The West has become decadent. A cesspool of moral depravity. We wallow in our luxury and self-indulgence. Meanwhile, God’s laws are trampled and our own folly comes round circle to crush us.
How much is spent on sports vehicles in Canada? According to MotoCanada, Alberta retail sales of vehicles, parts, and accessories totaled about $283.5 million across on-road motorcycles + off-road motorcycles + ATVs/side-by-sides. How much is spent on sporting goods in Canada? A narrower industry category focused specifically on sporting goods stores (NAICS 45111 — retailing bicycles, camping/exercise equipment, athletic apparel/footwear, fishing/golf/skiing gear, etc., excluding department stores and pure apparel retailers) is tracked in paid reports such as IBISWorld. Nationally, that industry is estimated at around $13.2 billion in 2026.How much is spent on Netflix subscriptions in Canada? Approximately CAD 1.8–2.5 billion per year (roughly USD 1.3–1.8 billion) is a reasonable current estimate for spending on Netflix subscriptions in Canada. Add to that every other subscription, including Amazon and Ad layering on Amazon. (Note: I asked Grok AI for help in finding these and other stats and links).
We are a society saturated in toys and entertainment. We have debts and payments on everything. I can buy anything on a payment plan these days. Even a couch.
Oe could safely say that some of the basic building blocks of wealth in the Christian worldview is to get married as young as possible, once you have a goal in life, whether that be working in the blue collar industries right out of highschool, or starting off with university. Buying a car is important, and one should take caution in taking out debt on a vehicle (it seems there may be wise ways to take out debt on a vehicle - I personally have not done and don’t plan too do this). Owning a car is necessary for building wealth, it is a tool. A house or land is also necessary for building wealth. It is reasonable to take out a mortgage on a house. Of course, a mortgage should be within reason. To max out the allowed mortgage amount with the bank, should only be done if necessary.
There is nothing wrong with owning toys like a dirt-bike or a quad, but the question is first (1) is it necessary?; and (2) why are you buying it? It can help to sink money into assets so the government doesn’t take your money from you. But the question is - are you living for the present or the future?
This is the motto of our decadent age “eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we may die.” And so we maxx out our credit cards and our loan limits on toys and stuff, stuff, stuff. We want to have fun in our youth, rather than thinking to the future. There is an incipient nihilism here. If there is no God, if there is no life after death, then you gotta party harder. The present is the most important thing. Forget the past. Don’t worry about the future. Live your best life now.
We see this in how the modern man views family. No, I won’t challenge the effeminate man or the butch chick here. That is not where the decadence started, that is the sad fulfillment of the decadence. That is the end of our cultural nihilism.
According to Statistics Canada, in 2020, the average (mean) age at marriage in Canada was 34.8 years overall, while the median age was 31.3 years. Of course, you can immediately see that the best years for child-bearing are over at that point. I was 24 and my wife was 23, so that we pushed the stats down a bit. In the Reformed community, I know quite a few people who are keeping those stats lower. According to the 2021 Census (Statistics Canada), census families with children had an average of 1.8 children. That is families with children, not every family. My wife and I are working on 4, so we are inflating the numbers. Again, many reformed families are inflating the numbers (and other Christian families). Of course, the Muslim communities in Canada are also inflating numbers. Many Canadians are not having children or only one or two. Many Christians are there as well. According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), the most recent official figures show approximately 102,705 induced abortions reported in Canada in 2024. I wouldn’t be surprised if those figures were higher.
A society that is having an average of 1.8 children and aborting 100,000 children a year is a suicidal society. The age of marriage, combined with the number of children, again indicates the decadence of a failing society.
We see it all around us. Divorce & remarriage. The number of people who don’t get married, because they are “waiting for something better.” We are a society that is devoid of covenant and the commitment and love that flourishes within the covenant of marriage. We are a decadent society. Whatever we earn, if we have the will to earn it, we earn to spend it on our own passions. The relationship between a man and a woman is reduced to sexual gratification. The relationship between a couple and their children, is no longer for the propagation of the human race, but maybe for a bare sense of knowing that motherhood is good. When things get rough the kids are packed up and sent off to grandma, or to childcare, or sent off into the modern warehouses of modern education aka public schools.
There are various stats available. Often 70–90%+ of men and 40–50%+ of women report lifetime or recent use of pornography in Canadian and North American studies. We are a sex saturated culture. Our decadence is revealed in how many men & women are enslaved to their sexual desires and passions.
Approximately 37–40% of marriages in Canada are expected to end in divorce, based on recent Statistics Canada measures. Those stats could be higher. For first marriages specifically, the figure is commonly cited around 38%. Of course, these are the people who actually get married (probably in their 30s), rather than just rotating through sexual partners. How many of these marriages could have been saved within the framework of good community, godly pastoral counsel, etc? Why get married when it is likely that your woman will take you to court and take all your money? In the States, women initiate roughly 69–70% of divorces in marriages, according to multiple studies (primarily from the United States). Men initiate about 30–31%. There are many theories for why this is and probably more reasons. The covenant of marriage has the value of a discarded toilet paper roll.
The covenant of marriage has the value of a discarded toilet paper roll.
God has ordained from the beginning of the world that a woman join a man as a helpmeet in the act of dominion as fellow image-bearers, this also includes the act of child-bearing and raising godly offspring.
This has been set aside to varying degrees in our decadent western society, for entertainment, toys and the like. It has been set aside for drinking, drugs, weed, video-gaming and porn. True, there is real poverty, but many are impoverished by their own foolish debt and spending.
Where there are children, children are lavished with toys, given free reign to do whatever they want, and are often left without discipline, in a world without discipline.
We read a contrast in Philippians 3:19–21: “Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”
So where is the point of return? Is there hope for our decadent society?
There actually is freedom in obeying God’s order and delighting in His design. In the Bible, children are not a burden but a blessing. In Christianity, the commitment and covenant of a life-long union between one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others, leads to life and flourishing. Rather, than reaching their old age to look back at a trail of wrecked relationships, troubled children, the Christian man & woman in Christ look back at forgiven sins, stable children, and empires built by wise money handling. And it is not that they had no fun either. The cheap camping trip, the outing to the river, the walk through the woods was all a blessing, because it was done in the context of covenant and relationship. The process of raising children was not something that you had to grit your teeth through because even in the long nights of children waking up and weeping, you loved your children, and wanted to serve them.
Sure, life is hard and it is getting harder in Canada. The decadence of our society goes all the way from the 32 yr old man who just got married in the suburb, after wasting his money in his 20s, all the way up into the Canadian halls of power. Between inflation, taxation and all the above, it is getting harder to raise a family. But the answer is not to give up, stop working, to leave off marriage and child-bearing. To raise a family in Canada is increasingly becoming an act of faith, of faithful planning, etc.
Between inflation, taxation and all the above, it is getting harder to raise a family. But the answer is not to give up, stop working, to leave off marriage and child-bearing.
As Christians, we believe God’s promise that the meek will inherit the earth (Matt. 5:5). This is true because all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Christ (Matt. 28:16-20).
So as Canada continues it’s spiritual, moral, economic decline, as those with money wallow in luxury and self-indulgence, and those without money despair, the Christian must take neither approach. The Christian must commit himself to faithfulness. Be obedient in your earning and spending. Commit yourself to covenant, and to joy in service and self-sacrifice. Constantly think to the future, whether you are 16, 21, or 32. Teach your sons to think to the future. Flourishing is found in covenant.
If the church decides to mirror the decadence of society, scorning children and motherhood, scorning the godly sacrifice of our society, then this society is damned because reformation must begin at the household of faith. The church must develop a love for and delight in these patterns of faithfulness. That will transform society.
I also see a movement happening among young western men. Some of this is leading them into bad & evil ideologies. But some of this is leading them to find their grounding in the church again. There is grace for sinners and men who have spent their younger days in folly. We need not just a trickle, but a torrent of these men coming to Christ, no matter what the cost.
We need fathers in the church again, who can teach young men how to love a wife, how to teach and care for children, how to lay down one’s life daily. We need mothers in the church again, who can teach the young women how to respect their husbands, to discipline children. But we also need a horde of young men and women who want this, who love Christ, who want to live responsible lives before Him in this increasingly decadent society. May God grant us this request.
May God grant us the gift of repentance & faith and give us faithful men in the midst of a decadent age.
Photo by Kajetan Sumila on Unsplash
Thanks for writing this, such a good read and reminder