Are we living in a post-Christian era?

A friend sent me a link to a video - part of an episode of the TV show "Extreme Makeover - Home Edition". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bmMo-3csXI

It shows a young one-legged US Marine veteran receiving his new house. (I won't go into the regular process that Extreme Makeover - Home Edition goes through. You know the drill.) It is all very emotional and patriotic. There are marines in dress uniforms attending the handover ceremony. Etc.

It got me to thinking.

Why do we approve of helping those who are in need?

Why do we hold especially high approval for military veterans who have received wounds serving their country (i.e., serving the rest of us)?

I think that it is because our culture still has an underlying base of Christian principles. It is because Christ is good that we see good in others and approve. If we had not Christ (at some deep cultural level) then we would not approve of military heroes. ...The hippies of the '60s & 70's were absolutely wrong (according to my standards), but they were at least acting consistently with their stated principles when they denigrated Vietnam-era veterans.

So I think that the standards of (a lot of...a majority?) of Americans must still be based in Christian principles. Much of our media, many of our politicians, a majority of our entertainment industry "stars" talk a strong humanistic (non-Christian) game. But is it therefore accurate to conclude that our culture has entered a post-Christian era?

I have taken it as true without a lot of analysis - that we have been living in a post-Christian society since the early 1960s. Today I think that there was probably a lot more evidence in popular culture to support this position in the '60s and '70s than there is now.

What do you think?

In the meantime, I am still praying for revival.