| Trump’s Language I was looking for the thread on Trump’s use of profanity and vulgarity in his public speeches and interviews, but could not locate it. I have seen on TV and heard on radio (NPR) discussions about how base and coarse the current political season has become. As a Christian I am deeply disturbed by how corrupted our nation has become and how the boundaries of civil and polite society have become as porous as our national borders.I feel I must say that I am not unaware of the language used in most of society. Before I was saved I played team sports in high school and know what “locker room language” is/was; I joined the USMC in 1973 and learned the depths of depraved language. Even after my acceptance of Jesus Christ as my Savior, I worked in industries such auto plants and on loading docks with teamsters. I have also ministered with both law enforcement and street gangs, and as a church we conducted outreach to hookers and drug addicts. Plus, I attended state colleges, which has its own kind of coarse language. I could go on, but my point is that I not some old Pentecost preacher who has spent his life “rapped” in the cultural “blanket” of never hearing such speech. What I do think is that Trump is speaking in public the same way he speaks everywhere else. That unlike others in politics, he does not have a public vocabulary for the voters and a “backroom” vocabulary for everything else, rather he is true to himself. Perhaps this is why so many embrace and/or excuse his words, because they know that every other politician are “two-tongued” devils.I remember Billy Graham being asked about the language Richard Nixon used in the Oval Office recorded on the White House tapes played at the Watergate hearings. Graham, who considered Nixon a good friend and Christian Gentlemen, was shocked, embarrassed and disappointed in the President. When Hollywood portrays Presidents and elected officials they have consistently included all the lowest form of language as a staple of political life. In a land of Rap Music and Joe Biden, is there really any pretense that we have a “sanctified” leader to vote for? In a culture where parents think it’s cute for their children to use a “string” of curse words and “preachers” are peppering their sermons with profanity and use vulgarity in the church office, why would Trump’s language be shocking?I see, or perhaps hear, the language of this campaign as another sign of a dying and decaying country. It is evident that this nation has not only committed itself to remove the 10 Commandment from public view, it is determined to transgress every commandment given, including not taking the LORD’s name in vain. We Christians cannot go down the “toilet” of culture when it comes to language. We cannot witness for Christ with the same month we curse the Name of the LORD. We must not mix saltwater and fresh in the name of politics, and we cannot let ourselves worship at the feet of the true American Idols, politicians (today's Caesar).I do believe our words reflect our faith and our confession cannot be departmentalized from our salvation. As the martyrs proclaimed, “Jesus is Lord!” |