There has been a steady rise of elected officials using foul language and obscenities in their public statements.

Here are a few examples:

• Kathy Hochul, Governor of New York, publicly referred to Representative Elise Stefanik as being “full of s***.”
• Governor J.B. Pritzker, during a teacher’s union event last year, said that “Donald Trump and his cronies can f*** all the way off.”
• Juliana Stratton had as a part of her Senate campaign ad: “F*** Donald Trump. Vote Julianna.”

The examples could go on and on. And this is not just one-sided. President Trump is widely known for his derogatory language in his speeches and in his tweets on X.

This has led many parents to prohibit their children from watching news programs and many adults have reported being reluctant to listen to press briefings or news updates due to swearing or inappropriate language.

Decent people don’t want to be assaulted with foul language.

Not only is the use of foul and obscene language disrespectful, it is entirely unprofessional.

In response to this very real problem, Paul Caprio, Director of the One Nation Under God Foundation, is asking House Speaker Mike Johnson to do something about it.

“… Members of Congress need to go on record to commit themselves to a clean speech pledge in all their public pronouncements.

The pledge would include only stated words of obscenity, such as scumbag, the F word, GD, etc. It would not include ideological words, like communist, fascist, and nazi, which may be irresponsible and extreme but are not obscenity.

We recommend the House Republican Caucus be asked to sign such a document, and if so, publicly disclose it to the voters in their districts…”

A clean speech pledge would not only make discourse among our political figures and representatives more respectful, but it would force the debate of ideas instead of petty character attacks.

It is essential that our young people stay informed and involved in the public square.

And it’s important that all of us, including elected officials, clean up our words.

“A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” ~Luke 6:45

Foul language says a lot about a person’s character.