The church, sometime in the mid 1950’s, lost something. It became fat and happy. The church turned inwards and settled itself to just being there. The church didn’t put up much of a fight and before it was too late ungodly men were being elected, rights were being stripped away and abominations were being discovered as “constitutional” rights.
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I don’t know enough modern church history to know whether this is true or not . . . but it sounds right to me. Any particular reason you think this happened in the 1950’s?
I would posture two reasons:
(1) Imagine it's Jan 1, 1954. Your country has spent almost 8 of the previous 13 years fighting two wars--including WWII where the cost in sacrificial energy, attention & lives impacted every American. When "battle fatigue" sets in, the first thing you don't want to do is to stir up more fights, even if the conflict was of a different nature. People thought it was time to turn their sights to their homes; so they did.
(2) It's been said of those born in the 1930s that theirs was a generation "without a cause." Oh sure, the insecurities of the depression followed by WWII stuck with these folks...but most didn't "own" those events in bearing the direct burdens of them because they were either still minors/small kids (or not even yet born) during that 16-year period (1929-1945).
By the mid-50s, many who realized their fathers weren't able to work only 20 years earlier due to the depression saw employment (and overtime) opportunities as luxuries they couldn't "afford" to pass over. With growing business opportunities (and slightly less men in the labor force due to the wars), men not only focused on home life but labor ops. [If there's one thing that stands out about a few of the Twilight Zone episodes from circa 1960-1962 is the sheer drudgery that the daily work grind in Urban/Suburban America is depicted to be, with the booze flowing freely].
The one thing I've learned from a few of those born in the 30's is that a sense of insecurity seemed to stick with them their entire lives--that insecurity that stuck with them from the first 6 to 16 years of their lives. They didn't want their kids to have to go through that same level of insecurity; so they spoiled the boomer kids with materialism.
At the same time, the seminaries were being filled with leftist cowards who are now running many mainline denominations.
This combination has left a bitter legacy in the American church, but Europe was completely decimated. There, almost an entire generation was killed and many more were lost to socialism and atheism.