Society's declining moral values: Is this the Christian values to which we want America to return?

Question

See photos:

http://www.liu.edu/cwis/CWP/library/african/2000/lynching.htm

I gauruntee all the people in these photos consider themselves "real Christians".

Why are some people under the delusion that America was more virtuous "back in the good old days"?

Oregon Flower: Attacking spelling is a convinient way to aavoid attacking the substance of the argument. Obviously, it upsets you that you have no reply to this.

Answer 1

So often Christians (or many Americans for that matter) look back at 1950's America as "the good ol' days." What they're so often actually wanting is a "Leave It to Beaver" type of society - That's not realistic in 1750, 1850, 1950, or 2050.

I am vehemently opposed to a return to this kind of culture, a culture where lynching, prejudice, hatred, etc is allowed openly to fester, and expose itself - in cases like the 1950s, or today (gay rights - a case like the boy out in Wyoming who was wrapped up in a barbed wire fence and beat to death. Or the more recent case in Florida where a transexual was fired from her job, simply because (s)he was transexual - Realize gay and transexual are very differant, but to the Anti-Gay crowds don't realize that. Sorry off topic, the reason that this means so much to me is because 1: My father is transexual. 2: I support equal rights for ALL people.)

I really hope America never returns to "the good ol' days."

Answer 2

I completely agree with you. They seem to have this romantic notion of life in the good old days. For most they were not that good.

I also have a problem with the romantic notion of the fifty's. If you truly look at it women should be shocked and appalled. They were pretty much told, OK the men are back, go home take care of that man and be barefoot and pregnant.

What are these people saying? There were a few isolated bigots? Get with the program. The National Guard had to be called out to get Southern schools desegregated. Lynchings, shootings, beatings were common practice all over the south. What today is known as the bible belt.

Answer 3

Thank you for your excellent question. When I was a young boy back in the early 1950s, I saw lynching photographs similar to those and was deeply moved. I was well aware that racist white southerners imagined themselves "true Christians." I was also aware that the perpetrators of the Holocaust considered themselves good Christian Nazis. These factors and my own parents insane fundamentalism led me to think of myself as an atheist by age nine and to repeatedly run away from home at age twelve to avoid the intellectual insult of being forced to attend a Pentacostal church. If one examines the history of social change in America, time and again one finds Christians defiantly opposed to improving the human condition in any way. Again and again, fundamentalist Christians reveal themselves to be the single greatest force for evil in the history of our country. Whether it's unjust Jim Crow laws or stem cell research, one can be certain that Christians are in there doing their damnedest to undermine anything that might actually improve the human condition. Whenever a Christian starts whining about "moral decline" you can be certain he's got an ulterior motive that involves a fascist social order and blind obedience to arbitrary authority.

Answer 4

Murder is absolutely wrong and what happened in the past was outright evil BUT I believe what people are saying now is that America was more virtuous from the stand point of respect for elders, stronger families (the majority of marriages worked), sexual promiscuity was not this rampant - and therefore there was not this cry for abortion clinics (I mean can anyone provide me with statistics that show a majority of women who aborted have been raped/molested? We all know these clinics mainly serve promiscuous people) and basically less children were born out wedlock - Have you seen CNN news today...a COP's girlfriend is missing and she's pregnant with his fifth child - only thing is that he's married to another who already has two kids for him; he had another child before he was married to that woman; and this young lady has child number four for him and was about to make his 5th child...it's sad - I mean where are the morals? Anyway I hope this young lady is safe and sound.

But to answer your question we are not forgetting the past by not constantly talking about it...but such terrible images can only incite hatred and violence all over again. It would help if you had given positive recommendations to the community you feel has wronged you since you seem to be still holding a grudge. I think your question was rather narrow minded.

I hope my answer has helped you to broaden your mind set.

Answer 5

The bible speaks of man's inhumanity to man. what they did was so horrible it is even hard to watch or think about.
Those people are anything but Christian. The religious leaders in Jesus day he called them money lovers and rich and liked the best places in the temple.
The only thing that makes this bare able is the fact that none of those white kkk men who were murders are coming back in a resurrection. However, the men they brutally murdered will come back to endless life on a paradise earth.
Where there will be no more prejudice.

Answer 6

Your pictures remind me of what was done to my Lord. But lets go back further than that. Lets go back to when the Egyptians were killing the Hebrew babies. Where the Egyptians held them as slaves for Four hundred and thirty years. What I am trying to say here is that there is good and bad in all religions and races. This is horrible what was done, but saying your a christian and being one can be two entirely different things.
Now I have two questions for you.
1. What were the Egyptians anyway?
2. What is it that your running from James?


RUNJAMESRUN looks like all you got is some thumbs down for my answer, or are you afraid to answer my questions. Looks like the answers that are getting all the praise are those that are filled with hate. These days don't appear to be any different than those "good Ole days' as you call them. They called themselves "christians" back then but now they call themselves Atheist. I guess they to finally came out of the closet.

Answer 7

A more valid point could not be made. Everyone who talks about the "good old days" neglects to reminisce about the pure, unadulterated evil that existed with the KKK and many other "Christian" groups (please note I use quotes to indicate that I understand these groups only claimed Christianity and were not indicative of Christianity as a whole.)

Answer 8

Wow so you want to lump all Christians in with a few bigots really nice..We can't change what happened in History...its in the past, it doesn't make it right, it will never be justified, and what those men did to other men and women and children was sick and wrong...The problem is you are showing the same indifference they did and you don't even realize it...you just aren't killing people.. Their has been examples of fear all throughout our worlds history, by attributing it to Christian Values is simply showing that you fear Christians...why I'm not sure but hey you are entitled... There are good people and bad people in every single race, religion and sect. You have chosen to post a few pictures of a tragic time in our country..so just because you think those people consider themselves real Christians does not make them real Christians...what it does make them is murderers... Slavery has been going on since the beginning of time..it has just changed...Jews, blacks, now it is women and children being sold as sex slaves to brothels in Europe...it is all sick and wrong.

Answer 9

How can you say we have declining moral values. George is out slaughtering thousands of Middle easterns because they aren't christian. Just like the old days.

Answer 10

Seeing a photograph of a poor innocent person hanged and burned is a terrible thing to even have to see. Religion has been used for centuries to validate control and power. I would not want to go back to those horrific times.