What do Christians Mean by "Restoe our Nation?"

[TrueChristian]

Probably mean to restore it to the days of the "Glorious Ronald Reagen."

[athrock]

Probably mean to restore it to the days of the "Glorious Ronald Reagen."

In 1980, Reagan won 44 States and 489 electoral votes to Carter's six and 49.
In 1984, Reagan won 49 states and 525 electoral votes to Mondale's one and 15.

This happened for a reason.

[brewer]

OP: He wanted to go back to the fantasy days of post WWII and up through the 50's that TV gave him. To much Andy Griffith, Leave it to Beaver, Father Knows Best, Happy Days, I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners, ..................

Appears that Athrock does also.

[GodCherry]

I heard a Christian man prying over lunch. I didn’t hear everything he said,     but he started asking god about stuff that had little to do with food.  I made out something about “Lord help them restore this great nation.” I missed who “them” is.

It struck me as odd because it sounds like the same thing the tea baggers say when they talk about taking the nation back. Take it back from where? Restore it from what to wheat?

I know they’re not talking about police brutality, fascism, political corruption, poverty, social inequality or capital graft. They never had a problem with these things before.

So what are they talking about?

Oh, gee, I dunno...maybe they want to see our nation restored


To when kids said, "Yes, ma'am" and "Yes, sir" and showed respect to anyone over 21. 

To when drugs were something prescribed by a doctor. 

To a time when couples waited until they were married before they had sex. 

To a time when couples got married before living together.

To when kids might sneak a drink of alcohol but not enough that their parents would notice. 

To when cars had fins. 

To when becoming an Eagle Scout was something that got your name in the paper.

To when making straight A's was something to be proud of instead of something to hide to avoid being ostracized.

To when everyone who had a gun used it for hunting and not for protection.

To when you didn't know anyone whose parents were divorced. 

To when you didn't mind being home by dark because all your friends had a curfew, too. 

To when you knew all your neighbors and offered to get the mail and the paper for them when they went on vacation. 

To when fishing with Grandpa meant hearing about "the Big One." 

To when a covered dish supper at the church was something everyone looked forward to. 

To when you could listen to the hottest new music on your radio with your grandmother in the car and not get embarrassed by the lyrics. 

To when you could actually understand all the words of all the songs. 

To when the best bands all had "and his orchestra" in their name. 

To when someone could talk about "Our Gang" and they meant Alfalfa, Spanky and Buckwheat and not the Bloods or the Crips.

To when there wasn't anything nostalgic about a Norman Rockwell painting because your hometown and everyone you knew looked just like that. 

To when you knew what your friends were watching on TV because everyone home was watching the same show. 

To when the Tonight Show had guests like Frank, Dean, and Sammy and you didn't need to wonder what their last names were. 

To when you knew the answer to the question, "Hey kids, what time is it?"

Response to the things you posted:

I teach my children to respect all people, including adults, but I also teach them to question authority.  I don't want my kids trusting completely in anyone.  Some adults are dangerous.


There was never a time when adults waited for marriage to have sex and a lot of people are choosing not to get married at all these days because marriage doesn't work for everyone.

Divorce is a very good remedy for a bad marriage.  I think the biggest tragedy was with women were forced to stay in bad, miserable and abusive marriages due to financial subservience.

Both of my female children get/got straight As.  My eldest works now in a STEM field...my youngest will be going to university soon in a STEM field.  They are highly proud of their accomplishments and their intelligence.  I don't know any highly intelligent kid who isn't proud of getting good grades.

Modern music....some of its great...some of it isn't.  Nothing has changed.  I understand a lot of music on the radio...there are some very talented young people around.

I really enjoy the variety on TV.  I don't want to watch the same thing as everyone else.  I don't want to do anything the same as everyone else.

Bottom Line:

Your version of past reality doesn't address all reason that the past didn't work for a large majority of people.  Namely women, minorities, homosexuals, other belief systems, etc.

You have a nostalgic view of a past that actually never really existed.  

When members of my family remember "the past" they remember a time when my black father, who fought and died for his country in Vietnam, couldn't even get a hotel room with my mother...the woman he was married to....because she was white.  He had to sleep in the car while he was on leave.  My eldest brother still remembers when, after my father got killed, my mother tried to look for a home in a burb and the real estate agent told my brother (who was 6 at the time) that dark kids would never be living in that neighborhood.

I know older women who remember a time when women didn't have the power to exercise their most basic reproductive rights and had zero power to request fair pay for fair work.

I know older homosexuals who remember a time when they were persecuted just because they loved someone.

To me, your version of the past is fake and the reality is that it was a dark, dismal time for many people.  

There's a lot of things that I don't like about the present but I would NEVER want to go back to where we were before.  What it wish for is more progress towards treating everyone better...not a time when a certain group of people enjoyed privileges at the expense of others.

[drfuzzy]

Well, according to the way I was raised, and to some fundamentalist friends who still talk to me now (ha) it simply means to return the nation to a time when it was almost entirely Protestant Christian.  A lot of folks still believe that the US was founded as a Christian nation.  They want a time when "god's laws" and "the laws of the land" are the same.   (They never were, but never mind that.)  Mostly, though, they're angry because the church has lost power and control and influence over the lives of everyday citizens, and they want it BACK.

[abaris]

OP: He wanted to go back to the fantasy days of post WWII and up through the 50's that TV gave him.

And doesn't notice that muck brushed under the carpet is still there. It's only removed from view. That's the first half of the century in a nutshell.

[brewer]

OP: He wanted to go back to the fantasy days of post WWII and up through the 50's that TV gave him.

And doesn't notice that muck brushed under the carpet is still there. It's only removed from view. That's the first half of the century in a nutshell.

Bold Mine.

And that's what makes America Great!

[Minimalist]

Actually what they want are for the niggers to go to the back of the bus like the good old days.

[GodCherry]

Well, according to the way I was raised, and to some fundamentalist friends who still talk to me now (ha) it simply means to return the nation to a time when it was almost entirely Protestant Christian.  A lot of folks still believe that the US was founded as a Christian nation.  They want a time when "god's laws" and "the laws of the land" are the same.   (They never were, but never mind that.)  Mostly, though, they're angry because the church has lost power and control and influence over the lives of everyday citizens, and they want it BACK.

It wasn't real in the first place and it isn't going to happen.

I actually am highly amused to watch the evangelistic right turning off most of the voting block because they're too stupid to catch on to the changing demographics of the country.

And yet again, they're about to find out what happens when you piss off most of the major voting constituency.  I actually started cracking up watching Trump bitching about Hispanics.  That the christian right thinks they can win an election without Hispanics is actually hilarious.  Gerrymandering and trying to suppress minority voting rights only goes so far.

The christian right is increasingly becoming a joke.

[athrock]

Response to the things you posted:

I teach my children to respect all people, including adults, but I also teach them to question authority.  I don't want my kids trusting completely in anyone.  Some adults are dangerous.


There was never a time when adults waited for marriage to have sex and a lot of people are choosing not to get married at all these days because marriage doesn't work for everyone.

Divorce is a very good remedy for a bad marriage.  I think the biggest tragedy was with women were forced to stay in bad, miserable and abusive marriages due to financial subservience.

Both of my female children get/got straight As.  My eldest works now in a STEM field...my youngest will be going to university soon in a STEM field.  They are highly proud of their accomplishments and their intelligence.  I don't know any highly intelligent kid who isn't proud of getting good grades.

Modern music....some of its great...some of it isn't.  Nothing has changed.  I understand a lot of music on the radio...there are some very talented young people around.

I really enjoy the variety on TV.  I don't want to watch the same thing as everyone else.  I don't want to do anything the same as everyone else.

Bottom Line:

Your version of past reality doesn't address all reason that the past didn't work for a large majority of people.  Namely women, minorities, homosexuals, other belief systems, etc.

You have a nostalgic view of a past that actually never really existed.  

When members of my family remember "the past" they remember a time when my black father, who fought and died for his country in Vietnam, couldn't even get a hotel room with my mother...the woman he was married to....because she was white.  He had to sleep in the car while he was on leave.  My eldest brother still remembers when, after my father got killed, my mother tried to look for a home in a burb and the real estate agent told my brother (who was 6 at the time) that dark kids would never be living in that neighborhood.

I know older women who remember a time when women didn't have the power to exercise their most basic reproductive rights and had zero power to request fair pay for fair work.

I know older homosexuals who remember a time when they were persecuted just because they loved someone.

To me, your version of the past is fake and the reality is that it was a dark, dismal time for many people.  

There's a lot of things that I don't like about the present but I would NEVER want to go back to where we were before.  What it wish for is more progress towards treating everyone better...not a time when a certain group of people enjoyed privileges at the expense of others.

I cannot agree with some of what you wrote (abortion on demand is NOT healthcare, for example), but most if not all of what I wrote could be desirable to anyone regardless of race, color, ethnic origin, religion, age, sex or sexual orientation. 

I'm an equal opportunity poster.