"A nation's morality used to be measured by its civic virtue - how society treated its citizens, whether justice and fairness prevailed, whether people were free to pursue happiness in their own way, and whether it was safe to be different from the majority. [Based on that definition of morality], the '50s were a time of moral depravity. The notion that we are a less moral nation today than we were in the '50s is a monument to historical revisionism." - ACLU leader Ira Glasser (quoted in Youthworker Update, Jan 1996)

"While religious pluralism may be a novel experience for us, it is putting us in touch with the world that surrounded the biblical authors...The pluralism and the paganism of our time were the common experience of the prophets and apostles. In Mesopotamia, there were thousands of gods and goddesses, many of which were known to the Israelites--indeed, sometimes known too well... Nothing, therefore, could be more remarkable than to hear the contention, even from those within the Church, that the existence of religious pluralism today makes belief in the uniqueness of Christianity quite impossible. Had this been the necessary consequence of encountering a multitude of other religions, Moses, Isaiah, Jesus, and Paul would have given up biblical faith long before it became fashionable...to do so." - David Wells in No Place for Truth, or Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology?

"To know and to serve God, of course, is why we're here, a clear truth that, like the nose on your face, is near at hand and easily discernible but can make you dizzy if you try to focus on it hard. But a little faith will see you through. What else will do except faith in such a cynical, corrupt time? When the country goes temporarily to the dogs, cats must learn to be circumspect, walk on fences, sleep in trees, and have faith that all this woofing is not the last word." - Garrison Keillor in We Are Still Married

"This manipulation of reality may provide us with exciting games, entertainment, but it will substitute not a virtual reality, but a pseudo-reality, so subtly deceptive, as to raise the levels of public suspicion and disbelief beyond what any society can tolerate." - Alvin Toffler, futurist author discussing virtual-reality video games. Bloomburg Business News, Aug. 7, 1994

"Western culture has made a fundamental change in its religious base. We have exchanged that One who said, 'I am the Truth' (John 14:6) for the incredibly expensive doctrine of Freud and the words of all his varied disciples. Our new religion says with Pontius Pilate, 'What is truth?' and teaches that our status is one of 'original victim' rather than 'original sin.'" - Carol Tharp in a letter to the Chicago Tribune Magazine (Apr. 17, 1994)

"Recently, there's been a trend in America that I find very disturbing... rewarding immoral and illegal behavior... for example, we now give free needles to junkies, which seems to me to be only a step away from giving condoms to rapists. "- Bill Maher quoted in Books & Culture, Nov./Dec. 1996

"Schools do more damage than good when they address only the secular elements of religious holidays. This trivializes religion, withholding important learning, while blinking the message that religion is dangerous and divisive. Public schools don't exist to promote religion, but they don't exist to marginalize it either, or to promote secularism as a dominant religion... Religion is an important social force. Marginalizing it or banning neutral instruction about it from the schools is not a neutral act." - John Leo in U.S. News & World Report, Dec. 30, 1996

"It is no accident that the values and virtues that were once commonplace in America began to disappear with the explosion of government over the past 40 years. As government has become more dominant, providing programs to meet every need, the social safety net has become a hammock. As individuals have turned to government for help, they have turned away from sources of real solutions: family, work, and faith." - Phil Gramm and Gary Bauer (In Wall Street Journal, Aug. 30, 1995)

"We're happy to give our audience what they enjoy. Self-righteous nobility is extraordinarily unappealing. I will have none of it." - UPN President and CEO Dean Valentine explaining why his network has un-apologetically chosen to air some of the trashiest programs on television today (EW Daily, 12/14/00)

"As soon as television was possible, everyone was watching it, and people would have be influenced by it, either positively or negatively." - Actor Alan Alda on the power of TV

"The studio kept saying it was going to get guys after football, drinking beer. But I kept telling them that I have a female following too. That it wasn't just prisoners and firemen. It was 12-year-old girls." - Actress Pamela Lee, referring to her syndicated television show, V.I.P., and its reliance on sex appeal to lure viewers

"If you're putting stuff in your brain every day about killing this person, or for that matter, just disrespecting somebody...somehow that's going to influence you." - reformed frat rapper Mike D of the popular 90s music group Beastie Boys

"In my case, it was hard living, drinking hard and eating poorly. You play, you pay." - Actor Matthew Perry

"Half the business called Hollywood is sleaze. A lot of what we do has very little to do with art. It has to do with sleaze and gratuitous sex and unnecessary violence." - Actor Martin Sheen

"You can bury my TV. There's nothing watch - just bad things and naked people." - an elderly Moscow woman after an antenna fire disrupted television broadcasting in the Russian capital

"Some say the music is loud, stupid, excessive, vulgar, and appeals to the basic animal instinct. That's why we play it." - MTV promotional advertisement (quoted in Parental Guidance, Apr. 15, 1995)

"The Marine Corps is finding out that families, churches, and schools are falling down on the job of teaching your people morals. So they're adding an entire week to boot camp, time that will be devoted to teaching values and ethics." - Insight, Aug. 5, 1996

"We should not expect those outside the household of God to adopt every position firmly rooted in Scripture and the Judeo-Christian tradition. 'By our activism, often poorly conceived, we have created an image of rigid, prejudiced people. More and more Americans will feel entirely justified and respectable saying no to the church. They may not be rejecting Jesus, just the people who profess to follow Him. Abortion and homosexuality are unquestionably wrong. But these are not the core issues of the faith. Let's make the main thing the main thing: raising up Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior of sinners.'" - David Rambo, president of the Christian and Missionary Alliance (quoted in Leadership, Spr 1993)

"The video tape of history seems stuck on fast rewind - as our post-Christian era comes to resemble the pre-Christian era: Material affluence amid moral decadence...in a time of despondency and despair over the hubristic follies of our own republic, Christ's road remains open. We had the truth, we can find it again." - Patrick Buchanan in the Washington Times (April 11, 1993)

"The nineties may soon be the new sixties. However, whereas those who were part of the sixties generation had the older traditional values as an anchor (even while they rejected them), those of the nineties have no such value system to which they can retreat. The only thing left is hedonism. But it's not a hedonism anchored in 'secular humanism' or secularism. It is a hedonism anchored in a new form of paganism." - John Whitehead, Rutherford, January 1993

Culture Wars