This narrow way

A recent survey by the Wall Street Journal/NORC concerning what is important to Americans has some alarming numbers but considering the trajectory of our society in the last 25 years they should not be unexpected. Three particular areas, patriotism, religion, and having children are the numbers from the poll I want to focus on here.

Patriotism. 38% consider it very important in 2023 compared to 70% in 1998.

Religion. 39% said it was very important compared to 62% in 1998.

Children. 30% said very important compared to 59% in 1998.

The numbers are even more alarming when the questions are asked to those under 30 years of age. Patriotism is very important to only 23% of that age group. The numbers for religion and having children aren’t any better, 31% said religion is very important, and 23% said children and a family. And these numbers are only back 25 years. I suspect if we go back 25 years before that to 1973 the decline would be even more precipitous.

The decline in the numbers in all these categories really shouldn’t be unexpected. First, in the area of patriotism. A person born in 1998 has heard nothing in their elementary and higher education learning except what a horrible country America is. They are taught lies like the 1619 project, which tells them that America was founded on slavery. The American Revolution was not about religious freedom and independence from England, but to preserve slavery in North America. They have seen the statues of our Founders torn down and their names dragged through the Cultural Marxism mud. They know nothing of American exceptionalism, but all about American imperialism, systemic racism, and oppression. How could they possibly be able to consider patriotism to be something important when they’re told they’re country isn’t worth being loyal to or even living in?

Religion. Again, people born in 1998 in the following years have been fed a steady diet of, there is no God, and the Bible is just myths, legends, and fairy tales. There’s nothing in this universe greater than you. Invictus, “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” There is no Creator, we all just one giant cosmic accident. Religion is denigrated and ridiculed. Those who believe in it are uneducated, unsophisticated, hicks from the sticks. You don’t want to be lumped in with “those” people, do you?

Children. A generation of women has been sold the fallacy of feminism. You don’t need a man, get out there and be an independent woman, climb that corporate ladder, girl. Children are a burden, an expense, and an inconvenience that you don’t need. A hindrance to your career. And if you happen to get pregnant along the way, no problem, just kill the baby. It’s your “reproductive freedom.” The problem with this lie comes around 35-40 when women realize the emptiness of their lives without a family. The feminists didn’t tell them that part of the deal.

Secular people don’t get the ‘why’ behind these numbers.

“Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who worked on the 2019 survey for the Journal and NBC News, told the paper that Monday’s poll “paints a new and surprising portrait of a changing America.”

“Perhaps the toll of our political division, COVID and the lowest economic confidence in decades is having a startling effect on our core values.”

​ The poll paints a new, and not really surprising, portrait of a changing America alright; however, it has little to do with political division, COVID, and economic confidence. It is a spiritual decline that has been taking place in America over the last two generations and accelerating rapidly in just the last decade or less. A country whose values were once based upon the virtues of God, family, and country have been replaced by, I am God, family is an impediment, and America is certainly no place to be proud of, quite the opposite. I shudder to think what poll numbers 25 years from now will tell us.