Where to begin with this. I cannot tell you how offensive this post is. The attacks of 9/11 are a dirct result of homosexual marriage? I mean it fits the character of the OT god, kill 4,000 innocents to punish the guilty, but I don't buy it.
So because two people who love eac hother wish to have their relationship given equal status under the law God removed some protective blanket and allowed terrorists to attack US soil for the first time. So, responsibility for the attacks is in no way connected to the millions of dollars and extensive training in explosives and guerrila warfare given to Al-Queda by good Christians in our own governenment to stop the evil satanic USSR from holding Afghanistan? (I am not a conspiracist, but I do believe that many cold-war policies are coming home to bite our asses).
And this absolutely meaningless point about declining morality in modern times. At the very least it is extremely Anglocentric. These changes Christians like to talk about concern only a small fraction of the world's population. Outside of that the entire idea is without support. The idyllic times people like to reminisce about simply never happened. This idea that for 200 years the United States was a unified Christain utopia is completely BS (I have this argument with a family member quite often).
150 years ago I could own another human being. I could torture, beat, even kill that human being with little or no consequence. I would face stronger penalties for beating my horse. My neighbor, who didn't believe in owning human beings, had to keep his mouth shut lest me and my friends string him up before going to church. This system was enforced by law. Many church leaders spoke of the great immorality of abolitionism (I am not ignoring the incredible and brave church leaders in the abolition movement). These same denominational leaders are making the same threats about gay rights.
So maybe you strongly disagree with this, Lysimachus, but would consider myself to be a thousandfold more moral human being supporting a society where homosexuals have the right to marry than to live in a society where 20% of the population were legally less than animals.
As for the other areas of declining morality (these are arguments countering my relative):
abortion: considered in the 1890's to be a protestant woman's right in opposition to Catholicism
drug use: cocaine, morphine and heroin addictions were rampant in the early part of the 20th century
crime: inner-city gangs and crime were a major problem in the 1920's. Chicago murder capitol of the world.
homosexuality: rate today same as estimated by Havelock Ellis in the 1930's. 1910-1920's saw the first US rise in 'lesbian and gay chic' with silent film stars all but openly admitting homosexual dalliances.
pornography: I personally own a collection of Victorian era to 1920's erotic literature that takes up two 1.5 meter bookshelves and I own a fraction of what is out there. What are "blue-movies" and "stag-films"?
So, by the standards of Christianity it would appear that the first decades of the 20th century were as bad if not worse (remember, they had Jim Crow laws)
by supposed Christian standards. I am, of course, refering to literalists and the like. I believe that most Christians aren't waiting for fire and brimstone to rain from the sky.
And while I'm on my soapbox, I want to point out my frustration about treating 9/11 as if it were one of the first terrorist attacks (admittedly the largest and most devastating). For most of the last century it was commonplace for African-American churches in the south to be bombed, burned, or otherwise destroyed. The goal was to make the black popualtion afraid to leave their homes, maybe even to leave altogether. Isn't that terrorism? Pipe bomb in a free-clinic? Attempting to use terror to keep people from frequenting such clinics. Just seems to me that terror is terror, whether it be from overseas or domestic.
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