January 16th, 2025
by Matt Davis
by Matt Davis
On Tuesday, I wrote and then posted an article about Wesley Huff's appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience. This is a reflection of a discernible shift in some parts of the culture that were previously hostile toward an openness regarding Christianity. This shift has been most pronounced among younger men.
But like many good things in this world, Satan loves to produce counterfeits that draw away from the genuine thing. This is what is happening among some younger men with the rise of Andrew Tate, a very popular YouTube star. He is very intense and clearly goes after men by encouraging them to cultivate what he sees as masculine virtues (some of them indeed being that, others being gross distortions of the biblical ideal). After decades of men being vilified and mocked (just look at your average dad in most sitcoms this century or the clueless men in your Home Depot and Lowe's commercials) and being told being a man was a bad thing, here comes someone shooting straight like Andrew Tate and young men buy into what he is selling. But Tate's masculinity is morally repugnant and especially vile (and he has publicly embraced Islam in the midst of all this).
I came across something that Owen Strachan wrote yesterday that addresses the issue head on. I thought it would be good for you to consider as you think about pointing your sons, grandsons, the young men in our church, and your neighbors toward a rigorous, biblical masculinity. Beware of the counterfeits!
"Andrew 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. They 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. It's right and wholly understandable to reject 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 effectively hate 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."
Image source: Reuters News Service
But like many good things in this world, Satan loves to produce counterfeits that draw away from the genuine thing. This is what is happening among some younger men with the rise of Andrew Tate, a very popular YouTube star. He is very intense and clearly goes after men by encouraging them to cultivate what he sees as masculine virtues (some of them indeed being that, others being gross distortions of the biblical ideal). After decades of men being vilified and mocked (just look at your average dad in most sitcoms this century or the clueless men in your Home Depot and Lowe's commercials) and being told being a man was a bad thing, here comes someone shooting straight like Andrew Tate and young men buy into what he is selling. But Tate's masculinity is morally repugnant and especially vile (and he has publicly embraced Islam in the midst of all this).
I came across something that Owen Strachan wrote yesterday that addresses the issue head on. I thought it would be good for you to consider as you think about pointing your sons, grandsons, the young men in our church, and your neighbors toward a rigorous, biblical masculinity. Beware of the counterfeits!
"Andrew 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. They 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. It's right and wholly understandable to reject 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 effectively hate 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."
Image source: Reuters News Service
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