White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre recently used a word that seems to have disappeared from our anything goes culture.

Asked to comment on transgender activist Rose Montoya, who posted on social media “a video of herself and two others going topless for a time” at a Pride Month celebration on the South Lawn of the White House, Jean-Pierre said the behavior was “ simply unacceptable and “inappropriate.”

This implies a standard by which appropriateness can be measured. What does she think that standard is? On what is it based, and who decides?

Dictionary.com offers little help. Among its definitions of inappropriate is “not proper.” Even then we are left with the question: what is “proper” and who decides? Is our standard a weather vane that points in whatever direction the wind is blowing?

In a very short time we have moved from a president who had a sexual encounter with an intern in the White House (and won re-election), to another president who steals classified documents from the American people and then lies about it, to one that honors Pride Month for LGBTQ+ people, claiming, “Transgender people are some of the bravest Americans I know.”

So transgender people are right up there with war veterans? Medal of Honor winners? First responders on 9/11 who risked their lives rescuing people from the Twin Towers and the Pentagon? As strong as those who brought down the hijacked plane over a Pennsylvania field because they believed it was headed for more destruction in Washington? I don’t think so.

There are several reasons for the decline of nations. A major contributing factor is the rejection of a unifying moral code.

As John Adams, our second president, correctly observed: “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. Morality and virtue are the foundation of our republic and necessary for a society to be free.”

Does Adams’ remark suggest that the absence of shared morality and religious faith undermine the foundation of our republic and its freedom? It would seem so as we watch what used to be called “norms” destroyed and the power of government used to indoctrinate and enforce conformity to the desires of a small percentage of the population who oppose the beliefs of the overwhelming majority of Americans.

The words “decadence” and “debauchery” have been used in the past to explain why great nations expired. The Roman Empire is perhaps the greatest example. So many restraints were cast off 2,000 years ago that the Emperor Caligula built Nemi ships which historians say were used as sites for “floating orgies.”

If that sort of behavior is not debauchery, what is? Debauchery is defined as “excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures; intemperance.” Could that describe the behavior of Montoya and others on the White House lawn last week?

Decadence is another useful word for describing where we are headed as a culture and nation: “the act or process of falling into an inferior condition or state; deterioration; decay … moral degeneration … turpitude.”

Again, does this not describe the behavior we are witnessing almost daily from people who wish to impose these views on children, to corporations that think their virtue signaling will keep the political wolves from their door? Have we not learned that appeasement never works?

Some Americans have had enough. Thousands showed up outside Los Angeles Dodgers stadium last week to protest the team “honoring” the anti-Catholic “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.” Inside, the stands were virtually empty.

The Wall Street Journal reports corporations are rethinking their rush to embrace the LGBTQ+ agenda because it is costing them money from boycotts.

More is needed. Too many preachers who used to preach on sin don’t seem to see that as a fit subject in modern times, though a proper diagnosis, along with the formula for healing, is the only starting place for converting individuals to a better life and healing nations.

Such a strategy would not only be appropriate, but apparently the only path to saving this country and its people from the same fate as other nations who thought they could escape the consequences of unrestrained behavior.

Cal Thomas is a syndicated columnist and author. Readers may email him at tcaeditors@tribpub.com.

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