{"id":30589,"date":"2026-01-20T12:29:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T17:29:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=30589"},"modified":"2026-01-20T12:29:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T17:29:28","slug":"after-trump-flips-the-bird-evangelicals-face-a-credibility-crisis-on-civility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/01\/after-trump-flips-the-bird-evangelicals-face-a-credibility-crisis-on-civility","title":{"rendered":"After Trump Flips the Bird, Evangelicals Face a Credibility Crisis on Civility"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_30592\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30592\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2026\/01\/Trump-Ford_credit-The-White-House.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-30592\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2026\/01\/Trump-Ford_credit-The-White-House.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30592\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The White House<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In March 2020, as Joe Biden campaigned for the presidency in Michigan, he got into a verbal confrontation with a factory worker who accused him of trying to \u201ctake away people\u2019s guns.\u201d Many conservative religious folks were aghast at this language, saying that it was improper for someone who aspired to lead the country.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fast forward almost six years. On a visit to a Ford Motor Company factory last week, President Trump was called a \u201cpedophile protector\u201d by one of the workers. Trump responded by mouthing \u201cf*** you\u201d twice, and then \u201cflipping the bird\u201d to the worker. So what is the evangelical response now?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tony Perkins, who helped found and who leads the Family Research Council, decried Trump\u2019s actions this week. \u201cWe need to reverse this coarsening of our civic conduct. Pray for our leaders to be role models, setting the example of civil dialogue, even when there is disagreement. Then we each need to do the same.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the abstract, it is hard to argue that our civic conduct and dialogue has become coarsened. Unfortunately, such conduct and language is nothing new for President Trump. Last year, Franklin Graham wrote Trump a letter asking him to stop using such language in his speeches. Trump acknowledged Graham\u2019s letter and advice, but publicly stated that he didn\u2019t agree. And although Graham suggested that perhaps Trump was moderating his language, his words and actions over the past year have not reflected any such change.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From Trump\u2019s perspective, why should he change? As noted, his vulgarity is nothing new.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Last week, he called Republican senators who supported a War Powers resolution designed to limit his actions in Venezuela. The call to Sen. Susan Collins was described as a \u201cprofanity-laced rant.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During his campaign against Kamala Harris, he referred to her as \u201ca s*** vice-president.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In discussing the conflict between Israel and Iran last summer, he complained that \u201cthey don\u2019t know what the f*** they\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Last summer, at a meeting of the White House Faith Office, he referred to his indictments as \u201cbull****.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And back in 2016, Time Magazine wrote about cursing in politics when some supporters of Jeb Bush ran an advertisement attacking Trump\u2019s language as \u201cunpresidential.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, \u201csalty\u201d language from President Trump is nothing new. Another reason why he might not see any reason to change it is that he has plenty of defenders.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After last week\u2019s confrontation at the Ford plant, Steven Cheung, White House spokesman, described the incident this way: \u201cA lunatic was wildly screaming expletives in a complete fit of rage, and the President gave an appropriate and unambiguous response.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Well, that\u2019s the real issue, isn\u2019t it? Is such language (and gestures) ever \u201cappropriate\u201d?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many Christians would say \u201cno.\u201d As Franklin Graham noted in his letter to President Trump last year, Jesus addressed this subject in Matthew 12: \u201cYou offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, express any good things? For the mouth speaks from that which fills the heart. The good person brings out of his good treasure good things; and the evil person brings out of his evil treasure evil things. But I tell you that for every careless word that people speak, they will give an account of it on the day of judgment\u201d (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Matthew%2012%3A34-36&amp;version=NASB\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Matthew 12:34-36<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not surprisingly, President Trump\u2019s defenders justify his language as being \u201cauthentic.\u201d\u00a0 Last year, his press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said that Americans appreciate his language as \u201csaying what they are feeling,\u201d and maybe lack the courage to say themselves. The coarsening of our civic conduct and dialogue that Tony Perkins decried is not a figment of anyone\u2019s imagination. If anything, President Trump is not saying things that people are afraid to say; they are following his example. (Even those on the other side of the political divide, as a quick review of social media will demonstrate.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most evangelical Christians would probably agree that such language and actions are not appropriate for anyone, let alone the President of the United States. The problem is that after years of excusing the President\u2019s language and attitudes toward others, \u201cEvangelicals\u201d don\u2019t have the credibility to complain about it now.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unfortunately, this pattern of excusing the President continues; Tony Perkins is practically the only evangelical leader who has spoken out against last week\u2019s incident. And any time that another leader offers critical comments, they also excuse him by talking about \u201call the good that he\u2019s done.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So why is this important? If the President\u2019s policies are what\u2019s important, why should Christians care about his language?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To quote Jesus: \u201cFor the mouth speaks from that which fills the heart.\u201d As Jesus also said in Matthew 12, \u201cthe tree is known by its fruit\u201d (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Matthew%2012%3A33&amp;version=NASB\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Matthew 12:33<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">). So how can Christians defend the \u201cgoodness\u201d of the policies \u2013 the \u201cfruit\u201d \u2013 when what \u201cfills the heart\u201d is anger and bitterness?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The question is not isolated to last week\u2019s incident. Christians are called to love everyone, both neighbors and enemies. When anger and bitterness, and even disgust, is commonly expressed toward political opponents, everyone is diminished. As Tony Perkins noted, we need to reverse this coarsening of our civic conduct. We need to pray for our leaders to set a positive example. When they do, we need to follow that example. When they don\u2019t, we need to acknowledge that \u2013 and do what is right even when our leaders do not.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s not just about the language; it\u2019s about what the language reflects. \u201cThe good person brings out of his good treasure good things; and the evil person brings out of his evil treasure evil things.\u201d\u00a0 The \u201ccareless words\u201d we speak are not just what might be considered coarse or profane. The more dangerous careless words are the ones that justify what God has condemned. \u201cWoe to those who call evil good, and good evil\u201d (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Isaiah%205%3A20&amp;version=NASB\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Isaiah 5:20<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">).<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In March 2020, as Joe Biden campaigned for the presidency in Michigan, he got into a verbal confrontation with a factory worker who accused him of trying to \u201ctake away people\u2019s guns.\u201d Many conservative religious folks were aghast at this language, saying that it was improper for someone who aspired to lead the country. Fast&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":30592,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>After Trump Flips the Bird, Evangelicals Face a Credibility Crisis on Civility<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/01\/after-trump-flips-the-bird-evangelicals-face-a-credibility-crisis-on-civility\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"After Trump Flips the Bird, Evangelicals Face a Credibility Crisis on Civility\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In March 2020, as Joe Biden campaigned for the presidency in Michigan, he got into a verbal confrontation with a factory worker who accused him of trying to \u201ctake away people\u2019s guns.\u201d Many conservative religious folks were aghast at this language, saying that it was improper for someone who aspired to lead the country. 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