| Ivory Soap - article by Joel Hempel
When I was around ten years old, I was in our side yard where my mom was planting flowers. I was getting my baseball glove and bat ready for the game later that day. As I was doing whatever I was doing, an impolite bird did his thing on my glove. That bird s___ on my glove! I shouted. Given the title of this article, you can guess what happened next. I was immediately escorted to the bathroom, where my mom “washed” my mouth out with soap. In today’s culture, Mom would probably be accused of child abuse. It was not. It was just a distasteful lesson in remembering how not to talk as a young Christian. These days, there is not enough Ivory Soap in the country for moms to use on politicians and people in the media who take mean-spirited jabs at candidates they don’t like. Do you think God is okay with name-calling and put-downs? Granted, what they are saying may not be cussing in the classic sense, like what came out of the mouth of my ten-year-old self. Truth be told, what some of our nation’s leaders and journalists are saying is far worse. Words are intentionally used against political opponents and their families to disparage, degrade, and demean. But that’s them! What about us and what comes out of our mouths? More importantly, what resides in our hearts? In the Book of James, the author, Jesus’ half-brother James, has much to say about the power of the tongue and how it reflects what is in one’s heart (see James 3:8-12). . . . no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil . . . With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God (James 3:8-9). With all of the political hatred in our country and the temptation to join in with demeaning jibes, James is confronting all of us – because, as citizens who love our country, we can get caught up in the political drama. So, the scolding coming from James is intended for each of us. He is not just telling us to tone down the rhetoric; he is denouncing anything that comes out of our mouths that does not reflect the love of God. Agreeing with James, the Apostle Peter writes, Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor (1 Peter 2:17 NIV). Martin Luther also agrees with James: We should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way.* We may not like certain politicians and their policies, but through the Book of James and other biblical authors and respected theologians, we are reminded that our current president and all four candidates running for president and vice president are made in the likeness of God (see Genesis 1:26). They are people for whom Jesus died on the cross. Our moms and, more importantly, our God are challenging us with this question: Do our sentiments and the words on our lips reflect the heart of God and Ephesians 4:25-27, 29-32? *Luther’s Small Catechism, page 14, CPH, St. Louis, 2017. | 
