The War on Christian Men Part II: The Infiltration of The Church
This is the second installment of a series of 5 articles titled The War on Christian Men: A systematic examination of how modern culture attacks masculinity.
You can read the first installment here.
The Architects of Emasculation clearly have an agenda against men and masculinity. And they have been so effective with their propaganda, that they have successfully infiltrated the Church.
Now, when I say “the Church”, I’m talking about the Catholic Church. Not only because I’m Catholic, and I wholeheartedly believe the Catholic Church to be the One True Church established by Jesus Christ in 33 A.D., but also because the radical Christian relativism that is a natural consequence of the Protestant revolution means that all other Christian denominations except the Catholic and Orthodox have been infiltrated long ago.
However, that doesn’t mean that our Church has succeeded in fighting the enemy at our gates. Even though I —and all Catholics should— believe Jesus’ promise that “the gates of Hell will not prevail” against our Church, it’s still undeniable that the Holy Institution which Christ established is going through a rough period, and we’ve allowed poisonous post-modern ideologies to infiltrate it.
The Church cannot be destroyed, but it can absolutely be damaged.
Gender Ideology
Last week, the Catholic world was shocked by the news of a so-called “LGBTQ pilgrimage” entering into St. Peter’s Basilica. Now, a person struggling with same-sex attraction entering such a Holy place looking for forgiveness and grace with a spirit of humility and contrition would (and should) be welcomed with open arms. That would hardly be a controversial issue, as we are all sinners desperately needing the grace of God.
The problem with this group is that they clearly entered this Holy place filled with a prideful spirit sadly too common among such groups.
These people entered into the basilica in a spirit of rebellion: “F*ck the rules”, reads the shirt of a man walking around a sacred place hand in hand with another man.
The Church is a hospital for sinners. But only for those sinners who are actively trying to heal. It’s not a hospital where we flaunt our sins pridefully and build our identities on them.
The worst part is that this is actively promoted by some members of the clergy. Some of those who should guide us towards virtue are instead actively promoting sinful ideologies in the name of “tolerance” and “openness”.
This particular pilgrimage was sponsored by Fr. James Martin, a jesuit priest who’s an open advocate of “lgbtq rights”:
Before the procession, the pilgrims attended a mass presided over by a high-ranking prelate. That is “a clear sign of change,” said American activist Father James Martin, founder of Outreach, a church ministering to LGBTQ+ people.
Many have criticized Pope Leo’s willingness to even meet with Fr. Martin, someone who so clearly and openly is pushing a narrative that is contrary to the teachings of the Church.
However, in trying to abstain from making scandal, I’ll say this: we don’t know what Pope Leo said or what his position is on this topic. As Pope, he has met with all kinds of clergymen, on both the conservative and liberal extremes. He also refused to meet with the members of the aforementioned pilgrimage, which some interpret as a clear message of disproval.
I won’t claim to know what Pope Leo thinks about this whole thing, but the one thing that is clear is that there are some clergymen, like Fr. James Martin, who willfully open the door to backwards ideologies, and who are actively playing a part in perpetuating the crises of masculinity and femininity within the Church.
What Even is “LGBTQ”?
The first problem with Fr. James’ ministry (and all other ministries pertaining to “lgbt issues”) is that there is no such thing as “lgbtq”. Your sexual preferences or inclinations are not an identity.
Disordered sexual attraction (regardless of whether it’s same sex attraction or disordered heterosexual attractions) is a sin, and just like we don’t base our identities on whichever sin is most prevalent in our lives, we shouldn’t even be talking about “lgbtq”. There is no such thing. All there is is men and women, sinful in various ways. And that’s all there is to it.
We don’t build our identities based on other sins, so why is it acceptable to categorize those with disordered sexual attraction based on that particular proclivity?
Simple Man
But what does all of this have to do with masculinity?
Well, if people like Fr. Martin continue to confuse Catholics by promoting twisted misunderstandings of what gender even is, it becomes increasingly difficult to define the tenets of masculinity. The relativism of gender ideology makes it nearly impossible to provide men with a clear set of guidelines to follow and adhere to.
How can we teach men how to be men if we can’t even agree to call out sexual deviance for the sin that it is? It becomes hard to talk about virtue when spiritual authorities like Fr. James confuse those who listen to them by pushing a message that creates even more gender confusion.
We can’t even begin to discuss masculinity and the virtues it requires if we’re still needing to talk about “lgbt” issues. The enemy has us occupied with scandals like this one that require our immediate attention, further creating an environment of doubt and uncertainty for the men who are looking to receive clear guidelines on masculinity from the Church.
The Feminization of the Gospel
Beyond the aforementioned problems that even engaging in the gender debate bring, there’s a wider spread and way more subtle issue that contributes to the overall emasculation of the Church: the watering down of the Gospel.
The reaction of the Church to the last few decades of terrible controversies has been to try and attract more people to the faith by showing how “open-minded”, “tolerant”, and “inclusive” Catholicism is. This has backfired tremendously, and it’s had the effect of relativizing truth and trying to adjust the Gospel to the postmodern time, instead of remaining firm in the teachings of Christ and on the traditions of the Church.
These attempts to spread a watered-down, “inclusive” Gospel to bring more people into the Church and help her recover from the crises she faced at the beginning of this millennium have had an effect that, in all honesty, could have been predicted and prevented: men are finding it difficult to feel at home in the Church.
The soft, overly gentle, passive, and emotional message that has been pushed in an attempt to be seen as more inclusive has attracted women and feminized men to the Church. Masculine men are not coming to the Church because they need to know not just the gentle and meek side of Jesus but also the powerful, righteously angry, and courageous side of Him.
Failing to show all sides of Jesus, both the one that appeals to the feminine and the one that appeals to the masculine, has very often turned our faith into a sort of “emotional therapy” instead of what it really is: the Truth, which requires from us sacrifice, suffering, self-denial, struggle, great courage, and the carrying of our Cross.
We’ve not been appealing to the masculine heart, and the crisis of masculinity in the Church is proof of that.
Now, there is a way forward. There is a path to recover the strength that we’ve lost and to once again remember that we seek to imitate the most masculine man in history, the Lion of Judah, commander of Holy Legions and He who made the ultimate sacrifice for us.
We are going through a dark period in our Church, that’s undeniable. But the gates of Hell will never prevail, and God sent us to this particular time in history so we could be the ones who fight against the spirit of the enemy who has successfully infiltrated our faith and emasculated the men within it.
In the next installment of this series, we’ll talk about the psychological implications of these systematic attacks on masculinity, before moving on to the final two articles, in which we’ll devise a faith-based battleplan to take a stand against the enemy and start to rekindle the fire in our masculine hearts.
