Who's Responsible for the Moral Decline?

A recent Gallup poll, "Moral Acceptability: Changes Over Time," shows Americans made a startling move to the left over the past 15 years. A blanket blaming of the church is the easy answer, but today, where black and white has faded into varying shades of gray, we are better served going back to where it began because we didn't get where we are today overnight.

America's moral decline began with Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt [FDR]. Their arrogant defiance and blatant hostility toward the U.S. Constitution inspired them to lead an insurrection from the Oval Office, effectively convincing good people that government dependence is a morally acceptable alternative to dependence on God, family, community and self.

Progressive godfather FDR did what progressives do best, hijacking the crisis at hand, the Great Depression, and molding the U.S. government into a pseudo-god. Although both New Deals failed on multiple levels, some of the programs and subsidies permanently persuaded people that an interventionist government is good. That was not enough. Progressives understood the "God-factor" must be removed to accomplish their goal of secularization, wherein religion loses cultural and social significance. In 1947, the Supreme Court, largely packed with FDR appointees, decided the First Amendment instituted a "wall of separation" between church and state in Everson v. Board of Education. In so doing, they were able to separate morality and ethics from government and daily life.

A recent Pew survey found that in 1990, 86 percent of Americans identified as Christians and today, just 70 percent. Interestingly, mainline Protestant denominations such as Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian and Episcopalian, who have consciously dimmed their own bulbs in recent years to remain relevant to the demands of pop culture, dropped from 50 percent in 1958 to 14 percent in 2015. As mosques are being raised at record levels in towns and cities across America and Europe, churches are increasingly vacated.

Today, more often than not, Jesus' command for Christians to be "light" in a dark world is translated "let's keep it subdued, so no one needs to squint." In fashion photography, soft light works because it helps to conceal the unvarnished reality. In sharp contrast, pure light reveals an honest picture, flaws and all. Interestingly, when Jesus revealed himself to the Christian persecutor, Saul, he appeared in light so harsh and offensively bright, Saul was temporarily blinded. Saul's blindness slowed him down long enough to see the contrast between truth and lies, right and wrong, leading to a conversion so complete, his name was changed from Saul to Paul.

Some would rather spread buttercream icing over cow manure than call this moral decline for what it is. Vanderbilt University Professor of Law and Political Science Edward L. Rubin says America's nosedive into the moral abyss is nothing to fret because we are just shifting to a "new morality" based on a "concept of self-fulfillment." Rubin suggests this fluffed-up version of hedonism is making people uncomfortable because they are feeling rapidly "pulled between two moralities." Paul/Saul wrote about the same struggle in Romans 7, reminding true believers to hold fast to "God's law," not giving in to the new morality he called "sin."

The only way progressivism wins is without the presence of absolute truth. Without it, morality is defined by ever-changing social whims; what's wrong today is right tomorrow. Truth is, it's impossible to define morality without a plumb line or divine standard. Wandering outside already-established boundaries since the beginning of time gets us where we are today. History demonstrates it. Polls prove it. Empty pews show it. Progressives love it.

That would be those without any moral compass !!

...who all belong to the Democrat Party!

If you that more than a small minority of Republicans have any sort of moral compass you are very much mistaken.

Since taking full control of Congress last year the GOP has effectively surrendered the protection of marriage and done nothing about ending the unconstitutional Obamacare and its death panels.

The GOP's big "success" was in passing legislation that unconstitutionally LEGALIZED OVER 90% of abortions. Yes, you read that right, the GOP thinks it is a "pro-life victory" to pass laws that say abortion is just fine as long as it's done in a timely manner.

“How did we devolve from the post-war greatness that was America to an Obama-hole country we now endure?”

Part of it’s due to technology and marketing that came of age in the 1950s and early ‘60s. Television, the portable transistor radio, cheap stereos, maybe even paperbacks. This all made the mass transmission of alternative and counter cultural ideas quick and easy.

But even so we still had a common culture. That began to change with the waves of immigration that poured in after the 1965 immigration act. The 90% ‘Anglo-Saxon’ America of 1965 has dwindled to maybe 70%. We are now multi-cultural and multi-racial, with a fragmented culture that is growing ever more divided.

(the move to the left was apparent when America abandoned Anita Bryant to the wolves of homosexual advocacy)

From... conservapedia.com

"Anita Bryant (b. 1940) was an extremely successful singer and commercial endorser who became an early opponent of homosexuality. As a result, the entertainment and corporate world ostracized her.

A devout Christian born and raised in Oklahoma, Bryant won the prestigious talent competition of Arthur Godfrey at age 16, was runner-up in the Miss America competition at age 19, and next recorded three smash popular hit songs, of which a couple were imitated later by famous groups such as the Beatles. In the late 1960s and 1970s Anita Bryant became one of the most successful endorsers of goods, most famously Florida orange juice. She was was an extremely popular celebrity in her time, and had such broad appeal that she performed the National Anthem at Super Bowl III in 1969 and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" at the burial of former President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1973.

Living in South Florida, Bryant saw Florida's Dade County (now Miami-Dade County) pass an ordinance in 1977 granting anti-discrimination rights to homosexuals.[Citation Needed] Within four weeks, Bryant, along with supporters from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami and the Florida Conservative Union, had collected 64,000 signatures, many more than the 10,000 needed to put the issue on the ballot. [1] The ordinance was successfully repealed in a referendum that passed in a landslide vote of 69% to 31%. She said her main concern was the recruitment of children into the homosexual lifestyle, and she founded a group called Save Our Children for that purpose. It was not until 1998 that Miami-Dade County reinstated the ordinance by a narrow 7-6 vote.

Bryant also successfully led a campaign for the Florida legislature to prohibit homosexuals from adopting children. Over two decades later, in 2004, that law was upheld by the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.[2]

Homosexual advocates vilified Bryant for her stance, and continue to insult her to this day. They organized a boycott of her corporate sponsors and they obtained denunciations of Bryant by other entertainers. Four self-proclaimed homosexuals slapped Bryant with a pie in her face during a speaking event in Des Moines, Iowa.[3] Bryant responded immediately by saying a prayer for her assailants. Police authorities refused to prosecute for the assault.

The efforts of the homosexual activists succeeded in destroying Bryant's career. The corporations refused to continue to hire her; the music industry excluded her. Subsequent attempts by Bryant to further her entertainment career in small towns were unsuccessful, and liberal newspapers hound her about that also.[4]

Homosexuals continue to attempt to discredit Anita Bryant as part of their current effort to repeal the Florida law against adoption by homosexual couples. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported that on March 25, 2007 a "meeting, organized by local, state and national gay advocacy groups, was held to discuss a proposal in Tallahassee to repeal Florida's 30-year-old ban on gay adoption. Organizers said the ban is a remnant of former beauty queen and orange juice spokeswoman Anita Bryant's anti-gay crusade of the 1970s."[5]

It should be noted that Anita Bryant was largely correct in that she believed homosexuals wanted to recruit children into their ways, for example noted gay rights activist Harry Hay protested the exclusion of groups like NAMBLA in the 1990s (that had previously been in the gay mainstream) and Hay refused to participate in the official 1994 parade in New York City commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall riots because of its 'exclusionary policies'. Instead he joined an alternate parade called "The Spirit of Stonewall""

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.