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Sometimes, it seems, bad news can become good news. Recently I had lunch with former secretary of education Bill Bennett, and our conversation quickly became animated, covering criminal justice, current events, and the sobering conclusions of his Index of Cultural Indicators. In the midst of our rapid-fire exchange, Bennett said, "Tell me: Can you name one positive trend in our culture?"

An abrupt silence fell as I groped for a single hopeful cultural indicator. Finally Bennett laughed. "All my friends respond the same way," he said. "They can't find anything encouraging."

No serious moral conservative doubts the severity of America's cultural crisis. But just when times seem darkest, rays of light may be breaking through, creating a rare moment of opportunity for Christians.

Consider the surprising results of several recent polls. Surveys by the Times Mirror magazine group, Republican pollster Richard Wirthlin, Democratic pollster Mark Mellman, and Newsweek all reveal that Americans are more pessimistic than ever. Times-Mirror found 71 percent "dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country today." Wirthlin found 62 percent think the country is on the wrong track.

Most surprising are the reasons people gave. During the presidential campaign, we were told the problem was the economy. ("It's the economy, stupid.") Today the economy is surging—yet people are unhappier than ever. Why? Because of a troubling sense of moral vertigo.

Asked to identify the country's most pressing problem, half of Wirthlin's respondents cited crime and social issues. In the Times Mirror survey, again half cited crime, drugs, or lack of family values. Newsweek found that 76 percent believe America is in moral and spiritual decline.

This inner malaise was captured poignantly during President Clinton's MTV press conference. A bemused President answered queries about his underwear and his favorite rock song. But the atmosphere turned serious when 17-year-old Dahlia Schweitzer asked a penetrating question. "Mr. President," Dahlia said, "it seems to me that [singer] Kurt Cobain's recent suicide exemplified the emptiness that many in our generation feel. How do you propose to teach our youth how important life is?"

With breath-taking suddenness, this teenage girl turned the interview around, raising profound issues of human existence. Clinton hedged a moment. "The New York Times" commented that the President did not seem to have a legislative answer. Well, we can be grateful for that.

But the President did not seem to have any other kind of answer, either. What young people need, the President said—resorting to the feel-good language of therapy—is improved self-esteem, the feeling that "they are the most important in the world to somebody." But the meaning of life cannot be reduced to feeling good. After all, Cobain had millions of fans and used drugs to feel better; obviously, it wasn't enough.

The real message of Dahlia's question is that the reigning orthodoxy of secularism is crumbling. By rejecting any transcendent world, secularism abandoned people to trying to find happiness solely in this world—in making money and buying things. As Jesus warned, we are easily consumed by worldly concerns: what to eat and what to wear. His words were prophetic of secular, consumerist America. Our public life has been stripped of abstract ideals like the True and the Good, leaving us wandering in the desert of our own desires. And unchecked desires lead straight to family breakdown, social disarray, and crime.

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August 15 1994, Vol. 38, No. 9