In regards to the recent Josh Duggar scandal there is one word I keep hearing that is so cringe-worthy it literally makes me sick to my stomach and that word is Mistake. I keep hearing it in contexts such as, “He made mistakes, as we all do” or “Josh’s mistakes have affected his whole family.” Although I was at one time a pretty big Duggar fan, it very much frustrates me to hear that term used in the context of Josh’s decisions.

In my short 25 years of life I’ve made many mistakes. I have personally screwed up over and over again. Whether it be something minor like putting too much salt on the vegetables or something major like running my car into another vehicle. I’ve also made mistakes such as walking into a glass door. I have tripped, I have hit my thumb with a hammer, I have missed free throws, I have messed up the lyrics to songs, I have lost track of time and I am sure I have made numerous parenting errors over the last two years.

Now before everyone thinks this post is about how clumsy and unobservant I am, ill get to the point. Each one of those mistakes listed above have one thing in common. One thing that unites them all and legitimately makes them mistakes. Every single example I gave, no matter how minimal or how severe, can be considered as either unintentional or accidental. Let me be very clear, not one part of Josh Duggar’s actions can be classified as either one. The term “mistake” and Josh Duggar should never coexist.

Having a pornography addiction is one thing but secretly, intentionally and purposefully for years seeking out and having sexual relations with other married people and even porn stars while putting your wife and unborn baby at risk for STD s all while espousing family values is an entirely different level of vile deception. There must be something incredibly malicious, arrogant, and sick happening in ones brain in order to even consider doing just one action that Josh has done. To encompass these decisions as “mistakes” as I have heard so many do over the last couple of weeks is quite outrageous. Even more than that, it completely minimizes his actions as if he were simply misguided and didn’t mean to do anything wrong.

I’m not really confident as to what singular words can be used to describe Josh Duggar’s choices over the last couple of years but the term “mistake” certainly is not one of them. If I had robbed multiple people over the last two years then apologized when caught, that would not be considered a “mistake”. Lots of intentional planning would have gone into those choices that the term mistake could not possibly be sufficient or at all accurate . Although it is obviously a different kind of example the analogy is still parallel.

A mistake is an error in a given action, not multiple deceptive actions all lined up to get a desired outcome. Make no mistake, there was no misunderstanding, misconception, or accident in Josh’s scenario. Make no mistake, calling this array of circumstances a “mistake” only diminishes the gravity of poor Anna Duggar’s pain along with the pain of millions of other families.

Make no mistake, Josh Duggar’s actions were not.