Review of Timothy S. Goeglein, Stumbling Toward Utopia: How the 1960s Turned into a National Nightmare and How We Can Revive the American Dream (Nashville: Fidelis, 2024).
From Plato to Rousseau to Marx, all utopian thinkers have had an optimistic view of human nature. That is, they think people are basically good. We can arrive at utopia (an ideal society where all humans flourish) if we make certain changes, e.g., make philosophers kings, abolish capitalism, etc.
According to Timothy S. Goeglein, vice president for External and Government Relations at Focus on the Family, America is in trouble because of failed utopian experiments of the 1960s. This decade saw the tremendous growth of utopian experiments that exacerbated almost every political, economic, and societal problem the nation faces today.
The seeds of these utopian experiments were sowed by Progressives in the early 20th century. Activists such as John Dewey (education), Margaret Sanger (birth control/eugenics), and Woodrow Wilson (politics) started America down a path of rejecting classical and Christian education, traditional standards of sexual morality, and limited government. These Progressives were constrained at that time because many Americans remained committed to orthodox Christianity and had respect for America’s constitutional order, but such constraints receded in the 1960s and the figurative children of the Progressives were able to fully embark on their utopian experiments.
For instance, the 1960s saw widespread rejection of the traditional Christian idea that sex should occur only between one man and one woman in the context of marriage. Flawed academic studies by Alfred Kinsey, William H. Masters, and Virginia E. Johnson purported to show that men and women regularly engaged in sexual intercourse with individuals to whom they were not married (and sometimes of the same sex). The implicit message was that everyone is having sex whenever and with whomever they want, so you should too. As well, the advent of the birth control pill in the mid-1960s seemed to “free” men and women from the consequences of such activity.
The Sexual Revolution was praised by Hollywood in both television shows and movies. Gone (or at least on their way out) were wholesome shows such as Leave it to Beaver, The Andy Griffith Show, and Perry Mason, which were replaced by shows such as All in the Family, Love, American Style, and M*A*S*H. By the 1980s, it was difficult to find shows where fathers were not bumbling fools and unmarried singles did not have extra-marital sex regularly. (There were exceptions to this rule, e.g., Little House on the Prairie (1971-1983) and The Cosby Show (1984-1992)).
Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal increased the scope of the federal government, but Lydon Johnson’s Great Society grew it exponentially. Scores of new programs aimed at lifting men and women out of poverty had two primary effects: growing the national debt and making poverty worse. Many of these programs incentivized people not to work and not to marry. The number of single moms started to skyrocket because of ill-conceived programs that provided impoverished married women with less assistance than unmarried ones.
Readers of this blog will find Goeglein’s chapters on education and religion to be of particular interest. It was in the 1960s that John Dewey’s children succeeded in reducing academic standards and introducing moral relativism into K-12 education. As well, Progressives captured many universities’ schools of education; the institutions that produce the vast majority of K-12 teachers. He doesn’t mention it, but the decade also saw the widespread abandonment of orthodox Christianity by many Christian colleges and universities — a trend that continues to this day. Institutions, such as Regent University, that have bucked this trend are necessary if we hope to escape the morass that the 1960s helped birth.
In terms of faith, the 1960s saw the start of the hemorrhaging of Christians from the American Church. Today, only 68% of Americans even identify as Christians, and many of those can’t be bothered to attend church, read their Bibles, or pray. And throughout the 21st century, social scientists have commented on the rise of the “nones” — Americans who claim to be atheists, agnostics, or to have no religion at all.
Stumbling Toward Utopia is, in some ways, a depressing book, but it contains glimmers of hope. Even the 1960s were not a complete loss; Goeglein recognizes that important and salutary advances in race relations were made during that decade. And he ends by discussing some hopeful developments, such as indications that Americans are starting to reject “woke” ideology and are turning toward social conservatism. There are even reasons to believe that young people are finding conservative manifestations of Christianity to be more meaningful than watered-down versions of the faith or having no faith at all.
Goeglein addresses a number of issues in this short, accessible book, but let me conclude by pointing to additional signs of hope. Conservative Christian universities and colleges, like Regent, are flourishing today and their future is bright. Also, Christian and, especially, Christian classical schools are growing by leaps and bounds, and many states are expanding school choice programs that will allow more parents to send their children to such schools.
We will still be dealing with the consequences of the 1960s for decades, but there is hope. First and foremost, Christians must pray for revival, but it is also important for Christians to engage in culture formation by writing books, producing movies, doing podcasts, etc. Also, we should not abandon being involved in politics with the goal of helping all Americans to flourish. Still, our political goals must always be chastened by the reality that, because of human sinfulness, we will never achieve utopia.
Mark David Hall is a Professor in Regent University’s Robertson School of Government and Director of Religious Liberty in the States.
