It seems to this writer that we are witnessing the dismantling of America. Everywhere you look you see evidence of this reality – at least from my perspective. It was just in the recent past that we have seen some watershed moments that have altered the landscape of this nation. These were moments that, in and of themselves, may not have seemed to have had the capacity to wreak the havoc that we now see in the aftermath.

The first of these watershed moments occurred on June 25, 1962, when the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that government endorsed prayers recited in public schools were unconstitutional. Looking back on this historic event, we could justifiably say that prior to that date in 1962, the United States still endorsed Christianity as the religion of choice of the American people. This did not mean that every individual citizen of this country was Christian, or adhered to Christian belief and practice, but rather that this was the recognized foundation of our American culture. Prior to this date, anyone could believe anything, and practice any religious ritual and ceremony of their choice, with the understanding that this nation had always been, up to that moment in our history, a nation built upon the principles of the Christian faith.

It only took a handful of individuals to completely destroy almost 200 years of that recognized and accepted foundation of this nation. This was the beginning of a slippery slope which has resulted in a downward spiral of anti-Christian bias. It was only one year later, in 1963, that the court banned Bible reading, and overturned a state law banning the teaching of evolution. Kim Colby, senior counsel with the Christian Legal Society’s Center for Law and Religious Freedom, has said, “Within a decade, religious expression was pushed out of public schools in a way that was really wrong. Too many school administrators took that decision as a green light to try to eradicate religion from public schools.”

This leads me to my second watershed moment in America’s recent past. With the removal of prayer and Bible reading from the public classroom, our nation also witnessed an immediate decline in morality. Without the foundation of the ethical teachings of Scripture, our nation began to see a move away from clear Biblical instruction. One example will suffice: abortion. On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court ruled that “unduly restrictive state regulation of abortion is unconstitutional.” It is not the intent of this blog to argue the ethical ramifications of this decision, but rather to assert that this is a graphic illustration of the dismantling of America. Long-held beliefs and practices are now thrown away simply because someone disagreed with long-standing principles of morality.

To this writer, it appears that the present state of immorality in this nation is a direct result of these water-shed moments. With the removal of prayer and Bible reading from the public classroom we have witnessed a horrific decline in the moral fabric of our nation. Without the ethical moorings of the Christian faith we have witnessed the proliferation of unethical practices in public life as well as private life. The agenda of the far-left has become so entrenched that any movement toward a return to the once cherished practices of the past is seen as a threat to personal freedom. But we must remind ourselves that true freedom is not the liberty to do what you want, but rather the liberty to do what is right.

We are witnessing today a great host of people who want the liberty to do what they want, with no regard to what is right. Our standard of what is right and wrong in this nation had historically been based on the teachings of the Bible, but once that foundation was removed it opened the door for the very definition of morality to be changed to fit the desires of the individual. And when the power is given to an individual to assert his or her ways just because they don’t like the way it has been, then we become a law unto ourselves.

And what happens when we become a law unto ourselves? Well, we begin to establish our own standards of morality. A couple of quick examples will suffice to show how this has affected American culture. With the legalizing of abortion, we then began to see a decline in the belief in the sanctity of human life. This led to abortion at any stage of pregnancy, as well as the practice of partial-birth abortion, where a baby could be killed as it was actually being born. Then, as a further step away from the belief in the sanctity of human life, we began to witness the practice of euthanasia become rather commonplace on the American landscape.

The second example I will cite as an illustration of this slippery slope of immorality is the rise in alternate lifestyles. We were at one time a nation which believed in the Bible’s teachings on marriage. But now, Biblical marriage is pretty much viewed as an outdated practice of antiquity, and any living arrangement between partners is viewed as acceptable.

I have had some tell me that I live too much in the past. They say that I need to discard my long-held traditional values and catch up with the times in which we live. But, from what I see in the times in which we live, I would much rather live in the past. I would much rather live in a country which is steered by the solid foundation upon which it was built. And that foundation is the authoritative Word of God.

May God, who is our only hope, help us to return to what made us great. May He help us once again return to our spiritual foundation, and allow His Word to be the one, true source of authority from which we seek guidance and instruction.