The Enigma of Religion and America

“Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with
fear, and with trembling kiss His feet, or He will be angry, and you will perish in the way”
(Psalm 2:10)

America is a puzzle even for us Americans. Imagine how we look to the world. We export the majority of what passes for a universal culture. Our motion pictures dominate the screens on six continents. Our television studios have invaded other countries with our TV shows, movies and sitcoms. Indeed, our version of perversion is one of our major exports. Sex, violence and banality are universal, thanks to our technical ingenuity.

In present day England an evening of entertainment is comprised of what must be near the summit of our revolting TV programs—the Jerry Springer show. Somehow the Brits have managed to parody what is already a cliche for banality, a display of America at its most degenerate. Sexuality in all its deformities is presented as entertainment. When it’s offered often enough, it becomes the norm and those who think otherwise are considered politically incorrect, a phrase designed to humiliate the outspoken and intimidate the timid.

A senator from Pennsylvania brave enough to resist intimidation and sufficiently intelligent to think for himself has drawn the wrath of our nation’s liberals by pointing out the obvious conclusion to those who are intent upon banishing all laws against homosexuality in the land. The logic of his opponents is that we must eliminate all bans against privacy and rights of the individual. Senator Rick Santorum’s counter logic is that to lift all forms of present laws against homosexual acts on the basis of the right to privacy opens the door to any and all forms of aberrant sexual acts including incest and pedophilia. Praise the Lord Mr. Santorum is not alone in upholding true virtues found in the Holy Bible and proclaimed not only by Christians, but also by Judaism and other faiths.

How is it that a recent Gallop poll has discovered that 94% of our countrymen and women believe in God? 90% claim to pray to a deity. 88% believe that God loves them. Is there no correlation between these high figures in contrast to the evidence of blatant disregard of God’s commandments in the Holy Bible? How we explain this phenomenon is one thing; how to live in such a society and raise our children in the atmosphere of such debauchery is more significant.

Several options have been attempted:

A. To close ourselves off from the surrounding “culture” (for lack of a better term). It’s easier for retirees and single persons, but a real challenge for young couples with children who are by nature eager to identify with their peers;

B. Home school their children, which has obvious disadvantages such as missing the benefit of peers and the enrichment from trained teachers;

C. Establish parochial schools, which the Orthodox Church is presently at work to implement; however, it also has its inherent problems, which the Roman Catholic Church has discovered. Their aspiration and goals have rarely been fulfilled and the cost is enormous.

I haven’t a solution, but to solve a problem one must define it. My fear is that complacency and fatalism become a way of life, and we do little more than shrug our shoulders and go with the flow, to use another cliche.