Who knows about America?

I was watching the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) channel one day last week and watched a movie titled Life with Father, starring William Powell, Irene Dunne, and Edmund Gwinn (Santa in the movie Miracle on 34th Street). Life with Father is a lovely little movie about a turn of the century family (1800-1900, not 1900-2000, lol!)

What utterly amazed me, although I'm not certain why, was the movie's frank portrayal of an Episcopal family. At one point, early on in the movie, the Elizabeth Taylor (very young Elizabeth) character, in an apologetic manner, tells the eldest son of the family she is visiting that she is Methodist. The eldest son states that they are Episcopalian and his manner of speaking infers a sort of superiority based on that fact.

Living in today's world, you can imagine my jaw dropping when the Episcopal priest, played beautifully (of course) by Edmund Gwinn, kneels in church during a Sunday service and 'prays' the General Thanksgiving prayer from the Book of Common Prayer! He 'prayed' the entire General Thanksgiving! Word for word! In a movie! From Hollywood! Evidently the movie was well received by movie audiences as it was a faithful (pardon the unintentional pun) adaptation of a very successful Broadway play.

It is not for me to say anything about The Episcopal Church. My point is, rather, how did America get from there to here? We are so caught up in the here and now that we tend to forget that we were not always 'this America'. At one time, it was perfectly natural to portray a church service, to see people praying, to mention God and Jesus without those Names being used in vain.

America has come a very long way since the movie was made in 1947. The advances we've made in medicine, technology, travel, civil rights, and education is almost breath taking. Heartbreaking is what we seem to have left behind.