What ‘Davey and Goliath’ can tell us about the decline of American Protestantism

If you were a kid in the 1960s or ’70s, chances are you watched “Davey and Goliath” without ever seeking it out. It was just there. On Sunday mornings, when television offered slim pickings for a kid, you might stumble across a slightly stiff clay boy named Davey Hansen and his morose talking dog, Goliath.

“But, Daaavey …” the dog would protest in his deep, reproachful voice whenever his owner was about to do something foolish.

An entire children’s television plot about two boys looking forward to Holy Communion. Try pitching that one today.

Unless you paid attention to the opening credits — the Luther rose, the Lutheran Church credit, and the theme music, Martin Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” — you might not even have