Athens and Jerusalem Revisited

Images of devastated parents burying their little sons and daughters, senselessly murdered in their classrooms, have stunned the nation. How could a teenager raised in an ordinary Texas town perpetrate such unspeakable crimes? Wall Street Journal editors blame "the rise of family dysfunction and the decline of mediating institutions such as churches and social clubs." This assessment is confirmed by survey data. "No matter how researchers measure people's faith -- such as attendance, giving, self-identification," reports the Washington Post, "Americans' attachment to institutional religion is on the decline." For the first time in eight decades, church membership has sunk below 50%. America seems morally rudderless.