Fasten your seatbelt, dear reader.

There’s cussing up ahead.

That’s right: R-rated language made it into the religion news. Again.

Before we cite the specifics, let’s consider this guidance from the Associated Press Stylebook — aka “the journalist’s bible” — on obscenities, profanities and vulgarities:

Do not use them in stories unless they are part of direct quotations and there is a compelling reason for them.

In this week’s examples, the words in question showed up in coverage of “Disloyal: A Memoir,” a new book by Michael Cohen, “President Trump’s longtime fixer,” as the Wall Street Journal described him.

The Journal reported:

Mr. Cohen describes the president as lacking either faith or piety and recounts him disparaging various groups, including his own supporters. In 2012, after meeting with religious leaders at Trump Tower, where they asked to “lay hands” on Mr. Trump, Mr. Cohen recalls his asking: “Can you believe that bull****?…Can you believe people believe that bull****?”

Note: The asterisks were not used in the actual Journal news story.

The White House dismissed the book’s claims as “lies” by “a disgraced felon and disbarred lawyer.”

But whether the quote is fact or fiction, the notion of Trump uttering a profanity is not difficult to believe.

After all, the future president was caught on videotape delivering the famous “Grab-em-by-the-p****” line. And Politico wrote last year about Trump irritating evangelicals by “using the Lord’s name in vain.”

Perhaps more surprising — then again, maybe not given recent allegations — was the quote Reuters attributed to Becki Falwell. She is the wife of Jerry Falwell Jr., the prominent evangelical leader who recently resigned as president of Liberty University.

The book ties Falwell Jr.’s 2016 endorsement of Trump to Cohen “helping to keep racy ‘personal’ photographs of the Falwells from becoming public.”

Reuters reported:

After this story was published, Jerry Falwell spoke by phone with Reuters. He said that “someone stole some pictures I took of my wife in the back yard. Topless. Big deal. OK?” But he said his endorsement of Trump had nothing to do with Cohen’s role in suppressing the racy photographs.

“It was no quid pro quo,” Falwell said. “There was no me supporting Trump because of whatever Michael was doing.”

Falwell said he endorsed Trump, at Cohen’s behest, because Falwell “believed that a businessman needed to run this country.”

Toward the end of the call, Becki Falwell, who has not commented on the Cohen book or the photographs, could be heard urging her husband to cut short the conversation with Reuters. “Hang up the god**** phone,” she told her husband. “Hang up the phone, Jerry!”

Note: The asterisks were not used in the actual Reuters story.

So, were there compelling reasons for major news organizations publishing the quotes cited — including the profanity?

Yes, I would say so.

In the case of Trump, the alleged quote speaks directly to the president’s true feelings about his crucial evangelical base.

Meanwhile, Becki Falwell’s use of profanity gives helpful insight into an influential couple already accused of not living up to espoused values, as highlighted earlier by Ian Lovett, the WSJ’s national religion writer.

Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads

1. Mark Galli, former Christianity Today editor and Trump critic, to be confirmed a Catholic: Late last year, the retiring Galli broke the internet — or at least crashed his publication’s own website — with an editorial making the case for the president’s removal from office.

The editorial went viral — and drew the attention of Trump — because of Christianity Today’s status as a leading evangelical magazine.

That’s what makes it so fascinating that Galli is now converting from Protestant Christianity to Catholicism, as detailed in a revealing profile by Religion News Service’s Yonat Shimron.

2. How the Episcopal Church is trying to fill Alaska's priest shortage with natives: This colorful, detailed feature from Fairbanks conjured fond memories from my own brief exposure to the Last Frontier.

The talented Julia Duin, a veteran religion journalist based in the Pacific Northwest, wrote the in-depth piece for Religion Unplugged.

She followed it up with an excellent spot news report for Religion News Service. The topic: a Christian musician holding a defiant Seattle worship protest after a concert was banned because of COVID-19.

Continue reading “Dirty Words Spice Up The Week's Religion News — Not For The First Time,” by Bobby Ross Jr., at Religion Unplugged.