A CONDENSED CHRONOLOGICAL LOOK AT AMERICA’S MORAL DECLINE FROM A CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE
1990s: A decade in which rebellion against God and the promotion of immorality advanced and was celebrated like no other time in history until that point. The church had little impact on America as pop culture and the entertainment industry pushed the limits of decency. Christian as well as the media seemed to look the other way during much of the Clinton presidency. Also, had prayer and the Bible not been removed from public schools decades earlier, the Columbine High School massacre may have been avoided. We’ll never know.
1991: The first lesbian kiss on network television occurs on L.A. Law which featured a prolonged kiss between two female lawyers.
1992: In a five to four decision, the Supreme Court rules a graduation prayer violated the Establishment Clause. At the disputed graduation, a Rabbi thanked God for the legacy of America where diversity is celebrated:
“O God, we are grateful for the learning which we have celebrated on this joyous commencement … we give thanks to you, Lord, for keeping us alive, sustaining us and allowing us to reach this special, happy occasion.”
The Bush administration agreed with the school board which argued the prayer did not demonstrate a religious endorsement. Regardless, the court ruled on benedictions and invocations: “Religious invocation … conveyed the message that district had given its endorsement to prayer and religion, so that school district was properly [prohibited] from including invocation.” Graham v. Central, 1985; Kay v. Douglas, 1986; Jager v. Douglas, 1989; Lee v. Weisman, 1992.
1993: With NYPD Blue, Steven Bochco launches network TV’s first R-rated primetime series. A quarter of ABC’s 225 affiliates preempt the first episode. NYPD Blue would also gain infamy as one of the first prime time network series to regularly show naked buttocks.
1993: In the movie Philadelphia, Tom Hanks wins an Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal of a homosexual man who dies from AIDS.
The 90s were the ”let the language fly” decade. According to the Parent’s Television Council, between 1993 and 1999, the first recorded use of these words took place on primetime television: “a**hole,” “screw,” “p*ss,” “d*ck,” “t*ts,” and bullsh*t. Also included in PTC’s ETS database, the word “sh*t” heard first on CBS’s Chicago Hope.13
1993: The first law established to protect lesbian/gay students in public schools. (MA)
1993: A group led by terrorist Ramzi Yousef tries to bring down the World Trade Center with a truck bomb. They kill six and wound a thousand. (Yousef’s uncle is none other than Khalid Sheikh Moham-med, the mastermind of 9/11.)
1993: “Black Hawk down” – Somali tribesmen shoot down U.S. helicopters, killing eighteen and wounding seventy-three. It was dis¬covered that those Somali tribesmen had received help from al Qaeda.
1994: The first school sanctioned gay-youth prom is held in Los Angeles.
Seinfeld had been influencing American culture for several years when…
1994: Friends Premiers on NBC and makes a ten-year run until 2004. According to TV Guide readers, Friends was the Best Comedy cast of all time, even beating Seinfeld. In the chapter on Hollywood, we already noted the high number of times in the series that the characters had sex. Another thing to note was the overused and disrespectful use of the expression “Oh – my – God,” which is still popular today. Friends was a trend-setter among youth and culture.
1995: Police in Manila uncover a plot by Ramzi Yousef to blow up a dozen U.S. airliners while they were flying over the Pacific.
1997: Norm MacDonald lets the f-word slip during SNL’s “Weekend Update.” He is not fired.
1997: Ellen DeGeneres becomes the first lesbian character to star in a lead role in a prime time series. During the fourth season of Ellen, DeGeneres “comes out” publicly as a lesbian in an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Her bravery was celebrated, but the show was cancelled the next season.
1997: Bill Clinton becomes the first U.S. President to address a gay organization (Human Rights Campaign).
1997: New Hampshire and Maine pass gay rights laws.
1998: The FDA approves Pfizer’s Viagra as the first prescription drug for the treatment of male impotence, now known as “erectile dysfunction.” By 2003, Viagra would generate $1.9 billion in annual sales for Pfizer.
1998: Will and Grace Premiers on NBC from 1998 through 2006. It features a main character who is homosexual and contains frequent references to gay sex.
1998: Usama Bin Laden and four others issued a self-styled fatwa, publicly declaring it is God’s decree that every Muslim should try his utmost to kill any American, military or civilian, anywhere in the world. It is a call for “Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders.”14
1998: America’s First Playboy President – Bill “I screwed up with that girl” Clinton and Monica Lewinsky dominate headlines. When the truth about the scandal comes out, the media basically rationalizes his behavior. Clinton also had issues with women back as Governor of Arkansas. In a PBS documentary, those closest to Clinton try warning him about his weakness toward young women.15
Marla Crider, a woman who worked with Mr. Clinton in Arkansas before he was president and had an affair with him, said that “he needed that kind of adoration” from women. When the Lewinski affair became public, Betsy Wright, Clinton’s political aide, said his staff was deeply upset because he had lied to them and lied ‘to a lot of people’.
When Gennifer Flowers came forward claiming to have had a twelve-year affair with Clinton, it was Hillary who revived his career by giving a TV interview in which she famously said she was going to ”stand by my man.” Paula Jones was another woman who went public, and Clinton settled with Jones for approximately $850,000. The Paula Jones case precipitated Clinton’s impeachment. Americans were very forgiving as Clinton remained popular and left office with a 65% approval rating.
In his 2005 book, The Marketing of Evil, WND editor David Kupelian talked about the influence of Clinton’s affairs and the epidemic of widespread, casual sex among young people known as “hooking up” – often with multiple partners.
“Turbocharged by President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky’s high-profile example – ‘If it’s okay for the president, it must be okay for me’ – middle and high school children are experimenting with sex in the bathroom stalls at school, behind the gym, and in the back of the school bus. Often the only way parents and school authorities find out is when confronted by an epidemic of sexually transmitted disease infecting large numbers of kids in the same social group.”16
1999: Columbine High School Massacre. On April 20, 1999, in Littleton, Colorado, two high-school seniors, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, enact an all-out assault on Columbine High School during the middle of the day. Their plan was to kill hundreds of their peers by set¬ting bombs in the school cafeteria, but when the bombs didn’t go off, the two boys walked the hallways with pipe bombs, guns and knives and killed twelve students, one teacher, and themselves. They injured twenty-one more.
How was it possible that no one had a clue about the two killers? They fooled friends, parents, and teachers. When they got caught breaking into a van, they also fooled, psychologists, cops and judges. According to journals, notes, and videos, Klebold and Harris left to be discovered, Klebold had been thinking of committing suicide as early as 1997, and they both had begun thinking about a large massacre as early as April 1998. One psychologist would later say, “These are kids with serious psychological problems.”17
Eric Harris wore a t-shirt with “Natural Selection” on the front. Natural selection is the process in nature by which, according to Darwin’s theory of evolution, only the organisms best adapted to their environment tend to survive. Klebold’s shirt said “Wrath.” There has been plenty of speculation about what led to their rampage, such as lax parenting, lax gun laws, progressive schooling, antidepressant drugs, hard rock music, violent video games (Doom), violent movies (Natural Born Killers), or Goth. Few have suggested pure satanic evil.
Videotapes, journals, guns and bombs in their rooms would have been easily found if the parents had looked. Harris even made a website with hateful epithets that could have been followed up on. The Columbine Massacre changed the way society looked at children and at schools. Violence was no longer just an after-school, inner-city activity. It could happen anywhere, but it may not have happened at all if God had not been blotted out of public schools decades earlier.
Click here for: the next decade, 2000 – 2012 and chapter 14 conclusion
Click here for: the previous two decades: the 1970s and 1980s …
Click Here for: the 1960′s and chapter Introduction to The Last 50 Years in America
