The Twentieth Century was a century of stark choices. It began with Theodore Roosevelt’s challenge to the Bull Moose convention of 1912, “We stand at Armageddon and we battle for the Lord!” which turned out to be more prophetic than even he knew. And it ended, in T.S. Eliot’s poetic phrase, “not with a bang but a whimper” with the publication in 1998 of B.G. Brander’s "Staring Into Chaos"--a fascinating if not mesmerizing compilation and overview of the century’s three great philosophers of history and sociology: Spengler’s "The Decline of the West", Toynbee’s "A Study of History", and Sorokin’s "The Crisis of Our Age."
The first half of that century saw the triumph of the Christian West over pagan barbarism and oriental despotism in the blood-drenched theaters of World Wars I and II. The second half of the century witnessed the less bloody but equally impressive victory of the American democratic ideals of liberty and justice for all over the godless totalitarianism of Soviet communism. Many of us then thought we were home free, that we had arrived at the “end of history” (Francis Fukuyama, "The End of History and the Last Man") -- that we had fought the final “war to end wars, ” and could now look forward to a new millennium of endless peace and progress.
But as the 21st Century opens, we find we have simply come full circle, and to our horror “staring into chaos” once more, standing face to face with the starkest choice in all history. And it is not even a new choice, but the primal choice we have been facing since the dawn of history, the choice flubbed by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden -- the choice between Good and Evil, between God and the Devil, between Christ and Antichrist.
It is not a choice we can avoid, nor is it one we can put off. It is an urgent, existential choice, a “life and death” choice; in a word, a religious choice. It is not one that can be made for pragmatic reasons, or for economic or political reasons, not even for altruistic reasons. It is a choice that must be decided on the basis of ultimate Reality: Is there a God or not? If so, what is his nature? Is he a God who “so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life?” (John 3:16) Or is he a god who so hates the world that he sends his devotees to destroy themselves in vengeful suicide missions against “unbelievers”?
Perhaps he is a god who can adapt himself to any human “lifestyle,” tolerant of any and all diversities of worship, as Oprah preaches from her megapulpit.
Or perhaps he doesn’t exist.
The god who doesn’t exist has been making a strong case for himself recently in the historical home of the Christian God, Western Europe and North America. In Europe, in fact, he has practically evicted the Christian God from his ancestral manse. And he is now making blustering threats among us here in America (Sam Harris, "Letter to a Christian Nation"; Richard Dawkins, "The God Delusion"; Christopher Hitchens, "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything", etc.)
Because of this vicious attack from his rear, the Christian God is having a hard time defending himself and his people on the front lines of the battle being waged against him on the other side of the world, by the god who hates the world.
What is to be done?
I made some recommendations some time ago on the internet forum Renew America under the topic, “Third Party Politics: Democracy vs. Theocracy” in which I advocated a renewal of the American Puritan theocratic ideal. The response was less than enthusiastic. But I remain convinced that we will continue to fight a losing battle against the Muslim jihadists if we do not deliberately and energetically enlist the power of the Christian God in this war, which is not George Bush’s war or Barack Obama’s war, nor is it a war just for Middle East oil, or even a war for democracy. It is fundamentally a religious war. And a people or a nation who have no religion, or a religion they are unwilling to defend, will find themselves at the mercy of an enemy who have no doubts about the god in whom they believe and his power to fight on their behalf, as we are now learning to our sorrow.
If you want a quantitative measure of the decline in American commitment to the defense not only of our religion, but of our nation, you need only compare the pitiful wailing and acrimonious recriminations for a casualty list of 4,000 dead incurred in four years of fighting an enemy who killed almost as many of us in four hours on 9/11/2001, with the stoic fortitude with which we bore the news of 400,000 dead in four years of fighting after the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
--The Gospel According to Jerry: Confessions of a Fool for Christ.

Mr. Steyn is definitely prophetic in his writing based on this interview. Like you, Chuck, I sure would hope that this kind of portrayal of the West was false, but I am seeing it become more and more true in my life on a daily basis. We can turn it around. The sad thing for me is that I don't see the church taking hold of this reality of moral depravity- rather we just sit back and hear our regularly weekly sermons, read the Word, go to work, and do it all over again week after week. God's church needs to wake up and be different from the world - just as Jesus called his disciples to be and prayed that they would in John 17. It is not too late. Thank you for this powerful interview. Now I need to read Mr. Steyn's book.