Christianity Properly Understood Demands Bold Masculinity, Not Feminized Passivity
Source: Auguste Meyrat. "Christianity Is Not An Excuse To Be An Effeminate Wimp." August 18, 2026. thefederalist.com
The Gist
The author argues that churches today have become too soft and 'feminized,' teaching men to be passive and nice instead of strong and assertive. He claims this betrays real Christian teaching, which—rightly understood through the example of Jesus's physical incarnation and bold biblical heroes—actually calls men to be confident, confrontational, and unapologetically masculine, even if that means offending people.
Conclusion
Modern Christian churches have wrongly feminized men and stigmatized masculinity, when true Christian teaching actually supports and requires a strong, assertive, embodied masculinity that men must reclaim.
Premises
- Young men (especially white millennials and Zoomers) are in crisis, suffering from a loneliness epidemic, declining social/economic position, and lack of confidence, having been told their masculine nature is 'toxic'
- Most Christian churches today are highly feminized, promoting men who are weak, effeminate, and socially progressive while stigmatizing traditional masculine traits as evil
- This feminization contradicts core Christian doctrine, particularly the Incarnation, which affirms the goodness of embodied, physical existence (including sexual/bodily difference) rather than treating the soul as separate from and superior to the body
- Historically, the Enlightenment, Romanticism, Pietism, 19th-century biblical criticism, and 20th-century Evangelicalism progressively diluted Christianity into a sentimental, disembodied 'moralistic therapeutic deism' that prizes niceness and tolerance above all else
- Biblical exemplars (Adam, David, Jesus, Paul) were confrontational, fearless, and triumphant rather than merely nice or conflict-averse, showing that true Christian manhood embraces struggle and assertiveness
- Recovering masculine virtue requires men to build physical health, male friendship/community, and a shared mission, and to be willing to offend by speaking truth even when it violates modern social norms about safety and inclusivity
- Practical guidance for this recovery of masculinity (like that offered by pastor J. Chase Davis) is valuable and needed because most other secular self-help does not offer a sufficiently robust guiding framework for what masculine freedom is ultimately for
Assumptions
- There is an objective, God-given masculine nature distinct from femininity that involves traits like assertiveness, confrontation, and physical strength
- The described 'feminization' of churches is a widespread, accurately characterized phenomenon rather than an exaggeration or mischaracterization
- Historical intellectual developments (Enlightenment, Romanticism, Pietism, biblical criticism, Evangelicalism) are correctly and fairly summarized as causally responsible for weakening a 'proper' embodied Christian masculinity
- Emphasizing niceness, tolerance, and emotional health in churches is inherently opposed to strength, truth-telling, and virtue, rather than potentially complementary
- The manosphere's diagnosis of societal 'misandry' and a male crisis is accurate and its causes are correctly identified as systemic and disproportionately affecting men
- Christian theology, properly interpreted, endorses a specific traditionalist, assertive vision of masculinity rather than being neutral on or compatible with multiple expressions of gender temperament