Values of 60s pass on in changing America

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33452, 6 February 1974, Page 14

Values of 60s pass on in changing America

By

ALAN WALKER)

America is strikingly different today from, say, five years ago. The national locus has changed. Watergate has replaced Vietnam as the national obsession. The race struggle has entered a new phase, with attention turning to specific problems and local issues. Confronted by Vietnam. Watergate and now the Arabs and the energy crisis. America is in a less confident and more chastened mood. It is changing direction, and it is not yet clear what its new goals will he.

America is a society of; astonishing vitality and complexity. Problems are daunting in their immensity. The society, because of its size, seems at times to be breaking down under its own weight. • The pressure and pace oi American life imposes great i strain on the mental and emotional structure of the people. People look and are constantly weary. Nervous; and emotional break-downs are the scourge of the land .Family life is suffering previously because of the lifestyle that has developed. One of the most unpleasant features of America isthat life never stops. Busi-i ness houses trade for ab-' surdely long hours; garages boast “we never shut.”! Shirts and ties can be bought in New York at 2 a m., while movie shows run till dawn. Las Vegas calls itself the city that never sleeps. with restaurants offering “breakfast all day.” Holidays are never fully ob-i served, so society never' seems to pause. Sunday as a rest day is disappearing, with super- [ markets and department! stores open all day. I could : imagine few worse developments in New Zealand’ than seeing for money’s sake, the erosion of common leisure periods and the loss of the Christian Sunday as a corporate rest day, with its opportunity for family worship. 1 found many people; almost welcoming America's! energy crisis. They saw! gains in a slowing of the ; pace of life and a turning to local rather than distant ac-j tivities. Perhaps, some ar - gued, the quality rather than; the quantity of life and experience might get a chance. Under compulsion people; might rediscover the joys of interior living and the building of depth relationships with families and neigh- 1 hours. The end of easy affluence could be the begin-; ning of truer living. CHANGES IN YOUTH Nowhere are changes more apparent than among the youth of the land. The protest era. I think, somewhat regrettably, is over. All is surprisingly quiet in colleges and universities, lhe drug culture is declin-' mg. the hippies have almost disappeared from the streets, and sexual promiscuity is I proving less attractive as a lifestyle. A new generation gap has appeared It is between the older and younger youth. High School young people are rejecting the values — or absence of values — of the sixties. A recent national survey: of people under 17 years old revealed new patterns of thought and behaviour: 94 per cent said relations witn parents were satisfactory, 69, per cent describing them as “happy and close.” 72 per cent had never smoked mari-j .luana; 90 per cent com-; pletely rejected hard drugs; 83 per cent supported “tradi-| tional marriage.” JESUS MOVEMENT The “Jesus movement”! among young people has be-;

come less visible. Car stickers like “Honk if you love Jesus.” "God’s forever fam-

ily.” and “Jesus is Coming” are infrequent now. Newspapers like the "Hollywood ' Free Paper”, once with a million circulation, have disappeared. The “Jesus ' People” have moved back into the churches, or set up their own. An illustration of the J change is seen at Holly- 1 wood. No longer do young ] people throng the Sunset i< Strip. The First Hollywood ' Presbyterian Church has • been forced to close its 1 famous Salt Company Coffee ; Shop and no longer has its:] team working among the: drug addicts on the Strip. It 1 has opened a more con-|i ventional coffee shop opposite the local high school. Youth, in other words, isj following a more traditional way of life, showing a i heightened interest in educa- 1 tion and careers. The “drop I outs" are “dropping in". : There is peril in conformity, in the substitution of per- 1 sonal goals for social con- 1 cern. but a pathological 1 period of false values is 1 passing. I MORAL CHANGES • A change is appearing in , the moral climate of Amer-!’ ica. In the easy-going atmos-; phere of the sixties moral., permissiveness flourished. f Now, as the cost of per- . missivennss is beginning to mount, new attitudes are I emerging. Moral permissiveness is 1 far more developed in Amer- r ica than in Australia and New Zealand. Pornography 1 has taken over whole area's ' in cities like New York and 1 San Francisco, turning ' places like Times Square ' into sleasy displays of which ■ the cities are ashamed. ’ Wife-swapping, group sex. 1 adultery are paraded with ’ few inhibitions. Marriage is under attack, with com- i mitment as in wedding vows I

almost becoming a dirty word. Many in America accepted the fallacy that pornography. the soaking of the mind in sexual images, had no ill effects and could even be a valuable therapy. Moral authority, anything approaching self-discipline, became suspect, until in the new age or moral relativism, to want something was sufficient reason for doing it. Now the consequences of an era of moral blindness and confusion are appearing. In the last year rape cases have increas'ed by 50 per cent in both California and Michigan. Violence has

1 turned parts of cities into jungles. There are no worship services or youth activities in New’ York churches on Sunday night: two minis- ’ ;ters told me they could no .; longer accept responsibility [■for encouraging people to ' I enter the centre of the city [ after dark. WATERGATE SHOCKS And Watergate has happened. To many it appears i as the climax of an era of , moral permissiveness. When there are no moral or religious sanctions, when any ; end justifies any means, a Watergate is the end result. It continues profoundly to shock the nation. Hence a change is occurring. In San Francisco, where

topless and bottomless waitresses first appeared in restaurants and night-clubs, new restrictions are in operation, and numbers of places have been closed. | Last year the Supreme' Court gave its first anti-per-missive ruling. It gave to; states and local, areas the right to reject films which were found offensive. As a[ result, film producers who! require national outlets are; becoming more sensitive to community standards across; the country. While small as yet, I believe the swing against! moral relativism has begun.! It provides further evidence' of the social changes at! work in America. CHURCH STRONG The Christian Church there is strong, numerically much stronger than in Australia and New Zealand. In the early sixties 63 per cent of the people were in membership with one or other of the churches. Now. it has dropped to 60 per cent and people speak of a spiritual .recession. Yet it! must not be forgotten that in the year 1900 only 20 per cent were linked to the Christian church. Over the; last half-century the Church has undoubtedly strengthened its influence in the life of the nation. There is no religious recession in America. New life is appearing on the religious scene, through the so-called Charismatic Movement. This movement, emphasising the doctrine of the holy spirit, is found in ail the churches, Protestant and Roman Catholic. As Professor Albert Outler said, recently: “The Charismatic! Movement is the liveliest 1 sign of another spiritual, awakening in our contempo-! rary religious situation”. 1

■ Since now the movement is • shedding some of its earlier , extremism, I would echo ■ this judgment. > The chief peril facing the I churches is their conformity !to American culture. With huge budgets and vast properties. many find it hard to “ be prophetic. The New Testament’s warning that salt, 11 when it loses its distinctive ‘ flavour is useless, is very i relevant to the church scene i there. > In theological thought the [way ahead is unclear. Noth- •■[ ing could be more dead than : the “death of God” theology. • However not one new school : of thought has obviously t taken its place. Process theology, centred: around the names of Dr. , John Colb and Dr Shubert Ogden, is gaining increasing . attention. By emphasising the presence of God within -;creation and history it seeks! i a closer link between theo- • logical and modern scientific! . and philosophic thought. Perhaps even more signi- [ ficant is liberation theology Important books are appear-' [ ing from theologians, within ■ the more depressed areas of .[the world. A South Ameri- ! can Roman Catholic theo-i t logian, Gustava Gutierez,; . and a black professor in! , New York, James H. Cove, 1 ' are two men to whom the . affluent West must listen.. Liberation theology is something no Christian will be r [ able to ignore in the years' . ahead. , America then stands at! ’ the cross-roads. It is caught .up in the processes of I : change in many aspects of ■ its culture. The direction it [will take is of immense im-‘ yportance to people every-. ‘where, for America has not I‘lost its power mightily to ! influence the thinking and . the affairs of the world.

The Rev. Alan Walker has recently returned from three months in America, i where he was visiting professor of evangelism at the Claremont School of Theology in California. Mr Walker is superintendent ; of the Sydney Central Methodist Mission.