blame our children for acting like we have taught them to act through our own examples?
How many of us blame our parents for our poor decisions?

But, to me, here it the interesting thing: not many people buy it.
Most of us are astute enough to recognize when someone is being dishonest with their sins.
When they are being coy with their contraventions.

Why do we do it?
When it would be so much easier to say, “I’m sorry. I messed up.”
To stop the blame game and seek to be conciliatory with our lives.
The Jews were required to offer both sin and guilt offerings in Leviticus.
The sin offering was a required act to seek atonement for unintentional sins against God or others.
The guilt offering was also required in order to seek atonement for intentional sins.

It seems that God knows all about our seemingly eager proclivity to place blame on others for our own action.
May we seek His Spirit to humble us and acknowledge our own failures. To take responsibility for our own actions. To refuse to place on others what belongs rightfully in our camp.
To say, “I was wrong and I am sorry.”