The Anti-Christian Dissident Right

Gender skews in church, the deep roots of men's alienation from church, and more in this week's roundup

This week I joined podcast discussions with Campus Fellowship and Roger Marsh about my new book Life in the Negative World: Confronting Challenges in an Anti-Christian Culture.

Jason Jewell also wrote a review of it for the Kirk Center’s University Bookman.

Church and Gender

In follow-up to my piece about a new survey showing that young women are now less likely to be religiously affiliated than young men, and that there’s increasing political polarization by gender, a reader wrote to me with this comment:

I think your piece on whether American churches go majority male is quite insightful. The last church I attended in Australia from 2007 - 2015 was a case study for this shift: it was a block from a major university and had a history of conservative evangelical teaching and big student congregations going back to the 70s.

There was a big tension between the university, which had a very left wing culture, and the church. But in that 07-15 period it was already clear that male and female students and young workers in the congregation handled it very differently. With one or two exceptions the young men were alienated from the university and celebrated the biblical teaching in the church, finding it to be a “safe space” away from the stress of university. Whereas a very large and vocal percentage of the women found it very distressing that the church was not respecting the university’s values on social justice, feminism, etc.

To the men (especially first generation converts and guys from lower social status backgrounds) going to church was an expression of their independence from and rejection of the culture exemplified by the university. They already lived in the negative world. The women however believed that the two sets of values could and should be integrated with each other, and that if the church could just be more politically correct and demonstrate how it was the ultimate expression of the values of social justice and human rights then the culture would see the light and return to Christianity.

Marriage had a big neutralising impact though on the guys. I can’t think of any women from that context who became more conservative via marriage but I can think of quite a few men who over time shifted their views to align with their wives.

The Deep Roots of Men’s Alienation from Church

This week on my podcast I hosted Leon Podles, author of the books The Church Impotent and Losing the Good Portion: Why Men Are Alienated from Christianity, to talk about the deep roots of that alienation.

Paid subscribers can read the transcript.

You can subscribe to my podcast on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube.

Checking In on the Dissident Right

The major dissident right figure known as “Bronze Age Pervert” has been negative towards Christianity for some time. This week he unleashed another salvo, this one against basically all religious people:

Evangelicals, Jews, Catholics, Muslims -- all relics of three great deceptions that, however much they may have given mankind comfort in a certain part of its history, have now degenerated into group vanity, pretense and mere hysteria. They are useless now, all will have to go. All three deceptions require each other, are codependent inseparable forms of hysteria today; I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone with genuine belief even, it’s all reduced to group vanity and self-regard for the display to others. It’s inane misery and it has to be wiped out.

I stopped following BAP regularly a while back, as there was nothing new coming from him. So I’m not sure what’s got him so fired up. Regardless, it’s a good reminder that there are people on the right who really don’t like Christianity.

Best of the Web

Slate: In Defense of Divorce - This one is a doozy, so I might write more about it later.

WSJ: ‘Responsible Gambling’ Campaigns Always Fail. That’s the Point - It’s a good reminder of why we should just say no to gambling.

Institute for Family Studies: How Married Couples Perceive the American Dream

Married respondents were over 10% more likely to believe that they were “better off” than their parents were at their age, in direct contrast to individuals who are not married. Similarly, the married were 10% less likely to believe that they were “worse off,” indicating that their heightened optimism corresponds directly with a departure from pessimism and not merely just a slimming of ambivalence. While some may argue that this optimism is attributable to specific, generational mindsets, it is worth noting that this optimism is consistent across different age groups. Among both the old and the young, married couples maintain their brighter outlook.

Ryan Burge: A Sixty Year History of White Evangelicals and Politics

New Content and Media Mentions

I was honored to see that Joshua Claybourn put me on his list of the best active public intellectuals. I’m basically the only one on there who is not a celebrity, so I greatly appreciate him including me among the others.

I received other mentions and links from Anthony Bradley, John Schweiker Shelton and Jonah Wendt, Joseph Holmes and Scott Greer.

New this week:

• Will American Christianity Become Majority Male? (paid only) - A steep decline in religiosity among young women could radically alter the character of American Christianity

• Which Tradition Is to Be Conserved? - Three rival visions of what America should conserve

You might especially like the graphic I created for that tradition article.