I grew up in a very fine Christian home where my parents lived their faith. They were not perfect, but they sought to live in a way that honored their Lord, and they sought to teach my sister and me to do the same.

My parents had a very dim view of vile language. They did not tolerate “cussin’,” okay, for you sophisticates, “cursing.” My mom told me very early in life that people who used cuss words revealed their small minds and vocabularies.

I remember the first time I revealed the smallness of my mind and vocabulary and let an expletive fly. It took only a short walk to the sink where I was given the opportunity to wash away the filth from my tongue with a bar of Ivory soap. It did the trick! Did I ever cuss again? Unfortunately, yes, but I never did it again in earshot of mom or dad! And when I did let it fly, I could taste the soap bubbles.

If my mom were correct, and I think she was, we have a lot of small-minded people with small vocabularies who seem incapable of expressing themselves without filthy language. Public discourse these days is filled with foul filth, foul filth and more foul filth.

From the president to politicians at every level and every stripe, to athletes, coaches, moms, dads and on and on, I could go. Vile language and cussing has become acceptable public discourse. I know this is old fashioned, but I once would hear men call out other men to clean up their language in front of women. Wow! Today we need to tell some of the women to clean up their language in front of the men.

Frankly, there are a lot of people who need their mouths washed out with soap. This kind of language is demeaning to the office of president and every office held by those who use such language. The same is true of leaders in every arena. Some will say I just need to grow up. I will say you just need to educate yourself and learn language that clearly articulates your feelings in an intelligent fashion. It takes no thought to spew cuss words and vile statements. Besides, I did not know that cussing is a new measure of adulthood. I would suggest it is a measure of immaturity.

My point for the public arena in general is simple, “Clean it up or shut up!” I don’t need to hear your filth, nor do others. I don’t need to hear bleep, bleep while clearly reading the words on your lips. Show some brains and use some intelligence to speak words that children and others can hear without blushing.

The Word is clear. Listen to Paul in Eph. 4:29, “No rotten talk should come from your mouth, but only what is good for the building up of someone in need, in order to give grace to those who hear.” Yes, indeed, we need less trash talk and more grace talk. Or hear James as he speaks about the tongue, “With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who are made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come blessings and cursing. My brothers, these things should not be this way.” (James 3:9-10)

Cussin’ has no place in the public arena and, frankly, has no place period for Christians. Watch out! You keep talking like that and my momma just might come back from Heaven with a bar of soap!