Speaking of Biblical Manhood
There’s a conversation that needs to happen. In the culture wars going on today, things become pretty polarized very quickly surrounding what has been labeled “toxic masculinity.”
We, as humans, tend to swing from one extreme to another. I call it the metronome effect. In the face of the left’s attack on what they call “toxic masculinity,” many in the evangelical/Christian/Reformed camp have rightly pushed back. While I would call this push back both necessary and rightly motivated, some have taken it too far, pushing beyond where the Bible would have us go, ultimately painting a wrong picture of what the Bible calls us to as men.
Owen Strachan has pushed back very well in his recent Facebook post (see below), helpfully pointing us to a right depiction of true biblical manhood. I’m not familiar with Andrew Tate, but I’ve come across his name several times in recent weeks.
I started reading Strachan’s book “The War on Men” a couple of months ago and it was great!Unfortunately, holiday busyness pushed it to the back burner. Guess it’s time to move it back to the front.
Thanks to Dr. Strachan for allowing me to include his post in this blog. There’s certainly more conversation to be had about a right pursuit of biblical masculinity, and with his post, we’re off to a great start!
Grace & Peace
Pastor Rob
FROM OWEN STRACHAN:
Some of you have seen that Andrew Tate is a hot topic of online conversation right now. Conservative influencers and Christians are having a lively (and needed) debate over whether he's a positive figure or not.
I've been thinking and writing about Tate for a little while now. Among other factors for his popularity, Tate speaks powerfully, quickly, and confidently. He doesn't apologize for his views. Physically, he is tightly coiled; he looks like the kickboxer he was. If you're trying to understand the phenomenon he represents, you can without too much difficulty. He's a picture of what many men naturally want to be.
Many men, even in these feminized days, don't want to be weak, cowed by feminism and leftism, unable to speak their mind, told they are "toxic," powerless, woefully out of shape, undisciplined, and unable to move ahead in life. Men naturally want to be strong, after all. Think of what little boys say when they're five: they come up to you, try to flex their bicep, and say, "Am I strong?" They naturally want to be strong, and they gravitate (in their God-given wiring) to authority figures and virtuous men who they perceive as strong (firemen, policemen, linemen, athletes, and so on).
It's right and wholly understandable to reject our leftist culture's vision of manhood. But while Tate gives men a pathway to power, discipline, and agency, he too sells a counterfeit. Leftism tells men that they will be men if they become more like women; Tateism tells men that they will be men if they dominate women. Neither approach is remotely that of Christ. Both are ultimately bankrupt, even as each system has an element of truth in it.
Jesus Christ is the true man. He is the figure men need. He showed steely toughness and iron discipline throughout his life (John 2); he spoke truth without fear or apology. Yet Jesus was described as gentle, even meek, and displayed incredible kindness to people others disdained and ignored (Matthew 11:29).
Men have been sold two deficient forms of manhood for some time. (What the left doesn't know is that it helped create Tateism.) But there is a way forward, a life-giving way forward. It is the way of the tough and tender Christ, the gentle and fearsome Jesus. He is the way, truth, and life (John 14:6). He is the one men should want to be and women should want to draw near to. We should pray to be strong as he was strong; we should pray to be kind as he was kind.
Conservative leaders should not hold Andrew Tate up as a paragon of masculinity. He is not a sound man, nor a picture of Christ. He is depraved and plays on the wicked fleshly instincts of men (and women). He does not deserve a platform. But we can understand why young men are drawn to him; after strong manhood was forcibly taken from them, they will seek it out anywhere they can find it, including in the darkened corridors of the Internet via unstable and ungodly men.
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By the way, my 2023 book, "The War on Men," covers Tate directly. It addresses (at length) why young men are drawn to him. My book doesn't dismiss the desire of young men to be strong. But it focuses this worthy pursuit on CHRIST, no one else.
Pick it up today: https://amazon.com/War-Men-Society-Hates-Them/dp/1684514452