Let us imagine that we wish to crush masculinity and Christianity out of a young boy named Joe. What sort of society would we create to accomplish this most effectively?
To begin, from the moment a little boy begins to act like a little boy, society would insist that he act like a little girl. Boys would be punished for exhibiting the energy and aggressiveness typical of young boys. Young boys would be removed from their parents as early as possible and placed into facilities where such behavior is treated as pathologic. Parents would be widely counseled that something is wrong with little boys, to the degree that millions are placed on powerful amphetamine derivatives to erase normal male behavior.
If medications were not sufficient to keep boys from acting like boys, they would be given tablet screens that will provide the stimulation they crave. They would be trained to find solace and satisfaction in some alternate world besides the one they inhabit. The movies and stories brought through those screens would always portray men as stupid or troublesome. Girls would be the heroes, and boys the stooges, of every story.
To prevent a boy from acquiring even an image of manhood, boys would spend their childhood surrounded by women. Women would be boys' teachers, Sunday School leaders, daycare workers - anyone in authority. To further muddle any masculine concept, these authorities would teach that men and women are the same, that men can become women, and that there is no difference in a relationship between a man and woman or between two men.
Young boys would never go to work with their fathers. Ideally, dads would be around as little as possible. If a father is around, he would not be respected at home, and boys would see their father talked down to and belittled by their mother.
Churches would ask nothing of young boys and provide no stability of identity. The Church would not have clearly defined beliefs or practices, and take so many forms culturally that the concept of Christianity becomes nebulous. Boys would be separated from older Christians, especially men, during worship. Church would either be a play place where boys are removed from their families or a time when boys are rebuked for acting like boys. As boys age, the culture should inundate them with the message that devout, traditional Christians are bigoted, anti-intellectual, and uniquely morally repugnant.
In this world we have designed to crush little Joe, by the time a young boy leaves home, he would have no concept or model of what a good man is like, or even what men do. Neither would he know what Christians believe, or what being a Christian would even ask of him. He would have internalized the vague sense that his masculine impulses are evil, to be either suppressed or wickedly indulged. He would have spent most of his 18 years around women, most of whom are not family. He would most likely already be medicated in some fashion for the psychological inability to deal with the world. He would have little moral code, with an aim to enjoy what pleasures he can with whatever set of desires he was dealt. Christian intellectual belief will appear evanescent, and Christian morality small-minded.
Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
If a sinister mind were to create such a society to crush Christian masculinity out of boys, it could hardly do better than modern America.
Every generation is prone to thinking ill of the next generation, or that the world is going to pot. Such thinking is wholly myopic and ignorant of history. Humanity has always lived in the tension of seeing two truths: That life itself is a great good, and that the world is consumed by terrible evil. There is no idyllic past or future, but instead a story, rich and complex, with great triumphs and devastating defeats.
I do not believe the world any worse or better than it once was or shall be. However, I do believe that this point in the story of humanity represents a unique narrative arc of confusion and hostility to Christian masculinity. The statistics of young males in record numbers committing suicide, suffering severe mental illness, leaving the Church, leaving their families, and attempting to quit being male altogether are horrific. They have no historical parallel.
In this moment, the godly man will appear so blindingly different that he cannot help but be a beacon for a world starved of Christian men. The Enemy has struck a blow. That the forces of evil launched an assault in this manner, in this time, is not for us to decide. We are not to give over to despair or pessimism, sadly shaking our heads as the world burns. We are not without hope, and so we are called to continue the story.
I am astounded and humbled with tears in my eyes as I consider the unchanging grace of God. The grace of God and the call of God to man has not changed in the slightest. We are not doomed by the time to which we were born. The graces that have always made and sustained the Christian man are still here, given by God to us, those living amongst a people that have abandoned Him. The world may be tailor-made to kill Christian masculinity, but the world's tricks are fading wraiths that will never overcome our Lord.
The next chapter, be it triumph or defeat, is yet to be written. Do you believe that your choices matter in the story? They do. In the midst of this huge narrative arc, facing a societal tsunami, your individual choices - those that will turn you into a saint or a devil - matter.
- It matters whether you accept God's ordained role for man to be a priest in his home.
- It matters that you give intellectual assent to the realities of maleness given by God, and believe they are good.
- It matters that you find your identity as a man - as a person - in Jesus Christ.
- It matters that you become holy and Christ-like - that you become like the Man fully alive, the true and second Adam.
