We are living at a time when Western civilization and the church is collapsing under its own weight. Ugliness in public life can be seen everywhere—coarse speech, impolite interactions, corrupt institutions, violence celebrated in the streets, and a moral vision so distorted that murder has become welcome entertainment for some.  

Nothing signals the collapse of a culture like its architecture—an external representation of the inner man. When a civilization forgets beauty, forgets transcendence, forgets the dignity of the human being, it builds monuments to its own despair. I saw this firsthand in the former communist Yugoslavia—grey, bleak, oppressive. Ugly buildings, ugly cars, ugly infrastructure. The people looked like the buildings: crushed in spirit. It was a dark, sad place back in the 1970s.

It’s where you end up when humans are detached from biblical truth—they wither and die inside. And tragically, the modern West and the church has severed itself from its Judeo-Christian roots—the very roots that once produced the Renaissance, the rise of great universities, the symphonies, the cathedrals, the poetry—the flourishing of human reason and human endeavor.

We should be outraged at how far we’ve fallen. The hard truth is that the church should be the antidote—but instead, we have become just another symptom. Certainly not all Christians fall in this category.  I hail those Christian ministries who are tirelessly working around the world in the trenches, in the ugly places, to improve the lives of their fellow man.

The Church Has Lost Its Nerve and its Courage Because it Wants to be Liked by the Culture.

The church of the West has replaced conviction with comfort. We have traded courage for convenience and clarity for confusion. Our behavior online often looks indistinguishable from the culture we claim to resist—enraged mobs, insult hurling, tribal warfare. Instead of offering moral clarity, we sometimes mirror the chaos. Instead of embodying the kingdom, we echo the world.

What the world needs is not more pablum in the church. It needs believers who are not constantly offended, not manipulated by every headline, not constantly enslaved to fear. It needs Christians who can discern the infiltration of moral weakness and the lack of critical thinking in the church and who are willing to stand against evil—even if it costs something.

Let’s be honest: most of us fear losing our comfort far more than losing our culture. We fear our bank accounts disappearing, our online reputation taking a hit, or being inconvenienced. Meanwhile, Nigerian Christians face mass genocide. Iranian believers risk imprisonment and execution. Chinese Christians worship in parked cars during lunch break because it is the only safe place to gather. We, as the church, are not made of the same steel as they are—but we could be, if we wanted.

The Real Battle Is Not Left vs. Right

The manipulation of our society is not accidental. We are being played—by media conglomerates, corporate elites, political operatives, and algorithms designed to enrage. Drip, drip, drip until we see our neighbors as the enemy. Creating division is the cheapest, most effective tool of control ever invented. The elites do not need tanks; they only need division and confusion. Confused people comply. Confused people surrender their agency and cling to their creature comforts.

It seems human beings are being dehumanized on a grand scale. As Chase Hughes said, “I will not let anything electronic decide who my neighbor is.” When the people of God (the church) refuse to participate in the cultural morass, the whole corrupt structure begins to collapse.

Confusion Is Winning Because the Church Is Biblically Illiterate

We are a generation drowning in information and starving for wisdom and common sense. AI removes creativity. Social media rewires our brains. Memes replace meaning. Lying is now a rite of passage. And all the while the culture sinks deeper into a toxic confusion.

Confusion is a very effective weapon for controlling a populace. If you do not know who you are, what you believe, or what Scripture teaches (and follow it), you will be swept away in the cultural current.

The antidote to confusion is clarity. And clarity comes from Scripture—its patterns, its story, its understanding of human behavior.

The Bible does not present perfect people. It presents deeply dysfunctional families, who experience violence and betrayal, but who also experience repentance, renewal, and redemption. It gives us a roadmap of human nature—not the sanitized version but the real deal. And it shows us how God steps into chaos over and over again to rebuild a people and a church who can reflect His image in a broken world.

We Need the Kind of Christianity That Once Turned the World Upside Down.

Sanity is now an act of rebellion.

Common sense is an act of resistance.

Loving your neighbor is a revolutionary act.

If the church remains silent, constantly offended, confused, and divided—then we contribute to the world we are now experiencing.

The world needs the church to:

• Think clearly
• Love deeply
• Choose kindness
• Discern evil
• Resist tyranny
• Seek unity rather than division
• And refuse to be manipulated by the narratives of this age

Western civilization is collapsing because the church has lost sight of her divine mission.

We are not spectators in this cultural moment. We are stewards of truth, heirs of a kingdom, and ambassadors of the One who conquered death. If we return to clarity, courage, Scripture, and love—actual love—the wasteland just might bloom again.