By Mark Tapscott
Republicans, led by President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance, referred to him repeatedly during the 2026 midterm election campaign as “Talafreako,” but that language didn’t keep Texas voters from making James Talarico the first Democratic senator from the Lone Star state in more than three decades.
Similarly, Trump and other Republicans frequently referred to “Dumocrats” when talking about candidates and policies supported by Democrats in Congress and elsewhere. And let’s not forget Vance’s claim eight days before Election Day that Democrats were offering voters nothing more than “a fat load of bulls--t.” Mention ought also be made here of the chief executive’s raw comments about Ohio GOP Senator John Husted’s physique. Such language didn’t deter millions of voters, including legions of them who had voted for Trump two years ago, from giving Democrats their biggest midterm election victory since the 1974 Watergate-inspired blowout.
The reality is that Trump, Vance, and other Republicans who adopted the same rhetoric weren’t starting something new, they were joining in a crude chorus launched by Hill Democrats in the wake of the GOP’s huge 2024 presidential election-year victory. The Democrats’ crudity was typified by a February 2025 rally sponsored by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) during which Rep. Donald Norcross (D-NJ) had no reservations about declaring “F—k Trump” from the podium with the cameras rolling.
The same event heard this revealing declaration by freshman Rep. Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.): “I’ve been told I have 30 seconds, so I am going to tell you — I don’t swear in public very well, but we have to f—k Trump!” Dexter bashfully followed that with a plea: “Please don’t tell my children that I just did that.”
It would be easy enough to conclude the Democrats were the first to break down the previously longstanding barrier to public cursing by elected officials and candidates, especially since no less a media outlet than The Washington Post reported July 17, 2025, on a “broader shift underway among Democrats, who want to loosen up, shake their by-the-book image, and strike a harder tone toward Trump and other Republicans. Party leaders are swearing more, using edgier insults, recording more direct-to-camera videos, embracing hours-long podcast appearances and trying to project a raw authenticity that — to Democrats’ frustration — many voters have come to associate with Trump.”
Trump and some Democrats had let rip an occasional public curse word during his first term in the Oval Office, but it was mainly after the 2024 contest that the opposition party decided what the Post tabbed as Trump’s “authenticity” in speaking about government and politics was best matched by the F-word and similarly vulgar language.
It should also be noted that conservative evangelical Christian pastors and evangelists have been all but silent about this growing trend of scatological public political rhetoric.
So, is there something of significance for conservative evangelical Christians in this swelling trend of approval of widespread public vulgarity during the 2026 campaign and more generally in American politics and government? For those who spend significant time and thought in the Bible seeking to understand God’s word and its application to daily life, the answer is likely immediately evident.
Unfortunately, there is growing evidence that most conservative evangelical Christians do not know Scripture well enough to recognize the huge significance of vulgar public political discourse as an indicator of individual and national decline. Think of two words: “heart” and “tongue.”
Remember what Jesus said about those two words? “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:33-37), he insisted during His confrontation with the Pharisees.
“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (ESV).
And don’t forget James 3:7-12, where Jesus’s brother admonished believers in Jerusalem during the years soon after the Lord’s crucifixion, death, and resurrection:
“For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it, we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water” (ESV).
Tongue and heart, what comes out of a politician’s mouth is an indicator of what is in his or her heart, just as it is with every other human being. So why have most conservative evangelical pastors and spokesmen, as well as their listeners and congregants, been all but silent as the airwaves have steadily become bluer?
A comment by Family Research Council (FRC) President Tony Perkins and the result of a new study by Lifeway Research, both made public on Election Day, may well point us to the answer.
While discussing the election returns near midnight Tuesday on the “PrayVote Stand: Decision 2026” election coverage program, Perkins pointed to the results in Texas and Kansas, where left-wing Democratic candidates presented themselves as Christians, and declared, “I think there is an element of biblical illiteracy, of not knowing what the Scripture says. But that goes back to the pulpit of not preaching what the Bible says.”
That comment was in line with others Perkins has made in recent months relating to the decline in public rhetoric, including this in January 2026 in a Facebook post regarding Trump’s obscene gesture toward a Ford factory worker during a tour: “We need to reverse this coarsening of our civic conduct.”
Interestingly, Franklin Graham is the only other major figure in the conservative evangelical Christian community who’s admonished Trump both privately and then publicly, as he explained to the Deseret News: “The president, his pulpit — his microphone — is huge, and it carries a lot of weight.”
Earlier on Election Day 2026, Lifeway released its study, making some disturbing observations. Their research shows that two out of every three American Christian churchgoers would fail a basic test on what the Bible teaches. “Around 1 in 5 (21%) say they read the Bible personally every day, and another quarter (24%) do so a few times a week. Around 1 in 10 (9%) read Scripture weekly, 14% say they read it a few times a month and 8% read once a month. Another 22% of Christian churchgoers say they rarely or never read the Bible.”
Those indicators go a long way toward explaining the dismal results of the Lifeway study, which asked 25 questions about Bible figures, events, and teachings. “The average respondent scored 51. Around 2 in 3 (65%) earn an F, below 60. Almost 1 in 10 (9%) receive a D, between 60 and 69. Another 9% receive a C, between 70 and 79. Just 8% score a B, 80 to 89, and 9% reach A status, 90 and higher.”
Could it be that so few American churchgoing millions are saying anything about the crassness of public and official language is because of this pervasive biblical illiteracy? Such illiteracy has negative consequences in multiple areas of American public life. Consider the following two examples of what happens when Christians don’t stand up in public to affirm and insist on biblical standards in governance.
First, Perkins also noted on Election Night that Texas Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton, who lost decisively in the most unexpected Senate defeat of 2026, had sparked great controversy and criticism in recent years with his personal conduct, yet a majority of Texas GOP voters chose him over incumbent Senator John Cornyn.
“Ken Paxton had a lot of baggage. There were many, many conservatives who could not support him, even though I know people say, ‘Well, but the Senate was hanging in the balance.’ Well, yeah, but his personal lifestyle was unfolding in real time. It wasn’t like something that happened 10 or 15 years ago. I don’t think Christians should necessarily fall in line behind someone who is very compromised like that. Now, there is redemption and forgiveness, but there is usually a timeframe there that takes time.”
Paxton is a very specific illustration, while the second one involves the entire nation. Republican presidents and members of Congress for nearly three decades have repeatedly promised they would get federal spending under control, reduce and ultimately eliminate repeated annual budget deficits and the exploding national debt that results. But check out the two charts accompanying this column. Annual budget deficits and the national debt have steadily climbed ever higher under officials in both parties at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue in the nation’s capital.
The Bible tells us in Proverbs 29:2 that when the righteous thrive, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule, the people groan.” King David declares in II Samuel 23:3-4 that “when one rules justly over men, ruling in the fear of God, He dawns on them like the morning light, like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning, like rain that makes grass to sprout from the Earth.”
Conservative evangelical Christians make up an estimated quarter of the voting population, which affords us tremendous potential influence on every aspect of election campaigns and government decision-making. If we want such blessings to flow down upon our nation, perhaps it’s time we start insisting upon, as a minimum standard, language from which children need not be protected, transparent and accountable decision-making, and keeping promises made at all levels of American politics and governance.
Mark Tapscott is senior congressional analyst at The Washington Stand.
This article originally appeared here.
