America needs heroes on the battlefield of everyday life ...

"The history of the world has always been the biography of her great men … There was a time in these United States when youth was inspired by (heroes) ... when a picture of Washington or Lincoln adorned every school room wall … Along with the ponderous Family Bible on the Victorian table and the hymn books on the old-fashioned square piano, there looked down from the walls the likenesses of our national heroes … Those were the days of great beliefs - belief in the authority of the Scriptures, belief that prayer was really answered, belief in marriage and the family as permanent institutions, belief in the integrity and worth of America’s great men.

These beliefs laid the groundwork for producing more great men, for many a boy figured, "If that man could do it, get an education, make his life count for something, then I can too ...

Then there dawned the day when the pictures of Washington and Lincoln did not fit in with our concept of modern décor ... The old Family Bible looked embarrassingly out of place ... So the pictures and the Bible were often relegated to the Attic of Forgotten Things.

There went with them some of the most stabilizing influences of American life.

We had become a more sophisticated people, somewhat cynical of the cherished beliefs of our ancestors, rather blasé, frankly skeptical of old-fashioned sentimentalism.

Along with our higher education came a debunking contest. This debunking became a sort of national sport ... It was smarter to revile than to revere ... more fashionable to depreciate than to appreciate.

In our classrooms at all levels of education, no longer did we laud great men - those who had struggled and achieved. Instead, we merely took their dimensions and ferreted out their faults.

We decided that it was silly to say God sent them for a special task ... They were merely ... products of their environments … The Constitution, that hitherto cherished charter of American liberties, was drawn up by men who never spoke on a telephone or flew in a plan, therefore, we should change the Constitution to suit modern ways ...

But we failed to realize that when we were denying the existence of great men, we were also denying the desirability of great men.

So now, many of our children have grown up without the guiding star ... holding in their hands only a bunch of ... question marks, with no keys with which to open the doors of knowledge and life.

The young no longer had any particular ambition to become heroes.

Their ambition now was to make as much money as possible, as quickly as possible, in whatever way was most convenient ...

Thus, our debunking is ... a sign of decaying foundations of character to the individual and in the national life … We who are Christians, believe that God gives the world a few great men to lead the rest of us closer to Him, that to depreciate or to deny their greatness is to deny one of God’s revelations of Himself to mankind.

The heroes the Christian cherishes ... were (or are) human... They have their weakness ... Their faults are well-known to their friends, better known to themselves. But the point is that with God and His guidance, they can provide the moral leadership that our nation so sorely needs.

America needs heroes on the battlefield of everyday life ... in our homes, in our schools, on college campuses, in offices and factories, who can lead us towards a return to idealism. For time is running out for us ...

The call today is for Christian heroes and heroines ... who are willing to speak a good word for Jesus Christ ... who are willing to live by the undiluted values of Christian morality in the pagan atmosphere of our society surrounded by lewdness, pornography, and profanity.

This may be a higher bravery than that of any battlefield: to face ridicule, sarcasm, sneering disdain for what one believes to be right.

To fight for goodness and right ... fighting the battle first in our own hearts and souls ... seeking God’s help to overcome our particular temptations for the sake of peace .. for the sake of America ... for our own sake ... for God’s sake."

~ U.S. Senate Chaplain Peter Marshall