I’ve had a link to this Jordan B. Peterson video in my Evernote files for awhile. It’s his “Message to the Christian Churches.” I saved it “for later” because I thought it would be something I should devote my whole attention to.
Now, I’m not a huge JBP fan. I honestly don’t know much about him, although I can tell that he’s obviously onto something. He’s looking into that space I and many others are looking into and telling us what he sees there - great, saurian shapes lumbering in the mist, some with claws, horns, teeth... One might say it’s the wild land that we came from - and to which we must return.
I think his premises are questionable at times, coming at it as he does as a clinical psychologist, but like I said, he’s on to something.
In the first half, he describes the dominant ideology of our time: that human culture is patriarchal, it destroys the planet, and male ambition is a tyrannical enterprise. This weaponized ideology has been devastating to young men.
His message is simple:
“The Christian church is there to remind people, young men included - perhaps even first and foremost - that they have a woman to find, a garden to walk in, a family to nurture, an ark to build, a land to conquer, a ladder to Heaven to build, and the utter, terrible catastrophe of life to face stalwartly in truth, devoted to love, and without fear.”
That’s as powerful a personal mission statement as I’ve ever heard.
“The Churches,” he says, “Need to invite the young men back. Tell them “We want to work with you,” and to give them something to do. Remind them who they are, in the deepest sense, and help them become that.
It echoes what I studied in Dr. John Cuddeback’s “Man of the Household” series a couple of weeks ago. He noted that we men are called to be craftsmen of one kind or another. We’re called to build, to be active, to arrange things well. We are called to create something amazing “in our own character.”
It’s enough to make a guy stand up and shout, “Deus vult!” But what do most of us do when that impulse arises? We pat it on the head and tell it to simmer down. We’re beyond that now, you see. The dark ages of patriarchy are coming to an end. If there are any differences between men and women, they’re purely mechanical.
In the Christian world, we’re likely to be told to simply endure the hardships of life, to “die to ourselves,” and to be docile to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
I’m not taking issue with most of that. Of course we need to “unite our suffering to Christ,” and to appreciate suffering as a gift from God for our (ultimate, eventual) good. What I have an issue with is what’s missing. I don’t want to just restrain my passions - I want to be a great man.
This is the point where, it seems, sufficiently restrained churchy men would tap the breaks. “Easy there, buddy. That’s PRIDE.”
Let me be clear about something. I’ve been kicking this stuff around for a long time. I’ve been a consumer (it’s really the best word for it) of male-focused self-improvement for years. My conclusion: it’s completely inadequate if you take the Man God, Jesus Christ, out of it. Given my history of doubt and cowardice and even blasphemy, the idea that I, of all people, am now proclaiming Christ with all the will I can muster, is absurd. Yes, I know that this is probably even more pride speaking, so take it for what it’s worth, but this is what I believe.
Anyway, when I’m saying that I want to be a great man, it’s in the context of this central belief - that we can’t know ourselves as men apart from Christ. “Great” means to be fully alive, enlivened by grace, living in accordance to our mission that is given to each and every one of us by the Man God who knows us by name.
I just don’t think that greatness is achieved by simply restraining the passions. It’s a prerequisite, sure. I think this greatness calls for us to do more than avoid - we need to build.
I am completely on board with that.
What do we need to build? Well, look around! Everything is falling apart. Not just our institutions, but every single, basic, heretofore-unquestioned premise about reality is crumbling right in front of us.
Fortunately, there are builders among us who have been hard at work for a long time meeting the challenge of resisting the entropy of our age. I’m honored to know a good number of men who are building great things, starting with their families. After that, they’re building businesses that serve in good and needful ways, and even broader than that, they’re building communities.
I want to build like them. For awhile, I thought, I was doing just that. When everything fell apart, I stood there in the detritus of the weird, perhaps unholy edifice I’d been working on, and despaired. But now? Well, I don’t see all of that detritus as junk - it’s building material.
The job is pretty straightforward. I have:
“A woman to find, a garden to walk in, a family to nurture, an ark to build, a land to conquer, a ladder to Heaven to build, and the utter, terrible catastrophe of life to face stalwartly in truth, devoted to love, and without fear.”
Thanks for reading! I appreciate it. Please like, share, or rip me a new one if you’d like.
Unbeknownst to you, you ARE a great man.
I wasn't sure about this Substack at first (I came in before the furniture had been fully arranged). But you're definitely hitting stride. Keep it up.