Here is where I see us as a nation. There is a divide between those who are older and remember what they were taught by parents and grandparents about fidelity, virtue and character and those who are part of, or descended from, the 60s generation where free love, cohabitation, drugs and hating America were in vogue.
When political candidates talk of those days and those virtues, their words mostly fall on deaf ears. That's because the current generation has nothing to which they can relate. So many come from divorced parents, some of whom lived the 60s lifestyle and have little influence over their children and now grandchildren. When you divorce, for example, you have little moral power if you speak of marriage.
The children of divorce have suffered so much pain in so many instances that many of them don't want to marry. They fear they might suffer similar pain, or cause others to suffer.
So when Republican presidential candidates speak of morality, more than half the country doesn't understand the language. What's the answer? Revival. But that will require more preachers speaking truth ... and a movement of the Holy Spirit.
I'm Cal Thomas in Washington.
Publication date: February 27, 2012
