Why Christians Whistle by a Graveyard

I hear it everywhere: Is it over? Do we still have time? When prospective candidates are parading their virtues and inadvertently showing their faults, when every big city has its incoherent "occupy" crowd, when incomes are falling and budgets rising, what kind of future does the USA have?

This month's Commentary magazine features a symposium of 41 "thinkers and writers," mostly right-of-center, who were asked, "Are you optimistic or pessimistic about America?" Writing the anchor piece for optimism is John Podhoretz, a grandson of socialists, whose father Norman gravitated from left to right. In the pessimist corner is Mark Steyn, transplanted Canadian, who kept our own Marvin Olasky up too late one night with his latest book, After America (see WORLD, Oct. 8). It took a whole book to get Marvin depressed; I managed in a 10-minute article.