At the Super Bowl earlier this month, two proposed television commercials illustrated the on-going battle for traditional Christian values in the public square.  One, a pro-life message from Focus on the Family featuring Tim Tebow, the Heisman Trophy winner for the Florida Gators, was shown by CBS. The other, an ad for ManCrunch, a gay dating service, was rejected. Is this important? Yes, because it was a victory, however small, for Christianity in a nation that is abandoning its religious heritage.

America was founded on Christian principles. It was the teachings of Christianity which produced a public consciousness that declared the natural equality of all people, with unalienable rights, innate dignity and inviolable consciences. This does not imply that the nation was founded as a theocracy. It was not. Rather, the early Americans shared a set of faith-based principles that were common to their numerous, but primarily, Christian denominations. These common beliefs allowed practical agreements to develop on concepts, such as freedom, the rule of law, human rights and the consent of the governed, that formed the basis of American democracy.

For most of the two centuries following its founding, America operated as a Christian society. People regularly attended religious services, churches were integral to community life and behavior was regulated by reference to Christian tenets. Although there were many exceptions, people basically pursued their ambitions, businesses conducted their activities and the nation advanced its purposes within a Christian framework. While the state was secular, it did allow religious expression in the public sphere, including in the schools which presented lessons extolling moral and virtuous behavior.

The 1950s, in many ways, was the capstone of this era, with World War II now over and the Korean War drawing to a close. The veterans had returned to civilian life. The economy was vigorous and growing. The new medium of television drew large audiences with family-oriented shows, while the National Legion of Decency was highly influential in limiting the production of morally-offensive movies. Overall, it was a time of wholesome activities, with family values reinforced in the community.

Then, early in the 1960s a series of social, military, and religious events occurred that changed American culture. Anyone of these occurrences would have weakened the religious foundations of the country, but their emergence in rapid succession created a confluence that overwhelmed the existing order.

The nation had become involved in the Vietnamese struggle for independence, which escalated into a proxy war between the United States and the Soviet Union. The war was very unpopular with the American public. Civil discontent took a violent turn when, within a few years, President John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. were assassinated. Those just entering adulthood were particularly disillusioned. A small, but highly visible and vocal segment of this group, referred to as hippies, served as an unofficial vanguard for a counterculture that was much less religious. They rebelled against established institutions, adopted aspects of non-Judeo-Christian religions, experimented with psychedelic drugs, and promoted peace, love and sexual liberation.

The loosening of sexual mores infected the population as a whole.  In 1960, the first oral contraceptive, referred to as “the Pill,” was brought to the public market.  Sales took off exponentially. In education, religious activities that had been part of American life since the beginning of the nation, were deemed unconstitutional.  The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against reading Bible passages or saying a voluntary, non-denominational prayer in school.

As these social transformations occurred, the Catholic Church was changing in unanticipated ways. In 1965, the recommendations of Vatican Council II introduced far-reaching changes in many aspects of church and liturgical affairs.  The result was confusion among the laity and inconsistency in guidance by the clergy. At a time when societal trends required a strong religious response, Catholics, as a whole, did not have the knowledge or conviction to stand apart from the trends of the masses. By 1970, it was estimated that two-thirds of Catholic women in America were using contraceptives. Clearly, the Catholic Church was not in a position to fight the secular and irreligious forces shaping America.

In the last half century, the nation has continued to become more irreligious. There has been a progressive assault on the public display and acknowledgement of religion, a movement to impose secular norms on religiously-based organizations and activities, and a growth in social practices and political action that is antithetical to Christian beliefs. Marriage, the family, and even life itself have been degraded.

A radical feminism spread rapidly throughout the country in the late 1960s and early 1970s, whose effect, among others, was to devalue the roles of men and women in marriage. California passed a law that legalized no-fault divorce, paving the way for other states to follow suit. This transformed the marriage bond from a life-long covenant into a civil agreement for material security. In 2004, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts legalized homosexual marriages.  Other states are doing likewise.

With the emphasis in marriage on individual satisfaction, there was no reason why pregnancy should hinder personal desires. In 1973, the Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade that women had a constitutional right to abortion, a procedure that has been allowed even to the partial birth of a full-term infant.  Since the ruling, some 50 million children have been killed.

These changes have occurred with minimal resistance from Christians, even though they form the majority of the United States population. Too many Christians have accepted the notion that religion is a private matter, isolating their religious beliefs so that they do not impose on their behavior in the secular world.

The movement to make God irrelevant in national life must be reversed or America as we know it will cease to exist. The road to a revitalized public morality is not a return to the past, but to developing a doctrine of the modern world based on Christian principles.

While clergy and laity must speak out on public issues that violate Christian teaching, much more must be done. Far-reaching changes are called for in the institutions, laws, and activities of existing society. It will take a stupendous effort to bring about the spiritual and moral revitalization needed to order the collective temperament of the nation in accordance with a Christian understanding of life.  If it is not done, however, our faith, as well as that of our children and their descendents, will be at risk. Although the task is daunting, we are not alone–God is on our side.