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Thomas Sowell, in his enlightening book, The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy, expounds how the prevailing vision of our era, the social justice compassionate vision is “long overdue for a critical re-examination — or, for many, a first examination.” This vision, with its roots deep in atheistic Marxist ideology, has captured young and old, especially women, and sadly, many Christians have bought into it. Sowell writes:

This vision so permeates the media and academia and has made such major inroads into the religious community that many grow to adulthood, unaware that there is any other way of looking at things, or that evidence might be relevant to checking out the sweeping assumptions of so-called “thinking people.”

Many of these “thinking people” could more accurately be characterised as articulate people, as people whose verbal nimbleness can elude both evidence and logic. This can be a fatal talent when it supplies the crucial insulation from reality being behind many historic catastrophes.

— Thomas Sowell, “The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy“, page 6.

Sowell draws a striking contrast between the elite academia, or the Anointed, and the general population, whom he refers to as the Benighted — those deemed unenlightened and trapped in moral or intellectual darkness. This perspective of the Benighted also includes those from colonial times, such as missionaries, explorers, or pioneers, who, despite their good intentions, incredible creativity, back-breaking hard work, selfless sacrifices, courage, and faith in God, are still seen as being in complete darkness. Tear down those statues, don’t read their stories, or better still, rewrite them; they are no longer our heroes!

Superior?

The Anointed hold a vision for the future — one that promises equality for all and positions them “morally on a higher plane”. The Benighted are still clinging to the old ways of thinking, that of ‘equal opportunity for all’ and not the new ‘equality of outcome’ straight from the Marxist economic playbook that has impoverished and oppressed every country to which it was applied. Despite this, the Anointed see it as their mission to enlighten the Benighted, raising their consciousness and opening their minds to embrace their social justice equality vision. After all, to the Anointed, theirs is the only moral vision.

The elite God-mocking thinkers from academia are continually encouraged to think up new ideas to filter down to us gullible Christians. We are what Lenin referred to as ‘useful idiots’ — Westerners who sympathised with the communist regimes and who spread their propaganda unaware of the true agenda, that being to dismantle democracy, undermine Christianity and promote secularism.

Many Christians in academia, or those who’ve been educated by the Anointed through universities, have moved on to church and missional leadership, including sitting on boards. Unwittingly, we are acting as “useful idiots” for the Anointed, because our faith has been severely undermined and reshaped to the harmless, social justice type, and we bend that way in our direction and decisions. Despite our efforts to show the Anointed that we are good and law-abiding citizens, they continue to mock God and place more and more restrictions upon us — history testifies to that truth. How long will it be until the Bible will be outlawed as ‘hate speech’? We have seen evidence of this attitude emerging in some areas already.

Attrition

Our “docile, harmless and obedient” posture to the Anointed has cost Christians and churches the respect of not only the elite — whose respect we will never gain — but also of our men, both young and old.

To lose the respect of our men and boys is a death knell for any establishment.

We don’t need to rely on statistics, though they are readily available to confirm it; even the secular media has reported on the ‘man drought’ in Protestant churches, affecting both young and older men. Young Christian women seeking godly husbands often tell me how few young men of strong faith remain in churches today. Several factors contribute to this, as I discussed in my Lost Boys book, including the assault of pornography and the feminisation of churches and the faith itself (noting that pornography consumption has a feminising effect on men).

However, I’m beginning to wonder if these are merely symptoms of a deeper issue: that the Protestant church has lost its vision and is failing to present an alternative to the world’s vision. The Anointed promote a message that tells our young men they are to blame for everything wrong in this world. They are painted as agents of an oppressive patriarchy, responsible for pillaging the earth through their adventurous innovation and exploration, leaving us in a state of “catastrophic” and “apocalyptic” climate change. Men are accused of being the instigators of wars and the destroyers of civilisations for millennia.

This narrative leaves little room for young men to see their purpose, value, or role within the church or society, it’s no wonder we are seeing such a high rate of suicide, or what is known as deaths of despair amongst our young men and men in general.

Strength in Tradition

This ‘man drought’ trend in Protestant churches is not happening amongst the Eastern Orthodox churches , who are experiencing exponential growth in new converts, especially of young men. Their values and practices have not shifted over the generations like the Protestant and Catholic denominations. They have held their ground against the persecution of the hose in power who today are the Anointed, who insist on their social justice agenda of diversity, equity and inclusion and demand that churches embrace their vision of justice.

One young man told me that he was drawn to the Eastern Orthodox Church during the oppressive and unlawful Covid lockdowns enforced by the Anointed and their faithful. The Eastern Orthodox Churches, being used to the oppressive Communist regime, recognised this behaviour for what it was and, therefore, did not enforce it on their congregations like the Catholic and Protestant churches. This young man commented that he saw ‘scores’ of young men become converts during that time, and the influx has not subsided.

A recent article in The New York Post titled “Young men leaving traditional churches for ‘masculine’ Orthodox Christianity in droves” interviews young American men who have converted from Protestant denominations, quoting a young man, Ben Christiansen:

“I think there are a lot of Protestants who want a more traditional, grounded, historical faith, and I think for young people especially, it makes sense because so much else in our life is changing all the time.”

Christenson’s story isn’t just anecdotal. As more and more Protestant churches unfurl Pride flags and Black Lives Matter banners in front of their gates, young men are trending toward more traditional forms of worship.

A survey of Orthodox churches around the country found that parishes saw a 78% increase in converts in 2022, compared with pre-pandemic levels in 2019. And while historically men and women converted in equal numbers, vastly more men have joined the church since 2020. [Emphasis mine.]

The article explains that the structure and continuity required of Orthodox believers — such as regular prayers, fasting, and daily disciplines — may appear rigid, but it embodies a more “masculine” approach to faith. Men are naturally drawn to these “traditional” forms of worship, which include a strong sense of accountability.

Much of today’s Protestant churches demand little from men apart from their tithes. Our men are without accountability, feminised, infantilised and bored. The traditional Orthodox version of Christianity that demands structure and continuity, including regular confession, prescribed prayers and fasting, might just be a good thing for our young men.

“Where there is no vision, the people perish (or cast-off moral restraint, ESV).”
~ Proverbs 29:18 (KJV)

Matthew Henry commented on this proverb that the Gospel “… is an open vision, which holds forth Christ, which humbles the sinner and exalts the Saviour, which promotes holiness in the life and conversation: and these are precious truths to keep the soul alive and prevent it from perishing.”

We must again provide our young men with God’s vision for them. Not the vision of the “self-congratulating” Anointed, who continually create vain “imaginations’ and ‘every high thing that raises itself against the knowledge of God.” We must bring masculinity, discipline and accountability back to our churches for the sake of our young men.  If we don’t, then they will perish in their moral unrestraint.

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Republished with thanks to The Good Sauce. Image courtesy of Adobe.