Posted on 08/26/2014 2:21:54 AM PDT by markomalley
A Gallup poll on a range of moral choices and behaviors does a pretty clear job of showing how dramatically America has changed in a rather short period of time. Many behaviors now considered “largely acceptable” were once considered very wrong. In fact, most of us over fifty remember an America that was very different.
Until the mid-1960s, birth control was unapproved—even illegal to sell in many jurisdictions. It was associated with prostitution.
Divorce was something that people whispered about. And until 1969 it was so difficult to get a divorce that the few who did want them were willing to go to Mexico to in order to obtain them.
As for gambling, Catholics were less adamant about it and permitted “light” forms of gambling like bingo. But among the Protestants, “gambling” was synonymous with sin. Some of the old spirituals warned gamblers of the fires of Hell: “I would not be a gambler. I’ll tell you the reason why. I’m afraid my Lord might call my name and I wouldn’t be ready to die.”
Having a baby outside of marriage was considered so shameful that girls who got pregnant were often sent away to have the baby, which was then usually put up for adoption. Frankly, the final result was often better for the infant, who was usually adopted quickly by a married couple. Catholic orders of nuns were often the ones who handled these matters, and did so discreetly and lovingly.
Sex before marriage happened, but far less frequently—and almost no one thought it was OK. In those days there were also many protections that society insisted upon to help prevent sex before marriage. For example, young people were often chaperoned on dates. Dances and other group events were commonly arranged by adults in order to encourage young people to meet, but there were prudent limits set. Parents were more vigilant and insisted that their youngsters be home at a reasonable hour. Women’s dormitories at colleges were more strictly guarded and a young man who called was expected to meet his young lady in the lobby and say farewell to her there. Young people also got married a lot sooner. Most did so right after high school or college.
Homosexual activity of any sort was not just considered shocking; it was deemed repulsive.
Abortion was illegal—an unmentionable horror. It was associated with prostitution and utter desperation. Frankly, I don’t think I ever heard the word abortion before 1970, though I admit I was only about ten at that time.
Only the death penalty and wearing fur were more acceptable in the pre-revolution days than they are today.
Behold the cultural revolution! And revolution is the only word for it. America before the revolution was NOT a perfect culture. Racism was more widespread; there were two major wars before 1950, and there was a rather decadent period in the 1920s. But overall, we were a lot clearer about the values necessary to ensure our future: marriage, sex, and children. People got married and usually stayed married. We frowned upon, limited, and punished behaviors and attitudes that destroyed our families: sex before marriage, homosexual acts, abortion, and divorce. Today most of these behaviors are not only widely tolerated, but outright celebrated.
Why has this happened and why so suddenly? The world, the flesh, and the devil.
At the level of the demonic, there surely is strong satanic influence in the “high places” of Hollywood, the music industry, Madison Avenue, and Pennsylvania Avenue (at both ends of the block). American culture, via movies and music, generates a steady stream of sewer-like themes that celebrate fornication, divorce, adultery, and homosexuality, and that portray abortion sympathetically.
At the level of the flesh, Americans consume filth in enormous quantities. Internet porn sites are among the most frequently visited. Most Americans are no longer shocked by foul language, pornographic themes, or nudity in movies and music. Granted, the desire to consume this material comes from weakness due to our sinful human nature, but indulging these weaknesses leads to successively darker places, to a dulling of the sense of morality, to enslavement by the senses, and ultimately to a downright craving for the filth.
At the level of the world there is the rebellion that is at its heart. The “world,” in the scriptural sense of the term, refers to that collection of interests and powers arrayed against God and His Kingdom. To build its power, the world entices in order to enslave; it offers pleasures but then sends the bill. The world works quite handily with Satan.
At the end of the day, however, we in the Church bear a lot of the responsibility. This has happened on our watch. Jesus commissioned us to be the light of the world. So why is the world in such darkness? I have little doubt that the Lord has mysteriously allowed a kind of satanic incursion. Perhaps the Church needs to be purified. Perhaps the West needs to be plowed under, as many previous eras and empires have been. Perhaps He is preparing a great renewal. I just don’t know.
But I do know that we must work more consciously to be the light we are supposed to be. This poll is a gauge of the extent of the darkness. Usually the lights go out as a result of a power failure. But in this case it is a moral failure. It is a failure of our mission as Christians that has led us here. Start with your own life and your own family. Work in your own parish. Start lighting candles and living in the light.
Msgr Pope ping
Ping!
He starts the piece with birth control. People might vex surprised that there can’t be a renewal without rejecting birth control
Good article. Good points. But,this is more accurately described as a collapse than a revolution. There’s no where to go but down.
As I’ve said in previous posts, Hell is coming to pay us a visit, and he’s going to stay a while. It can’t be any other way.
Of interest, I think.
I learned that in stat 1 a long time ago.
I learned that in stat 1 a long time ago.
and some people want to pretend that nothing has changed at all
Ditto!
Rejection of birth control was one of the safeguards to keep sex within the marital context.
Ironic that the full acceptance of birth control goes hand in hand with the huge bastardity rate that America has.
Thanks for the ping ... Tragic numbers
Humane vitae points out the cause and effect BC to societal ills. It was prophetic but really more logical It takes the irony out of the situation
The document was and is widely rejected
Which is ironic
The document was widely rejected by the clergy and even the nuns. which explains why the Church has been so ineffective. It seems that many of them only gave lip service even to opposing abortion. I have heard, and still do not hear, many homilies that deal with sexual morality.
We’ll there are authentic clergy and religious and in fact it is they who are getting the vocations from the youth
Nuns who wear habits are pretty much a given and it is only they who are growing and then the priests. If you find one who will so peak at all on these subjects, let alone in his homily, you have a keeper so to speak
Vatican II resulted in a collapse in the morale of the clergy. To this day, the bishops will not admit this. Looking back to the ‘70s, we see church attendance plumetting. Yet, ironically, the liberal clergy saw none of this. They blamed Rome and the conservatives for not pushing reforms further. It took the election of John Paul II to start turning this around. Count the time since as forty years in the desert, until those who remembered Egypt are no more.
Vatican II has to be taken as just another ecumenical council, From councils, good things result—and bad. The bad thing that happened was the progressivism of so many of the clergy, the attempt to break from the past. if the Lutherans and the other reformers had been party to Trent, the message coming out of it would have been very different. In the ‘60s, there was a school that asserted that the Erasmians, the moderate reformers were shut out as well as the Lutherans et al. Many of the progressives wanted to revisit the Reformation issues, to reject the whole of baroque history on which they blamed the hostility of the Enlightenment to the Church, and leading to Vatican I, which they thought to have been a mistake.
Just saying- people say Vatican II was bad and caused this.
But there’s nothing in Vatican II that states that you cannot receive communion at the rail, intinctured, from a priest, with an altar boy, in albs and vestments.
There’s nothing in Vatican II that states you must have extraordinary ministers.
Nor in it does it say you must have bad music, in demonic rock signature time, or that you cannot have Gregorian chant - you can.
There’s nothing in Vatican II that states that you must have the congregation dressed like they are stopping in directly after a day at the pool
There is nothing in Vatican II that states that the priest must face the congregation, or that he cannot say a Novus Ordo Mass in Latin.
Nor that you must greet at the sign of peace.
There’s nothing in there that states convents must break up and nuns must wear very bad polyester outfits.
Nor that you must abandon the communion rail, or the choir loft.
There’s nothing in Vatican II that states that there must be applause during mass for everything people are doing, nor that you must applaud when everyone else does when you don’t want to applaud for anyone in Mass because you know that they are doing it for the glory of God, not for the approval of others.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.