In 1973 America’s downward spiral with regards to morality had already been well underway for decades.
The campuses of colleges and universities were no longer institutions of learning where young adults went to expand their minds and obtain a higher education. Those institutions had already long been taken over by leftists and communists well-versed in indoctrination tactics and the spreading of socialist and communist ideologies. Drug experimentation and casual sex had replaced obtaining a degree as the goals for many college students.
For society in general the divorce rate had begun to rise. Marriage was no longer “til death do us part”. And not just out in Hollywood where it had become accepted as par for the course. Americans kept score through the supermarket tabloids on which marriage their matinee idols were currently on. But the breakup of families in Middle America was also real and underway.
Speaking of Hollywood, movies and television programming had also begun to experience some major changes. Nudity became much more commonplace in feature films and violence much more graphic. Mayberry had been overtaken in the television ratings by Peyton Place.
Church attendance by individuals and by families had also seen a precipitous drop in numbers. Mom, Dad, and the kids stopped sitting together in church, if they even went at all.
Some would also argue that a decision that was made in 1973 helped to inadvertently and perhaps innocently provide some more steam to the engine of moral decline that had begun to take root in America. And which has led us to where we are now, a place where what was once wrong is now right, and what was right is now wrong.
A place where young people are so confused about everything that they had once been told were societal absolutes, that many are losing their human and sexual identities and redefining themselves by some sort of deviancy, or by lashing out in violence.
What happened in 1973 was that the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Board of Trustees voted to officially change their position on homosexuality which they had long been labeled as a “mental disorder”, and to reclassify it as a “sexual orientation disturbance”, changing their century long position. This decision was made under some pretty intense political pressure at the time, and it helped to ‘mainstream’ homosexuality in society. Something long sought by homosexual advocates, and something many will fairly argue was long overdue.
For certain no one is claiming that APA’s 1973 decision on homosexuality is the cause of all of America’s ills. Far from that. But since that decision by the APA more and more ‘sexual orientations’ have attached themselves to it and are being promoted as ‘normal’. Including some things that are very unhealthy and depraved like the effort by pedophiles to claim that their conduct is really an ‘orientation’ and not a crime.
I’m not a trained psychiatrist nor a theologian so I won’t weigh in on whether the APA decision was medically or morally justified or not. I trust that the Psychiatric professionals made the right decision based on sound medical study, and did not just bow to political pressure. As for the morality part, each person must make that decision for themselves.
But the APA decision under pressure has also had some other unintended consequences. It contributed to the beginning of a never-ending cycle of capitulation now by the government and by society to accept anything and everything in the name of “diversity”. People are fearful of being accused of bigotry or some sort of ‘phobia’ if they disagree.
Certainly recognizing the existence of sexual behaviors outside of what had always been the accepted norms of society was necessary. The fact of the matter was that they clearly existed and society needed to deal with it.
And homosexuality wasn’t the only practice that was considered outside the accepted norms of society back in 1973. Prostitution, strip clubs, nickel peep shows, and the sexual exploitation of children had been around for a long time. Certainly outside societal norms and nothing to hold up as good moral behavior, and behavior having nothing to do with homosexuals.

One of the things the APA decision also resulted in was to in a way help accelerate a war against Christianity that was already underway, going back to college campuses and their atheist communist professors.

How can I make that statement? Well, Christians became the target of attacks and vendettas from the homosexual community and their supporters simply because mainstream Christians chose to practice the long-held, traditional teachings and doctrine of their church. Many people followed strong religious principles and simply could not accept homosexuality. Making them targets of rage from the radical homosexual activist community. Rage which continues to this day.
The affect was that God was being kicked out of America because his teachings went against what others wanted to hear, and all because of the political power exerted by a very small segment of society, way out of proportion to their percentage of the population.
Now personally I follow the ‘live and let live’ point of view. While I’m not a heathen I’m also not a Biblical scholar either. I certainly have my shortcomings and have made my share of mistakes over the years. I view the practice of homosexual behavior between two consenting adults as pretty much their business, and generally benign as long as it’s between consenting adults and no children are involved.
But I suspect there will be personal attacks, vile names tossed around, and accusations of all manner of bigotry and hate as is always directed towards anyone who appears to attach homosexuality to any moral decline the country is experiencing. And they would be wrong to do so. That’s not what’s being argued. America’s moral decline was underway well before the APA decision was made and homosexuals came out of the closet.
But the facts speak for themselves. The downward spiral in this country had already begun on our college campuses years earlier. The APA decision didn’t just change a Psychiatric diagnosis of homosexuality which was destined to happen anyway, it helped to open the door to genuinely destructive behaviors that have nothing to do with a sexual orientation.

Nowadays people resort to using drugs to deal with their problems, or some dress up like a dog because “they identify”, or they are confused about which bathroom to use.
And far too often they just pick up a gun and shoot up a church or a school to settle differences, instead of engaging in debate and a vigorous exchange of points of view.

Society has been paying a very heavy price ever since the downward spiral started. That’s what happens when you allow God to be kicked out just so anyone can pursue a political and social agenda.
I think Mayberry was a better community to live in than was Peyton Place.