By Col. Bill Connor ——Bio and Archives--January 1, 2025
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For most conservative Americans, the election of Donald Trump felt like a miracle. The years of biased negative media coverage and lawfare seemed insurmountable. We had good reason to believe that another Democratic administration would end any chance for conservatives to come back to power.
The open border illegal immigration under the Biden Administration allowed for millions to be spread throughout the nation and particularly battleground states. Attempting to grant amnesty and voting rights of likely Democrat voters would have created an indefinite Democratic Party monopoly. The expansion of the critical race theory into all aspects of American life would have continued. Speech restrictions against conservatives would have suppressed the ability to criticize the progressive onslaught. Thankfully, Trump won. Though the election helped stop the near-term damage, a national turnback to God is what is most needed for the long term health of the Republic.
After the election, both Gallup and Wall Street Journal (WSJ) conducted surveys tracking the importance of religion to Americans along with trends over decades. The results were shocking in the level of steep decline. The data showed that in 1998 a whopping 62% of Americans rated religion as “very important”, while by 2019 that number dropped to 48%. Even more alarming is that the decline accelerated, and the number is now only 39%. Gallup asked about the importance of religion in daily life and the answer “very important” declined from 60% in 1998 to only 45% now. (Source)
The bottom line is that the decline in religion in America is steep and appears to be speeding up.
While religion has been declining at these alarming rates, America has suffered a steep moral decline. Of all the indicators of decline, including exponentially higher single parenthood rates, is the overall marriage rate. In 1970, the overall marriage rate was at 76.5%, yet by 2023 that number was well under half at 31.1% (Source)
Importantly, this marriage decline started in the 1970s, but sped up substantially in the 1990s like the religious decline. In the 2000s, states began to expand the definition of marriage beyond Biblically based, traditional, marriage. At that time, the substantial majority of Americans were opposed to gay marriage. In 2008, the major Democratic Party Presidential candidates, including Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Barack Obama, publicly opposed gay marriage.
By 2015, the Supreme Court ruled gay marriage a Constitutional right, and the majority of Americans came to support it. Until around a decade ago, the ideological extremes of transgenderism of the Democratic Party, including forceful demands for minor transsexual medical procedures, were outside normal discourse or thought. They have become mainstream.
With the moral decline following the religious slide, voices attempting to uphold traditional Biblical morality became the target. Parents at school boards attempting to keep formerly depraved practices away from their children, like drag queens and transgenderism, became targets of Federal law enforcement.
What had been previously viewed as positive by most in society, like Patriotism and Biblical morality, came to be stigmatized as indicators of “extremism” or “white supremacy” by many in power. As Americans discovered after Elon Musk purchased Twitter, the Federal government had been pressuring big tech to censor and suppress conservative and religious voices, particularly if those voices opposed progressive ideology. Organizations like the Boy Scouts were undermined, and children were taught to question their God-given sexuality. Those opposing this depravity were called “bigots” and worse.
The new administration will have the ability to roll back the moral decline from within the Federal government through new orders and rules. They can stop the government from targeting what was previously respected as a positive good. They will face a great deal of pushback from those who have marinated in progressive ideology for decades but can win. This will allow for marriage to again flourish and men and women to find happiness in how God created them.
The greatest challenge will be with the change in the hearts of most Americans. Throughout our nation’s history, we have risen to greatness as a uniquely Godfearing people. As Alexis de Tocqueville put it in the 1830s “there is no other nation on Earth in which the Christian religion retains greater influence over the souls of men as in America” (Source)
Many historians credit the Christian revival of First Great Awakening in America as having pushed America towards the Revolution. An ubiquitous Battle cry during the Revolution was “We have no King but Jesus”, not King George III. (Source).
The distinctive religious character of the American people set them apart. In the national Prayer for the D-Day invasion in 1944, President Roosevelt named “our religion” among what we were fighting to defend. Famed British Historian Paul Johnston claimed “America is, and always has been, a religious country” and that American exceptionalism was due to America being “Godfearing, and all that entails” (Source).
As the new administration takes power and attempts to turn the government away from the morally deviant path of the last years, it is incumbent that America as a nation turns back to God. I pray that 2025 will witness the beginning of a great revival which our nation so desperately needs.
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