If a guy in your church regularly drops the F bomb, is he regarded as a spiritual man? Would you put him on the church board? Make him an elder? Give him a Sunday school class to teach? I don’t want to create a spiritual litmus test based on verbal habits. But the Bible does talk about controlling your tongue, and in our society, using the F word is not considered a redeeming social quality, and certainly not descriptive of a man of God.

Matthew 15:18 talks about a man being defiled by what comes out of his mouth, and says that what comes out of the mouth is actually coming from the heart. David connected the two when he told God, “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord.”

In my church, a person who drops F bombs wouldn’t be placed in any position of leadership, and wouldn’t be considered a spiritual example. Likewise with other forms of what would be considered profanity, vulgarity, cussing, or however you want to describe it. I suspect the same is true in your church. Almost seems like a biblical no-brainer, doesn’t it?

So why do we excuse it in our presidents? G. W. controls his tongue in public, but is known to use the F word in staff meetings and smaller circles. The same has been true of every president during my lifetime, except for Jimmy Carter. Everyone since Nixon has known how to wield religious language for public consumption. GW certainly has that down. When he can’t think of anything else to say, he throws out something that will earn points with grassroots religious people. (“Who is your favorite philosopher?” “Jesus.”) We evangelicals talk about him as a man of sincere faith, the same way evangelicals used to talk about Nixon and Reagan and GHWB being such fine, outstanding, committed Christians who hob-nobbed with Billy Graham. And yet, when we read accounts of GW using the F word, we excuse it for some reason just as we excused it with all of his predecessors. Whereas we would never excuse it for a person in our local church.

I don’t doubt that GW, at one point, had a life-changing religious experience. But past spiritual vitality is not proof of present spiritual vitality. Once you learn the Christian lingo, you don’t forget it, especially if you’re a politician. You can grow spiritually cold, but still sling religious terminology around to maintain the illusion of ongoing spirituality. We all know how easy it is to fool people. I’m not saying that’s the case with GW. But the Bible clearly states that what emerges from the mouth is evidence of what is in the heart. Nobody at Anchor who is on top of his game spiritually uses the F word. So I’m not inclined to give GW a pass, even if he is the President. Why should the President be held to a lower standard? Should be just the opposite.

Okay, now I’ve really really offended my evangelical friends.