Liberal parents, conservative sons

They didn’t see this coming. Liberals in America are scratching their heads trying to explain what happened in November’s election and the closer they look, the stranger it seems. There was a decided shift to the right among young men in America, crossing ethnic lines and shocking the political class. They shouldn’t have been shocked.

The evidence was there all along and the pattern has been growing year by year. Looking for young men? Go visit a MAGA rally or drop in at your local conservative church. And these young men are young—some of them still teenagers. They showed up in droves at Trump rallies. The events drew thousands of college fraternity brothers dressed in blazers and, more visibly, an army of young men wearing red, white, and blue and sporting MAGA baseball caps. The young male vote is an increasingly conservative vote, perplexing many liberal parents.

The New York Times has noticed the trend. A recent headline in the nation’s newspaper of record made that clear: “When Your Son Goes MAGA.” The paper then explained that a good number of liberal parents struggle to understand their own young sons. “As more young men support President Trump, some parents are feeling flummoxed.” They seem to be shocked that their young male offspring are increasingly committed to conservative ideas and gathering in conservative spaces.

As reporter Callie Holtermann rightly notes, children often follow their parents when it comes to political loyalties. In recent times, however, many conservative sons are breaking with the politics of their liberal parents. One liberal mom had to undergo “tearful therapy sessions” to deal with her own sense of parental failure. “I’ve had to do a lot of soul-searching and reading about it to not feel like I’ve failed as a mom,” she said.

And it’s not just politics. For the first time in living memory, young men are more likely than young women to attend church. A few months ago, another New York Times report by Ruth Graham set the trend clearly: “For the first time in modern American history, young men are now more religious than their female peers. They attend services more often and are more likely to identify as religious.” Today’s young women tend to be more liberal and more secular than young men.

What’s going on here? Ruth Graham noted something really significant: “Childless young men are likelier than childless young women to say they want to become parents someday, by a margin of 12 percentage points, according to a survey last year by Pew.” They want to be husbands, they want to be fathers, they want to work, they want to go to church, they want to commit themselves to a bold theology, they want to fulfill a courageous male role and they want to reinforce each other as brothers. They also want father figures they can trust, admire, and emulate. They want respect and they will give respect. The larger society, driven by woke ideologies and pervaded by politicized emotionalism, offers them no encouragement. Liberal churches and female preachers draw virtually none of these young men, who, even if many are not yet well grounded in Scripture and natural law, know that the world around them is often upside-down. They see the culture around them as weirdly confused. These young men are not confused.

They can tell the difference between a boy and a girl and are thoroughly certain about the matter. They don’t hang on every word President Trump says, but they are drawn to his energy and straight talk. They also feel that Trump’s enemies are often their enemies as well. They like the male affirmation that comes in conservative spaces (and increasingly only in conservative spaces) and they are earnestly seeking young women who are as unconfused as they are. They enjoy being male and hunger to be taken seriously.

Looking for young men today? Don’t go to a liberal church or seminary—they aren’t there. They are far more likely to be in a conservative school, a college, or seminary devoted to the faith once for all delivered to the saints, and in a conservative church. A photo published by the Times alongside the Ruth Graham article showed a worship service with rows of young men up front. It’s not an accident. They are drawn to bold faith and biblical teaching. They hunger for truth, and someone better deliver it to them. A researcher cited in the Times article said that Christianity is seen as “the one institution that isn’t initially and formally skeptical of them as a class.” That rings true, for sure.

At my advanced age, I am well past being confused as a young man, but I get to be surrounded by thousands of them every day. They make me incredibly happy. As president of a conservative seminary and college, I get to teach them, work with them, send them out into the world, and go to church with them. I get to see so many of them growing up as young husbands and new fathers. They amaze me. I thank God for them. They may be a perplexity to the world (and even to some of their own parents) but to me they are a sign of God’s favor. It’s our task to teach and encourage them for a life of faithfulness as men of God.