Andrew Tate & the need for better men

The first time I heard of Andrew Tate was last week when Greta Thunberg’s epic response to his online provocation went viral and somehow ended up in my Twitter feed. A few days and a couple of slices of pizza later the name Andrew Tate once again went viral as news broke that he had just been arrested in Romania, charged with human trafficking and rape. Upon hearing this I dug a little deeper and was literally shocked (and disgusted) by what I read.

I am not going to spend the rest of this article regurgitating all that I discovered, but suffice to say that in light of what was already known about the man I cannot fathom how it took so long to arrest him. (This article by Exodus Cry sums it up well).

I want to raise 2 ways in which this case has affected me:

1. I should have been more attentive
Like I said, I had never heard of Tate until last week, but after chatting to my high-school age kids it is clear that there is a significant chunk of the young adult population (especially young men) who have been deeply and disturbingly influenced by Andrew Tate. Both of my older children were amazed that I had never heard of him as many of the teenage boys in their peer-group have apparently been endorsing and mimicking Tate’s dangerously misogynistic attitudes for some time. Indeed it would seem that he has hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of young men lapping up his controversial online content which is still available across the internet despite most platforms having banned him.

Now I would like to think that I am pretty clued up when it comes to current affairs and what is happening in the wider culture, but it would seem that while I have been absorbing information about the war in Ukraine, the cost of living crisis, striking unions and various other crises around the globe, I had missed that there is an entire generation of young men on my own doorstep who are tuning into much darker channels in a desperate search for guidance into manhood (more about that in a moment).

While I am reassured that my own kids were able to recognise the nefarious influence of Andrew Tate and categorically reject it, I am gutted that I was so blind to what has been bubbling away below the surface for so long and clearly reached masses of impressionable young men.

I should have been more attentive.

2. We need to raise better men

On the surface it would seem that the victims of Tate’s alleged crimes are the young women who have fallen into the ‘lover boy’ trap that Andrew Tate and his brother, Tristan, had laid. However, there are other ‘victims’ here too. For many years I have used the following definition for human trafficking:

The exploitation of the vulnerable by the powerful for illegitimate gain.

The young women allegedly trafficked by Tate are not the only victims here. I would argue that the legion of young men who have been ‘seduced’ by Tate’s image of wealth, women, cars and self-confidence are also being exploited. Young men are currently growing up in the midst of a masculinity crisis, constantly bombarded by messages that suggest that strong is wrong because strong men are predatory and dangerous and therefore the only ‘safe’ kind of man is a weak, passive man. Couple that with the painful absence of fathers in the some homes, the toxic tyranny of abusive men in other homes and a tragic dearth of positive male role models in wider culture, it is no wonder that young men are looking online for help in what it means to become a man. Unwittingly these young men are being exploited by powerful men, like Andrew Tate, who is using wealth and perceived power to lure them into pursuing lifestyles that are self-serving and wicked. Young men who imitate Andrew Tate are only a few steps away from repeating his crimes, the victims of whom are invariably vulnerable young women.

I raise this because I believe that it is here where we as Christians, and especially we as Christian men, can really make a difference. We need to be proactively and passionately engaged in raising better men. What are we modelling in our own homes and churches? In our work places and communities? Are we reinforcing negative stereotypes that real men should be passive and weak or abusive and misogynistic? The Bible has much to say about the beauty of manhood, about what it means to use our strength to serve, our courage to lovingly lead and our passion to pursue justice and mercy. I hope to post more about this in coming months, but I guess this is where my response to the Tate tragedy has taken me. We must do better! Our young men need bucket loads of grace, clear direction, loving discipline and a compelling vision for what it means to use your life to serve others, rather than using others to serve yourself.

In other words our young men need Jesus – the Son of God who laid down his life to serve and save others. He opposed abusive power and sided with the weak, the vulnerable and the marginalised. Women were safe around him. Men were compelled by him. The broken trusted him. The powerful feared him. He didn’t flaunt the wealth of heaven or lord his divine power over others. Rather he loosed his grip on heavenly glory and used his power to redeem sinners.

Jesus didn’t drive a Bugatti, he carried a cross.

Father, help us to commend your son to this generation of young men, for your glory and for the good of our world. Amen.

Dai HankeyComment