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home / Religion
Heavenly Views
Rev. Steve Foss
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
There were no cell phones, no iPods, no Walkmans, no computers, no video games, no video rentals for that matter… in 1969. The Bernstein Bears were popular reads for elementary students: Bears on Wheels was published that year; so were some other notable titles: Puzo’s The Godfather, Norman Mailer’s The Armies of the Night (his treatise of history in novel format), Levy’s Pulitzer Prize winning Origins of the Fifth Amendment, and Beckett’s Nobel Prize winner, Waiting for Godot were all published that year.
SuperBowl III saw one of the greatest upsets in NFL history when Joe Namath and the New York Jets beat Don Shula’s Baltimore Colts 16 to 7. Roman Gabriel won honors for NFL - MVP of the year, and Dick Butkus won for Defensive Player of the Year. The number one draft choice for ‘69 was from the University of Southern California. His name: O.J. Simpson. Mario Andretti won at least two races that year; New York beat Baltimore in the World Series by a score of 4 to 1. The National League batting champion was Pete Rose. The first round NBA draft pick was Lew Alcindor (AKA: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). Rod Laver and Margaret Smith Court dominated on the tennis courts that year.
In 1969, the average price for a new house was $40,000; a new car about $2,000; gas for that car averaged $0.32 a gallon; a gallon of milk, though, cost a buck-ten; a dozen eggs, $0.62; a loaf of bread, 23 cents. Minimum wage was $1.60 per hour, an increase from $1.45 per hour that I made during my first job a year earlier.
It was a banner year for liberal Hollywood, producing hits like: “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid;” “The Wild Bunch;” “Hello Dolly;” “Bob and Carol, Ted and Alice.” But the best picture Oscar went to “Midnight Cowboy,” the only time an x-rated movie has ever done so. The most popular TV shows were: “The Ed Sullivan Show,” “Bonanza,” “The Andy Williams Show,” “Star Trek,” “The Beverly Hillbillies,” “Bewitched,” “Hogan’s Heroes,” “Gunsmoke,” “The Big Valley,” “Hee-Haw,” ”Laugh-In,” “I Dream of Jeannie,” “Green Acres,” “Gomer Pyle,” “Get Smart,” “Mission Impossible,” “The Brady Bunch,” and “Love American Style.”
The war in Vietnam paired with the assassinations of both Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. had our nation in a vice-grip of prejudice and anger that had exploded just months before in the riots of ’68. On January 20th, Richard Nixon was inaugurated president and announced the beginning of troop withdrawal from Vietnam. He signed a presidential order banning the use of chemical and biological weapons. Meanwhile, Yasser Arafat became president of the PLO on February 7, and Golda Meir became the Prime Minister of Israel just a month later. Our country’s 34th president died that March. French President Charles de Gaulle resigned from office in April of that year after voters rejected his governmental reforms. The Boeing 747 jet and the now-defunct supersonic Concorde jet made their maiden flights in the spring of ‘69.
Construction of Disney World in Orlando, Florida began on May 27. On July 18th a drunken Senator Ted Kennedy drove his car off the Chappaquiddick Bridge with a female companion who did not survive the crash. Two days later, on July 20th, Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon, stating those memorable words: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” The giant leap didn’t last long when the nation was stunned by the Charles Manson murders in California a month later.
The Woodstock Music Festival made yet another niche in the notable liberal days of that year. From August 15-18 in upstate New York there were unhindered episodes of rain, sex, rock-n-roll, and recreational drugs. The top three selling songs of that year were (in order, one to three): The Archies’ “Sugar Sugar;” The Fifth Dimension’s “Aquarius;” and the Beatles’ “Something.” The top five rock songs were: Led Zepplin’s “Whole Lotta Love;” CCR’s “Proud Mary;” Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back;” Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk Woman;” and CCR’s “Bad Moon Rising.” Billboard’s top five were: “Aquarius;” “Sugar Sugar;” “I Can’t Get Next to You” (The Temptations); “Honky Tonk Woman;” and “Build Me Up Buttercup” (The Foundations).
School desegregation was another huge issue of the time, with school districts across the country feeling the stress of two divergent cultures clashing after two hundred years of suppression. Ironically, the racially mixed cast of “Sesame Street” debuted on national public television, helping change the attitudes about children’s learning capabilities while identifying social and cultural prejudices and biases.
It’s been said that if one can remember those days, they weren’t really there. That may be true, but the real story is found in asking, ‘What have we learned from our past?’ Want to know why America is in the mess it’s in? This era of liberality nurtured the minds of our leaders today who are hungry for self-gratification and satisfaction at the cost of others. From politicians and sports superstars who got away with murder to Wall Street execs who are making off with millions, we are a nation in desperate need of reform. We must begin to question what it is about our culture and ourselves that is leading to this ruin. If we do not, it will be just as the noted historian Francis A. Schaeffer predicted for our historical outcome… mirroring that of the Greco-Roman empire that collapsed from within because of the corruption, arrogance, and hedonism.
There is another way. In the Bible, the writer of Proverbs characterizes Wisdom standing at the city gates entreating those lured by the world’s ways to come aside and learn her ways (Proverbs 8:4-11). The invitation ends with verse thirty-six: “But whoever finds me finds life and receives favor from the Lord.” I’m praying for us to seek the better way; the higher route; the nobler path. The views from this higher path are astounding… heavenly.
Rev. Foss is Senior Pastor of Mountain View Community Church, located at 50881 W. Papago Rd. in Thunderbird Farms. The church website can be found at www.mvccaz.org.
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E. M. Murray
Rev. Steve Foss
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