Name-calling and Ivory soap

Name-calling and “cussin’” were bad things my grandparents, parents, and teachers told me not to do. My grandmother Ada once took a chunk of Ivory soap (“99 44/100 pure”!) in her hand, held it less than a half-inch from my lips, and threatened to wash my mouth out with it if I said one more thing less pure than the soap.

There’ve been times this political season when I’ve imagined how much fun it would be to see Ada apply her remedy for bad speech to political candidates.

I’m not naïve about politics. After all, I served Baptist congregations for nearly four decades.  Politics—small “p” politics—are everywhere.  Debate, argument, disagreement, conflict, and, hopefully, compromise are all part of moving “polities” of every kind toward the common good.