Ep. 4:24: The Era When Everything Went Wrong: Carter, Chaos, and the Last Days of Rupture

In this sweeping close to Chapter Four’s hermeneutics of rupture, Monsignor wraps together the political, cultural, and spiritual unraveling of the late 1970s—an era marked by economic freefall, social fragmentation, and a presidency beset by impossible timing. From Jimmy Carter’s landslide victory to the cascade of crises that followed—runaway inflation, manufacturing collapse, IRS battles with Christian schools, the rise of the Moral Majority, and the shock of Three Mile Island—this episode traces how national instability mirrored the Church’s own internal turmoil. Monsignor highlights the growing tribalism of American life, the fierce debates over the Equal Rights Amendment, and the unexpected alliances forged by figures like Phyllis Schlafly. As the decade closes, the stage is set for a dramatic shift: the end of rupture and the coming dawn of continuity.