Torch, Winter 2012

W atergate, assassinations, campus protests, race riots, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, secularism, feminism — the 1960s and ’70s were a period of cultural upheaval. Stability crumbled as institutions, which had previously been thought firm and trustworthy, were subjected to questioning, critique, and at times, outrage. Although these decades remain vividly impressed on the minds of many, we don’t have to look to the past to see the how fragile society is. Contemporary America has experienced similar levels of upheaval: warfare, recessions, political and religious extremism, and moral relativism. It can be disorienting when one seemingly steadfast In Search of Solid Ground by Robert G. Parr, Ph.D. It can be unsettling enough when a familiar institution changes, but when several institutions shift at once, we go looking for something stable. 4 TORCH | Winter 2012 KEVIN SCHAFER | GETTY IMAGES