Donald DeMarco, Review:
How We Got Here: A Guide to Our Anti-Christian Culture
by Jonathon Van Maren (Christian Heritage Press, 311 pages, $25)
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“Our world is utterly different from the one that existed just a few decades ago. But how did this happen? Why did everything change?” These words provide the focus of this important book. The author, Jonathon Van Maren, is a public speaker, and director at the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform. He has authored several books and has written for First Things, National Review, European Conservative, Christianity Today, and other outlets. He is well prepared to enlighten his readers about how the precipitous decline in moral values has come about.
The chief merit of the book is the result of Van Maren’s extensive research. It documents, even to an extent that exposes facts that are rather shocking, the factors that have contributed to the present chaos which may be described as an anti-Christian environment. He examines drag queens for children, graphic sex manuals depicting homosexual relationships as part of a school’s curriculum, pornography, abortion, contraception, euthanasia, sex changes, and the LGBT movement.
The book contains many insightful quotations. This reviewer has two personal favorites. One is from the composer/conductor Gustav Mahler who declared that “Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.” The other is from writer James Patrick who states that: “The great . . . cathedrals, so full of beauty and interest, are now like whales washed up on an alien shore, the faith that built them a flickering light.”
Van Maren is stating things that are true which the liberal press does not want people to read. This fact alone justifies the publication of this book. An index would have made easy access to the many commentators, such as Roger Scruton, Phyllis Schlafly, Mary Eberstadt, Robert P. George, and others who have much to say that is worth reading and pondering.
Despite its many virtues, there is a flaw that should be mentioned in a fair and objective review. The notion of “how we got here” implies an historical treatment explaining chronologically how things developed over time to produce the problems that have now crystallized. Van Maren does not do this. The reader gains knowledge of what has happened but not so much how it came about. China’s one-child policy is presented. But the factors that brought it about are extraneous to the ones that precipitated the problems in North America which is the locus of most of the book. The same could be said for other topics that are presented, such as globalization and neo-colonialism in Africa.
Today’s problems, mostly in the arena of morality, are, for the author, not invincible. He offers encouragement in his Epilogue. “Can anything be more exhilarating,” he asks, “than fighting for civilization itself” The future . . . belongs to those who will fight for love, self-sacrifice, and the children of the next generation.” He urges people to go to church, explore the Scriptures, study history, join a pro-life movement, and become better involved with one’s relatives.
It is not enough, according to the author, to know what has happened. It is also important to know how to live in a post-Christian world. This will not be easy. We must understand what has transpired in order to protect ourselves from being infected by its ever-present seductions. The great question today is this: will people wake up before it is too late? It is the eleventh hour. One worthwhile thing people can do is to read How We Got Here. Despite some minor shortcomings, I strongly recommend this honest and courageous work.
Donald DeMarco, a columnist for The Interim, is professor emeritus of philosophy at St. Jerome’s College at the University of Waterloo.
