Josh Hawley: America needs 'stronger men'
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., sounds off on 'Life, Liberty & Levin' on fatherlessness, uptick in male depression and suicides.
Of all the things this country needs—stronger borders, better-paying jobs, some basic safety on our streets—above all, America needs stronger men. The left has spent decades running men down, blaming them for everything from climate change to "the patriarchy." They’re wrong. Strong men aren’t the problem. For America, stronger, better men are the solution.
All is not well with men in this country. The numbers tell the tale. Men are lonelier than ever before. They’re dropping out of the labor force in greater numbers than ever before. They’re struggling more with drug abuse and alcohol. They increasingly forego a college education, even as they delay getting married and having kids.
If any other demographic group was struggling to this extent, we’d call it a national crisis. And it is.
But the left doesn’t see it that way. They blame boys and men for the sins of the world. They say all masculinity is "toxic," that simply to be a man is to make the world a worse place. They propose to do away with "traditional masculinity" altogether.
The left’s campaign to re-educate men begins as early as preschool, where too many boys are punished for aggressive play and, if they don’t comply, medicated out of their boyishness. As young men, they’re denied the manufacturing jobs that allowed their fathers to earn good wages—the governing class having long ago shipped those jobs overseas—and set adrift on college campuses filled with activists who despise them. And popular culture relentlessly bangs this same drum: when men aren’t morons, they’re actively evil.
At bottom, this critique of men is rooted in a lie: that men shouldn’t be leaders, creators, and heroes, but just consumers looking out for themselves.
The truth is just the opposite. We need men to step up.
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America’s men have the power to transform this country for the better. Want to curb the epidemic of child poverty? Get a father to start contributing to his wife and children. Want to address the cataclysm of youth violence? Put a father in the picture. Men can help bring peace and order to a nation wracked by crises. They can change the destiny of their families and whole neighborhoods. Their power, once tapped, can be a mighty and world-shaping thing.
Power alone, though, isn’t enough. Power only becomes true strength, a force for good, when it’s used in the right ways, for the right reasons. What we need is a guide, a roadmap for what it means to be a good man.
And for that, we should turn to the faith of our fathers.
In the same breath that the left attacks traditional manhood, they attack traditional faith as well. That’s no coincidence. Faith and manhood are linked, because for centuries men have looked to faith, to the Bible, to understand who they are and what they can be. In this time of turmoil, our ancient faith can guide us again.
The story of the Bible is more than a collection of familiar tales. It is an invitation to men to find their place in the cosmos, to take up their role in a grand drama that supercharges their lives with meaning.
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Sen. Josh Hawley told Fox News Digital he has not announced a presidential candidate he would back for 2024. (Jon Michael Raasch/Fox News Digital)
Beginning with Adam in the Garden of Eden, the Bible says men are tasked with bringing order to the world, transforming chaos into beauty—the wilderness into a garden. To perform that noble task, every man must form his character: he must shape his soul. The path to manhood is the path to virtue.
Men are called to form the character of husbands and fathers. They are charged to give themselves for others and humbly accept their own limits, just as Abraham devoted himself to his wife Sarah and trusted God’s promise of a son to come.
Men are called to the character of warriors and builders. They must battle evil and bring beauty out of chaos, just as Joshua challenged the monsters of Canaan and David laid the foundations for God’s temple.
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And men are called to the character of priests and kings. They must bring the promise of eternity everywhere they go and use their power to preserve truth and liberty.
For years, American men have heard just one story—that they’re outmoded and oppressive, that the best they can do is stand aside and let today’s elites run things. It’s a story preached by our contemporary culture from cradle to grave. Stand down. Be passive. You’ll just make things worse.
It’s time to start telling a better story. It’s time to call our boys and men to lead.
That’s how you transform a nation.
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