Andrew Tate’s Influence on Christian Youth Sparks Concern
Recently, internet celebrity Andrew Tate was back in the headlines after being released from house arrest in Romania. The champion kickboxer-turned-influencer-and-life-coach is facing charges of sex trafficking minors, rape, and money laundering. Anyone familiar with Tate’s videos won’t find these allegations hard to believe. He has openly billed himself for years as a “pimp,” gotten rich running a webcam pornography ring, and taught men how to manipulate and abuse women via his “Hustler’s University.”
Tate has over ten million followers on X, and before YouTube took down his channels, his subscription-based, get-rich-quick program, “The Real World,” had accumulated 450 million views. In other words, despite his rap sheet, a lot of people are listening to him—and most of those are young men.
According to the UK-based market research consultancy, Savanta, in 2023, one in three 16- to 25-year-old men said they had a positive view of Andrew Tate. Anecdotally, it seems more than a few of them are Christian young men. Nancy Pearcey, author of The Toxic War on Masculinity, wrote recently on X:
A former graduate student of mine now teaches at a high school, and she sent me an email saying, “All my male students are fans of Andrew Tate. They are even including quotes from Andrew Tate in the yearbook.” I asked, “Where do you teach?” “At a classical Christian school.”
So why the draw to Tate, especially for young men who claim to follow Jesus?
One answer, suggested by a writer at The Federalist, is that Tate exploits a void created by the “war on masculinity.” Mainstream culture, under the influence of progressive and feminist ideas, has for years dismissed everything distinctive about men as “toxic.” Male strength, competitiveness, and physicality have been denounced in pop culture and medicated in schools. The idea of fathers leading a home has been mocked ceaselessly on television, and boys have been subtly taught there’s nothing they can do or aspire to that girls can’t do better.
Faced with this crisis of identity, many boys and men turn to online gurus who assure them, contrary to the message they get everywhere else, that their masculinity is good. The image they project of physical fitness, financial success, self-mastery, and confidence with women can be intoxicating to guys who’ve been called toxic all their lives.
And too often, this retreat to morally iffy influencers has been driven by churches failing to offer a healthy and robust alternative vision of manhood. Faced with the question, “What does it mean to be masculine?” many pastors and Bible study leaders fumble, not wanting to engage in stereotypes, and failing as a result to point to anything uniquely good about being a man.
As Seth Troutt wrote recently at WORLD Opinions, Tate appeals to what’s fallen in young men, telling them, in essence, “Everything you want is good.” His message boils down to, “Get out of your mom’s basement, quit smoking weed, work really hard, get physically fit, and you’ll get rich and have lots of sex, just like me.” As Troutt concludes, “The first part of that message Christians can resonate with—the last half is evil.”
This is where Christian leadership—at home and church—should be able to rebuke figures like Tate and portray exactly what is good about being a man. C.S. Lewis observed in Mere Christianity that “The devil always sends errors into the world in pairs—pairs of opposites.” In this case, the progressive error of condemning all that is uniquely masculine as “toxic” is fueling an opposite error that celebrates the fleshly desires of men and encourages them to chase after them. Both ways lead to spiritual darkness, as Tate’s depraved lifestyle demonstrates.
Thankfully, there is an answer to the question, “What does it mean to be masculine?” and it’s one Christians are best positioned to give. There really are traits, both scripturally and historically, which men are especially called to cultivate—traits like mental and physical toughness, competitiveness, camaraderie, and loving, sacrificial leadership. A Christian book like Anthony Esolen’s No Apologies: Why Civilization Depends on the Strength of Men does a good job of explaining these. Nancy Pearcey, in her book, The Toxic War on Masculinity also cites evidence from anthropology that shows “masculine traits” like providing, protecting, and involved fatherhood discernible across cultures.
Ultimately, young men, when left to be taught by assertive online influencers eager to avoid the feminist ditch, can be driven straight into the pimp ditch. They must instead be taught through real relationships with fathers, pastors, friends, and mentors who are willing to live out all that is distinctive about God’s design for men. That is the true meaning of a role model and the call to all of us who know young men asking this age-old question.
Photo Courtesy: ©Instagram/cobratatealiveofficial
Published Date: January 29, 2025
The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.
BreakPoint is a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. BreakPoint commentaries offer incisive content people can't find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion. Founded by Chuck Colson (1931 – 2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go.
