It’s discouraging to me to hear that nurses are quitting their jobs because the public is so abusive – nurses, people trying to help. But this is the state of American culture.
Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #228 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.
The elder President George H.W. Bush, 41, is remembered for several pithy phrases, among them “voodoo economics,” “1,000 points of light,” and the one that got him in political trouble later when partisan budget wrangling forced him to renege on his promise, “Read my lips: No new taxes.”
But President Bush’s phrase that I’ve thought a lot about recently came out of his run for the presidency in 1988 and his vision for what he called “a kinder, gentler nation.” Later in his Inauguration speech, Jan. 20, 1989, Bush said, “America is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in high moral principle. We as a people have such a purpose today. It is to make kinder the face of the nation and gentler the face of the world.”
I thought of this phrase immediately as I watched the 45th Ryder Cup matches played at the Black course, Bethpage State Park, Farmingdale, New York on Long Island. The European team won the Ryder Cup, 15-13.
Crowd behavior was relatively benign the first sessions but then chaos broke loose Saturday afternoon and Sunday as a small but extremely vocal percentage of the crowd let loose with abusive comments hurled at the Europeans, particularly the golf world’s number 2, Rory McIlroy. Oft-repeated f-bombs, “Rake out the Irish trash,” “Remember Pinehurst,” “Choker,” “Leprechaun,” “Overrated,” middle fingers held high, insults questioning manhood, a beer can thrown near McIlroy’s wife, at one tee box, a guy yelled “Rory, don't let your boyfriend down!” followed by three more gay slurs that cannot be shared. “By (one) reporter's count, 30-something f-bombs had been hurled at McIlroy in the first four holes alone.” More sexually explicit comments were made throughout the day aimed at various players’ wives.
American player Justin Thomas repeatedly tried to calm the crowd as did other American golfers from time to time to minimal cooperation and eventually a handful of spectators were identified and tossed off the property.
The next day, American golfing great Tom Watson said on social media, “I'd like to congratulate @RyderCupEurope on their victory. Your team play the first few days was sensational. More importantly, I'd like to apologize for the rude and mean-spirited behavior from our American crowd at Bethpage. As a former player, Captain and as an American, I am ashamed of what happened.”
Lack of civility, including use of profane language, is now publicly commonplace in American culture. Scholars and pundits often use the term “coarsening” to refer to the trend.
And this is also sadly true of political leaders. President Bush’s kinder, gentler “words stand in stark contrast to the incivility and name-calling that has come to define today’s politics.” This includes a growing trend of antagonistic, disrespectful rhetoric in politics, including ad hominem attacks and name-calling.
Leaving aside here any discussion of President Donald J. Trump’s politics and policies, it can be said without fear of exaggeration that Mr. Trump often critiques people he calls his “enemies” by using rather crass, at times harsh, attack-mode language.
President Richard M. Nixon’s infamous White House Watergate tapes provided audio evidence of his penchant for using ethnic slurs, foul language, and derogatory comments during meetings. Mr. Trump’s use of corrosive or caustic language is not reserved for private meetings because they make media coverage nearly every week.
Now I am not blaming Mr. Trump for the coarsening of American culture. Presidents are more often symptoms than causes of American trends. Nor am I suggesting Mr. Trump is worse than others. I’m just noting that Mr. Trump says things in what Teddy Roosevelt called “the bully pulpit” that no other president has ever said, and as the leader of the free world, he is heard and has influence.
American political leaders now regularly make videos using vulgarities, then post them on social media, or they use so-called “fighting words” or expletives in media interviews, I guess, in an effort to sound tough and sincere. No question President Joe Biden regularly used profanity when he became frustrated or wanted to sound forceful, but I thought he just sounded degraded. Democrats and the left or Progressives have been calling Mr. Trump “Hitler,” a Nazi, and a “fascist” since at least 2016, and now the same anti-Trump American political leaders have publicly labeled ICE officers “modern-day Gestapo,” “secret police,” “authoritarian,” “slave patrols,” “thugs,” and more.
Clearly, American politics has become increasingly polarized. Don Sipple, a veteran communications strategist who helped shape campaign messages for George W. Bush, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Jerry Brown, among many others, said, “Everything’s a war. Everything’s a battle. There’s no collaboration, no coordination, no civic pride.”
And another trend is important to note, the increase in political violence. “Hateful demonization clearly played a role in the assassination of Charlie Kirk—a murder victim whom the left continues to smear and attack, even after his violent death at the hands of a leftist…When people are told, on repeat, that their opposition are authoritarian Hitler Nazis, some of them will act accordingly.”
Civilization is in part built upon civility, and this is what’s gone out the window. I can remember when men would use a four-letter word in the presence of women and say, “Oh, pardon my French.” Now maybe that was disingenuous or too cute, but at least there was some sense of what should be acceptable. No more.
“We've become a mean-spirited culture. We've become increasingly rude and cruel and abusive and violent.” And I haven’t even talked about the crude and lewd, or the manufactured anger paraded in reality shows, nor the nastiness on TV talk shows, the social distance and anonymity of social media, and much of pop music.
American culture is subjected to more centrifugal than centripetal forces, pulling us apart without much glue holding us together.
We are experiencing a "decline of the American sacred canopy." This is a term coined by sociologist Peter Berger, which describes the erosion of a shared, overarching religious framework that once provided common meaning and values to society. Since America’s founding and until the last fifty years, that sacred canopy was comprised of what scholars called a Judeo-Christian moral consensus.
Our laws, mores, and morality were rooted in biblical values, even if not everyone or even most Americans were themselves believing Christians. Our culture, indeed, Western Civilization, found sustenance in this moral outlook. It gave us definition, purpose, and vision.
“The decline of faith has left a void, and people have tried to fill it with politics, social media, gaming and countless other distractions. Yet none of these substitutes provides the deeper sense of purpose we were made to seek. Over the past few decades, the erosion of religion and the rise of political polarization have gone hand in hand. As faith receded, the longing for meaning, belonging and community did not disappear -- it was redirected. Too often, that hunger has been channeled into the far less healthy pursuit of politics.”
Along the way, apparently thinking Judeo-Christian principles are too sensitive or irrelevant for schools, scouts, even religious groups or families, we discarded moral formation. Now there is no self-restraint, no ethics, no respect, no truth, no direction, no hope. They aren’t taught.
“Any sense of an objective moral order is gone. Any sense of transcendent truth is gone. We now have little more than radical individualism.” If we don’t “train up a child” as Proverbs directed (22:6), then they’ll learn their morality in the streets or on social media where they are taught that they are gods who define their own moral compass. We do what’s right in our own eyes.
“We’ve become hyper-politicized. Ideology has replaced theology, even in the lives of Christians. Good and evil aren’t about the human heart—they’re about groups: us vs. them…Morality isn’t about personal conduct, but rather where you are on the political spectrum. Much of it fueled by resentment. And that is how we got so mean.”
We’re a long way from a kinder, gentler nation.
Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. For more Christian commentary, see my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com, or check my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers.
And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.
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