Divorce and unwed pregnancy were hush-hush disgraces. It was a crime in some states to sell condoms, even to married couples. Today, that era seems as unreal as the Civil War. It slipped away, but most of us were too busy to see it leaving. Nobody can answer with certainty.
Social tides are hard to chart.
Although the Christian Coalition still can marshal millions of evangelicals for Republican candidates, and the Promise Keepers can fill arenas, I think the brightest Americans steadily are losing confidence in magic. Hardly anyone today, as I said, trusts prayer to cure diseases. In fact, American society is so unanimous on this point that prayer-only parents who let their children die without medical care are prosecuted. Since there's no magical god, he concludes, there likewise is no divine, resurrected, invisible redeemer. Another new book, The Meaning of Jesus , contrasts the views of two Episcopal thinkers.