LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler interviewed Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley about the “war against manhood and the American cultural crisis” in his latest “Thinking in Public,” June 21.
They discussed the Missouri Senator’s latest book, Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs, which was released in print, Kindle and audiobook formats last month.
Mohler began the conversation: “Well, I think you know you started an argument, and I think you intended to start an argument. At least formally, you kind of started this argument at a 2021 convention, the National Conservatism Conference, when you spoke about a crisis of manhood. So what were you doing, and what was the argument you hoped to get started?”
Hawley replied, “Well, the argument was that American men really are in crisis. And if you look across the data, it’s really clear. You can look at the number of men committing suicide, the number of men struggling with depression, the number of fatherless homes, which continues to go up and up in this country, the number of men who are out of work and not even looking for work. We’re not talking about unemployment, but not even in the labor force at all, a number that’s also staggeringly high.
“And I think if you look at those various indicators, what you can see is there really is a crisis of men in this country, and the question is why, and what are we going to do about it? And the book really began with me thinking through that, and then also thinking about my two little boys, who are 10 and 8 now, and thinking about my responsibility as a dad to help them become the men God meant them to be.”
Mohler and Hawley agreed that restoring a healthy appreciation of manhood in American society requires an appreciation for the biblical foundations of Western society. Cultural Marxists of the 20th century, they said, attacked the Christian foundations of society as patriarchal, racist and oppressive. Their 21st-century heirs often reject altogether Western society’s Christian heritage.
“They aimed their fire at the Christian influence, the biblical influence in our culture,” Hawley said, “and that’s been going strong now for 60 years. And we’ve seen it in recent years really reach a crescendo where that way of thinking has come to be very politically powerful, very economically powerful through the corporations, advertising, and entertainment, and I think it is much the threat of our time.
“And the only antidote to it that I see,” he added, “is to return to our biblical heritage, to go back to the foundational truths that are at the core of our culture. And the Left hates it when I say that, but that’s just the truth. And that’s why I spent so much time in the book talking about the Bible and the Bible’s vision of manhood.”
To read or watch Mohler’s complete “Thinking in Public” interview with Hawley, visit https://albertmohler.com/2023/06/21/josh-hawley.