Fifty years ago, the Bible, the Ten Commandments, and prayer were still allowed in public schools. Abortion was illegal. Homosexuality, pornography, and adultery were considered sins by the majority of Americans; and Christians were making a difference in every area of public life – even in politics. Just like you, I love this country and our heritage of faith, family, and freedom, but God is being blotted out of America!
In 1962, we didn’t need a movie rating system, and censorship was not a concern for TV programming because violence, profanity, and nudity weren’t problems. That’s not the case in 2012 where there’s more foul language, sex, and graphic violence in one night of TV viewing than there was in an entire month just ten years ago.
In a 2012 report, there were 76 incidents of full nudity flashing through our TV screens right into our living rooms. Blurring or obstructing certain body parts is about as dumb as bleeping through F-bombs and it doesn’t make it appropriate for kids watching during prime-time hours.
Zenith sold its first color TV in 1962 when a gallon of gas was just 28 cents. There were no CD’s, cell phones, or Internet – so – churches, libraries, and playgrounds were busy places. Kids even knew what ‘go outside and play’ meant! Families also spent more quality time together. You could buy a new home for about $18,000. The media still held government accountable, and most people believed America was an exceptional nation. What changed?
Today, the average American family watches five hours of television a day; that’s 35 hours a week. If we do the math it’s pretty scary because this means the average family watches TV, non-stop for 1,825 hours or 76 days straight in a year! Some day, every one of us will stand before a holy God and we’ll have to answer for how we used our time, talents, and treasure.
In the decade that brought us I Love Lucy, The Flintstones, Johnny Carson, and Elvis Presley, a Gallup poll showed “almost 70% of Americans said premarital sex was wrong” and just 21% said it was okay. Fast forward to a few years ago when the same question was asked; only 32% said sex before marriage was wrong and over sixty percent said it was fine!
In 1962, there were still divorce laws. In order for a couple to divorce, laws required a charge of adultery, extreme cruelty, willful desertion, insanity or felony conviction. Today, when it comes to abortion, divorce, the kind of television shows we watch, and the language we use, it can be hard to tell a Christian from a non-Christian at times.
The Bible teaches that we are to resist sin and to separate ourselves from immoral influences. One of the most important and divisive battles in America is over the lives of babies in the womb. Abortion is not only allowed today, but funded by our tax dollars! Same-sex marriage is practically accepted, and public schools encourage sexual openness and experimentation. What changed?
We have. In the Bible it says God’s Word is perfect, flawless, and that He is eternal. God never changes. We read the same Bible our Founding Fathers read. The difference is they focused their lives and built a country around the teachings of Jesus Christ, and we’re so distracted in modern America we barely take the time to memorize Scripture let alone apply it to our lives.
According to Pew Research, 78% of American adults identify themselves as “Christians”. With this many people professing Christianity, shouldn’t we see a dramatic reduction of abortion, adultery, depravity, divorce, homosexuality, alcoholism, gambling, pornography, occultism, depression, and suicide? We’re not.
So the question then needs to be asked, ‘How did America reach the point where the Church is having less impact on culture than culture is having on the church?
**This is a Transcript of the Video Overview to Eradicate: Blotting out God in America. Continued in Part 2…
(American family in 1962)
