"Have you been on a downhill slide since these decisions" speaking on school prayer . what does this mean?

Question

This cartoon shows a family complaning about federal courts decisions against school prayer. The father first says morals "have been on a downhill slide since these decisions. What do you think he means?

Answer 1

Morality had been degraded since the prayers were not allowed in schools.

Answer 2

You provided no link to the cartoon in question, but I guess it's really about the comment and not the cartoon itself. For many, it feels that without the reinforcement of the morals that we are trying to teach our children from the other aspects of their lives, it is easy to dismiss what mom and dad say as the rant of the older generation. Prayer in school may or may not have been a catalyst of the moral decay of our society, but personally, I didn't see where starting the school day with a prayer and the pledge of allegiance did any harm to me or my generation. It goes beyond prayer in school, it comes down to our distribution of social services through our schools and that there seems to be a higher priority on providing contraceptives than in instilling a value on virtue. As a society in general we have sent the new generation very few consistent signals about values and responsibility.

Answer 3

I think he means that since his religion is no longer imposed by the state on children through instruction in public schools, our nation has been getting a little too common sense, like letting women vote, integrating schools, etc...

Answer 4

Prayer is a personal thing which has no place in the classroom. The Christian redneck right want to force their beliefs on society, making them ideologically no different to groups such as the Taliban.