Probably everybody and their uncle has already pointed to this interview with John Rhys-Davies (who plays Gimli in the movie adaptation of The Lord of the Rings), but it's powerful stuff. In part:
I think that Tolkien says that some generations will be challenged. And if they do not rise to meet that challenge, they will lose their civilization....
What is unconscionable is that too many of your fellow journalists do not understand how precarious Western civilization is and what a jewel it is....
I mean... the abolition of slavery comes from Western democracy. True democracy comes form our Greco-Judeo-Christian-Western experience. If we lose these things, then this is a catastrophe for the world....
Read it yourself.