I suspect the churches were beginning to feel their increasing irrelevance caused by a high volume of fall-aways and the fact that the New Deal and the GI Bill were doing what the churches could not. In order to maintain their status they became intermediaries not just between a person and his God, but between a person and his government, with churches asserting themselves as the new power brokers. Case in point: There was little talk of abortion or any specific social ills until the second half of the last century, the period in which culture wars snowballed. (After the war, the Pope himself was beginning to look fallible because of his failures during the war.)
Likely a big factor, I read that Nixon decided to stir things up about 1971 as a way to politicize the religious aspect. Piss on the medical issues, as well as privacy. Deliberate evil
Chipped away, bit by bit by the robber barons and the racists. Same team as today. Religion signed on later, well, sort of
I suspect the churches were beginning to feel their increasing irrelevance caused by a high volume of fall-aways and the fact that the New Deal and the GI Bill were doing what the churches could not. In order to maintain their status they became intermediaries not just between a person and his God, but between a person and his government, with churches asserting themselves as the new power brokers. Case in point: There was little talk of abortion or any specific social ills until the second half of the last century, the period in which culture wars snowballed. (After the war, the Pope himself was beginning to look fallible because of his failures during the war.)
Likely a big factor, I read that Nixon decided to stir things up about 1971 as a way to politicize the religious aspect. Piss on the medical issues, as well as privacy. Deliberate evil