There is something afoot in the world today which is far more important, compelling and potentially devastating to our culture than any outcome of the Alito hearings going on in Washington right now. Our culture, our freedom and our Judeo-Christian values are at risk, due to demographic realities at work in our world. My remarks stem from reading a piece by Mark Steyn at opinionjournal.com called "It's the Demography, Stupid." I highly recommend that you read it.

 The growth, decline and movement of populations, namely demographics, has been something we have spoken about for several years on my radio show. Steyn's theme is that there is a dangerous demographic pattern developing in the west. The birthrate of all western countries is falling below replacement figures, in some cases precipitously, and that means the population is falling too. The replacement birthrate is 2.1 per household. The only western country that comes close is the USA at 2.07. The rest of our population growth comes from immigration, legal and otherwise. But according to Steyn, in other countries the situation is far worse. Ireland is at 1.79%, Australia 1.76, Canada 1.5, Germany and Austria 1.3, Russia and Italy 1.2 and Spain 1.1.

 Contrast this with the highest birthrate countries. They are: Somalia 6.91, Niger 6.83, Afganistan 6.78 and Yemen 6.75. What do all these nations have in common? If you said Islam, go to the head of the class, as Walter Williams would say.

 As Steyn points out, the west has a real problem and it is not over-population as Paul Erlich attempted to say in his 1970's book "The Population Bomb." What we have is a population deficit. The west is either aborting its babies or choosing not to have them. In many countries, the west also insists on retirement with full pensions at 55 or 60. The west has an unsustainable population demographic.

 At the same time, Muslim immigrants are moving to Europe, keeping their devotion to sharia law, living in ghettos and creating a demographic time-bomb. According to Mark Steyn, unless something reverses this process, European culture will fall. It will be like a neutron bomb, he says. The buildings will be left but the people gone. Italy will no longer be a culture but just an address.

 Let's look at the liberal myths that must be countered to solve the demographic problem.

  Myth #1. The real problem in the world is over-population. It is exactly the opposite. Unless we repopulate the west, and as Steyn points out it takes religious people, not secularists to do this because they have the faith and optimism to believe in the future, we will be done with western culture by the mid-21st century. Similar arguments were made in Sam Huntington's "Who Are We?", which asserts that Protestant culture in America is under assault.

 Time was that Americans were afraid of a vast land-war with a vast Chinese army. But nations can always identify armies and go out to war against them. But how do you defeat a culture, particularly if your own culture has decided it doesn't have anything to fight for? Steyn quotes Arnold Toynbee. "Civilizations die from suicide, not murder."

  Myth #2. It is pride that will kill us. Liberals tell us that a distorted believe in our super-power status will be the ruin of America. Jimmy Carter speaks of "our endangered values. "But this too is false. What will kill us is guilt-ridden passivity, the belief that America is so bad that we have lost the right to assert universal values like freedom and democracy. Like Steven Spielberg's "Munich," we live in a world where Palestinian terrorists and the Israeli government are morally equivalent. So, liberals tell us, the real issues turn us inward. Healthcare, the environment and getting college degrees in what Steyn calls "Queer Studies and Anger Management" preoccupy us. No, it is not hubris that will kill us, but an inward turning focus that is rooted in guilt and moral passivity.

 Myth #3 Christianity is and will be the religion of the west. This may be true for America, but in the UK and in France, more Muslims attend weekly services than Christians. This highly religious group with all of its children is fast taking over secular childless Europe, and if that trend continues, game over. Europe is Muslim. And the muslim world will have accomplished by immigration what it could not by assaulting the gates of Vienna several hundred years ago.

  Myth #4 Muslim terrorists must defeat us militarily to win. Liberals are fond of telling us that Muslim nations are "no match" for the American military and therefore they are no threat to us. Not true. How did Christianity take over Europe? Yes, there were battles won in the Constantinian motto of "conquer in this sign." But mostly, Christianity filled the vacuum left by the Dark Ages, subsequently producing the most imaginative and creative culture the world has known. But Europe today is what P.T. Forsythe called a "cut flower" civilization, alienated from its roots. Post-modernism cannot fill the vacuum. It is too weak and self-centered to oppose and defeat terrorism and the imposition of sharia law. (It would be nice to hear one radical feminist speak about sharia's danger, instead of attacking George W. Bush.) As Mark Steyn says, people who think that the greatest problems in the world are that chickens feel pain and that global warming threatens us, have neither the intellectual nor moral sense to defend themselves. They have no sense that our children and grandchildren may be fighting Muslims in Europe one day.

 So here is Mark Steyn's prediction for 2032. "Unless we change our ways, the world faces a future ... where the environment looks pretty darn good. If you're a tree or a rock, you'll be living in clover. It's the Italians and the Swedes who'll be facing extinction and the loss of their natural habitat. "Here is the point: To the cultural clash of civilizations, demographics are everything.

  John Pendleton