As mobs continue to topple, deface or threaten statues of Lincoln, Washington, Churchill, Gandhi, and Catholic saints, I interview Jarrett Stepman about his new book The War on History: The Conspiracy to Rewrite America’s Past.

As Stepman points out, the war is not just on US history but Western Civilization, which is portrayed as a unique stain on humanity. And the war is fueled by a theology contravening Christianity, asserting that humanity, or at least its preferred identity groups, is not fallen, but victimized by oppressive forces. For the identified oppressors there can be no mercy.

Christianity, of course, sees all people as equally fallen and needing redemption. God works through fallen people. And under this understanding, Western Civilization has across centuries come to advocate societies affirming equality and human dignity.

Stepman notes that traditional American heroes whom the mob now targets were fellow sinners who helped construct a nation peculiarly committed to equal rights for all people.

I interviewed Stepman the day after D.C. police prevented a mob from toppling the nearly 170-year-old Andrew Jackson statue in Lafayette Park. There are now announced plans this week to attack the 150-year-old Emancipation Monument in DC, which was funded by emancipated slaves and dedicated by Frederick Douglass.

This conversation with Stepman could not be more timely.