Dear Mr. Bush: It's Time For You To Stand Up Against America's Moral Bankruptcy

By Michael H. Brown

Mr. Bush, hasn't there been enough? Haven't we seen the complete collapse of a culture? Isn't it time you said something?

Or really, that you said a lot of things?

We voted for you -- and urged others to do the same -- because we believed that you would begin to morally turn things around. For years, for decades, since the 1960s, when Satan took roost, the culture has been on a downward spiral. But nothing like today. Internet pornography. Vile rap music. Coarse language everywhere -- on every other bumper sticker. Profane radio language. Howard Stern is okay? Salacious ads. Viagara in the e-mail. Movies that are consistently over the top -- way, way over the top. Celebrities who look as if they got dressed in Babylon. Blasphemous art -- some funded by the federal government. And kids piercing themselves and painting themselves and celebrating what can only be called the Age of Decadence.

We find it hard to believe that at the same time the Ten Commandments are banned from public, we are forced to pass the kind of billboards that line our roads, nor can we believe that  the Federal Communications Commission has okayed certain uses of the f-word.

That's an outrage. So is the incredible spectacle of Marilyn Manson -- this man who is an actual priest in the Church of Satan performing publicly and often in a way that would have made Lenny Bruce blush.

In fact, there isn't a comedian around who is as tame as Bruce -- even on late-night talk shows.

Yes, we know, Mr. Bush: That was going on before you came into office; we also know you are a well-meaning, Christian man.

But with all due respect, please consider that it's time for you to more clearly demonstrate your faith. It's not enough to allude to your conversion. In our opinion -- and again forgive our boldness -- you have to put it into operation. It's why millions voted for you.

Yet, except for the "war on terror," we hear virtually nothing from you.

An obscene culture is another form of terrorism, Mr. President -- one that in many ways may be even more devastating. We have not seen you use the bully pulpit to take off after Hollywood or soap operas or the shock-jocks who are filling the ears of our children with obscenity and hatred, ruining another generation.

Then there's abortion. Millions of babies have been killed since you took office, Mr. President -- far, far more than died in 9/11. To our great dismay, you recently said that our culture is not ready to get rid of all abortion.

Mr. Bush: it is our task, and especially your task, to make it moral, to make it ready. And we can start with the world of entertainment.

Surely, you watched some of the Super Bowl. All you had to do was view it for a few minutes to know that it was full of vulgarity. It wasn't just that half-time show. Yes, that put it all in the ozone; that was the final straw. But the commercials reflected a society that has lost most signs of moral bearing. There were commercials showing the flatulence of a horse. There was a kid uttering foul language. And that half-time show: there was not just the baring of Janet Jackson's anatomy (as if her family isn't in the news enough lately) but also simulated lesbian sex and gyrating transvestites and another performer grabbing himself suggestively.

At least, that's what we hear in the reports; fortunately, we shut off the TV before half time.

But we saw our share and we wonder: This is the United States? This is the country "under God"? This is the nation that Patrick Henry said was founded "on the Gospel of Jesus Christ"?

America the beautiful -- or America the decadent?

Forgive our stridency. But the situation is out of control. Lewdness and rudeness and scatological language are all over the place -- as the cliche goes, "24/7." You can't get away from the supermarket magazines, or when Britney Spears kisses another woman, Madonna, on national TV, or the talk-show hosts who inspired a couple to have sex in St. Patrick's Cathedral!

Mr. Bush, the struggle against terrorism is important, but it's about time you start talking about something other than Saddam Hussein. In fact, with all due respect, perhaps, as we mentioned before, you should have listened to the Pope to begin with. Perhaps you should listen to him now. He has been strenuously objecting to the morality of the West -- saying that unfettered capitalism, that bald-faced consumerism -- as exhibited Sunday -- is a dangerous as Communism.

It's about time that we talk less about the economy -- about material wealth -- and more about the state of our morality.

What occurred during the Super Bowl was far beyond the pale. No doubt you'll say something about that. But we need much more. We need it at a time when a record producer is on trial for murder. We need it when a basketball star is on trial for alleged rape. We need to hear a moral voice at a time when Janet's brother is facing trial for pedophilia. We need someone to speak about God -- the God upon which this nation is based -- at a time when thousands of scientists, many under federal employ, or in our state universities -- deny Him and have created a society that has lost its sense of self respect.

They are even dismantling Christmas. They are taking God out of everything. What have you to say, Mr. President? Isn't there something you can add? A few words from the Oval Office? They can have a monumental effect. Go after it, Mr. Bush. It is Christians who put you into office. We don't need any more images of bloody combat. We don't need any more executions of Timothy McVeighs. We don't need any more playing cards with the faces of those we are hunting down in Iraq.

What we need is respect and love for each other and that doesn't take a politician; that takes a leader -- a leader like George Washington, who once said, "The favorable smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained."

Feb 2004