Up front, I could not agree more with James Howard in his Dec. 2 letter to the Index on the need for Christians to clean up their language. The Bible says, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new" (2 Cor. 5:17).

Mr. Howard made mention of a news report saying that Bill Cosby is making an attempt to stop profanity in public. I applaud Mr. Cosby for what he is doing. I watched him on TV when he was speaking to one of the college groups last week. He was coming down hard on immorality.

He asked them: "Do you think I'm mad?" Then he answered his question, "You're ____ right I am. I brought that in to make a point. That could have been one of those times when your tongue works faster than your brain."

I was 37 years old when I got saved. My vocabulary would make a sailor blush. A couple weeks after my experience of salvation, God got my attention.

I was in the construction business. I came up on the job site where a house was under construction. The first thing I saw was the brick on one end of the house had been laid one course off level. As I lit into the men with both barrels out come God's name in vain and when it did a red-hot iron would not have been any hotter running down the spine of my back. To this day, I have not used profanity since. That was almost 45 years ago.

The church can make the rules, but only God can change the heart. I pray that Mr. Howard's letter will be taken to heart.