Putting Away Childish Things

No.227: September 6, 2024

Welcome to The Square Inch, a Friday newsletter on Christianity, culture, and all of the many-varied “square inches” of God’s domain. This is a paid subscription feature with a preview before the paywall. Please consider subscribing to enjoy this weekly missive along with an occasional “Off The Shelf” feature about books, a frequent Pipe & Dram feature of little monologues/conversations in my study, and Wednesday’s “The Quarter Inch,” a quick(er) commentary on current events.

Dear Friends,

I apologize for the tardy publication of this week’s Square Inch Newsletter. A funeral/memorial service took up half a day yesterday and I decided to not just do a rush job in the afternoon.

Last weekend at the TruthXChange conference the title of my talk was “Putting Away Childish Things: Transcending Pagan Masculinity.” I won’t reproduce the whole thing here—I’m fairly certain they will be releasing video in due time—but I will summarize. I talked about this rapid-onset obsession with “masculinity” going on in Christian conservative circles. Perhaps you’ve noticed it? Quite a large and loud cadre of Very Online young men are all about weightlifting and fitness, nutrition, ruling their households and finding a wife who will be devoted to nothing more than cooking and sex and having babies, and being muscular warriors for the cause of … well, it’s hard to say sometimes. They call it “truth” or “the kingdom of God” or “Christ,” but mostly it looks like Donald Trump and/or tearing down the classically liberal political order with which we’ve been blessed and replacing it with an American Caesar. It is, of course, all wrapped up and intertwined with the “Christian Nationalism” movement.

I maintain that nobody woke up one day obsessed with masculinity because they had been reading their Bibles. Far from it. They woke up one day obsessed with masculinity because it is a pure reaction to what is going on in the world—radical egalitarianism, feminism, talk of “toxic masculinity,” and so on. The new masculinity movement is a purely reactionary one. It is okay, of course, to react to things going on in the world. What is not okay is reaction without being grounded in Scripture and godliness. Even worse is reacting by listening to pagans who extol pagan masculinity. And a great many of these young men do exactly that, when they borrow wholesale the terminology and cultural assessments of Bronze Age Pervert.

Anyway, one of the many red-flag attributes of this new fraternity of Real Men™ is their contempt for their elders. In my talk I even reprised a certain little Bible study I did about Rehoboam and his buddies. Recently my friend Joe Boot posted this little reminder about something in the Bible:

Now, I should preface this slightly. Someone at this conference was completely incredulous about my talk. They’d never seen or experienced this rabble of macho boys or the crude way they interact with others. Never heard of Bronze Age Pervert, either. Well, allow me to introduce you to a couple of replies to Joe Boot’s post:

Yes, quoting the Bible is an “insane take.” Quoting the Bible is “coping and seething.” These fellows need to get back on their meds.

I am not very worried about these misguided revolutionaries ever actually succeeding at any of their aims. Hot-headed revolutionaries usually end up like all of Marius Pontmercy’s friends in Les Miserables. I do lament the energy and years they will waste on this Children’s Crusade, and more than that, I worry about the human emotional and spiritual (and, mark my words, eventually physical) toll these perpetually adolescent boys will have on those around them—their churches, their wives, and their kids. This isn’t masculinity. It’s childishness.