Much of the unrest, abuse and misguided leadership so prevalent now in various spheres can be traced to insecure males who are desperate to feel validated.
This toxic masculinity — well displayed in political and religious life today— reflects values and characteristics fully at odds with Jesus’ life and teachings.
When approaching adolescence, many of us stopped pretending to be towel-draped Superman or the town’s fastest gunslinger with a plastic pistol drawn from a fake rhinestone holster.
Others, however, continue overcompensating for their fragile sense of masculinity. And everyone else pays the price.
Politicians, pundits and pulpit pounders loudly demean those Jesus called his followers to love and serve. Their self-righteousness casts aside any sense of rightness.
When justice, empathy and self-denial are assaulted as negative attributes, then anyone claiming to be Christian — or human for that matter — has lost the plot of the gospel.
The Beatitudes from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount bless the meek, merciful and peacemakers. Yet today’s high-profile white Christian nationalists ignore the teachings of Jesus in favor of
required public postings of the Ten Commandments that are routinely broken as well by the heroes of those very advocates.
Mature, responsible and faithful people don’t need to exert power over others to have a healthy sense of self-worth.
In fact, there is a lot of freedom and fulfilment in waking up each morning without the drive to demean or otherwise hurt someone else in order to massage one’s own fragile ego.
Unfulfilled and insecure men, however, welcome scapegoats — like blaming immigrants for their own lack of whatever measure of success they failed to achieve.
Therefore, they empower other weak men who build their power through manipulating those whose alignment gives them a desired identity of superiority, toughness and control. Just throw on a red cap and look for all the threatening enemies who make you feel weak.
Toxic masculinity is on full display in our nation — especially in high-profile government and religious roles and the combustible mix of the two.
Politicians and preachers shrug at or defiantly defend powerful men who sexually assault girls and young women.
Legal accountability so stringently applied to those seeking refuge in our nation is not applied to those who use positions of power to exploit others and enrich themselves.
Recruited government goons — concealed by masks and overloaded with weaponry — stalk our streets with little training and the disregard for human life.
Just playing tough guys into what should be adulthood. Sent by those who keep a safe distance.
Braggadocios government officials seek to equate the nation’s weaponry with their own personal strength — with no caution or personal investment. Spray-tanned faces that have always turned from real bravery set the agenda of violence and death for others.
Jesus, however, showed and taught his followers that authority doesn’t come from exerting power over the weak and vulnerable but by widespread love of neighbor.
If God gives humanity its value and grace, why are there such ongoing and costly efforts to find meaning elsewhere?
Nothing reveals how far out of touch someone is with Jesus than the recent ridiculous idea that being empathetic is problematic rather than essential to healthy living.
Historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez brings much of this to light in her insightful and important 2020 book, Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation.
“The products Christians consume shape the faith they inhabit,” she writes. “Today, what it means to be a ‘conservative evangelical’ is as much about culture as it is about theology.”
Du Mez adds: “This is readily apparent in the heroes they celebrate.”
Sadly, the Jesus of the Gospels is not the preferred model. He is either miscast in the macho terms preferred or simply ignored in favor of some preening and boastful model of pretend masculinity.
One doesn’t have to follow too many breadcrumbs to see that weak men pretending to be strong are the starting blocks for today’s cultural toxicity. There’s a better way to be both a man and a follower of Jesus.
John D. Pierce is director of the Jesus Worldview Initiative (jesusworldview.org), part of Belmont University’s Rev. Charlie Curb Center for Faith Leadership. Join us for the second annual Jesus Worldview Conference in Nashville October 12-13, 2026.