Let Us Build

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.