Why young men like Andrew Tate

I was first introduced to Andrew Tate by my younger brother—he texted me a link to one of Tate’s videos about four years ago accompanied by his commentary: “lol this guy is insane.” I watched the video and texted back: “This guy isn’t serious, is he? Like, he’s playing a character, right?” My brother texted back: “Nope, he’s for real.” I didn’t buy it.

Then, a few months later, I was preaching at a middle school winter camp when I saw eight eighth grade boys sitting in a circle in the woods during free time. I walked up to them, “What are you gents talking about?”

“Don’t tell him!” one shouted.

“Tell him!” another disagreed.

“No, you tell him,” the first boy replied as they all had smiles on their faces, laughing and having a good time.

One of them finally caved. “Andrew Tate,” he said as he showed me the video they were watching on his phone: “Andrew Tate Motivational Speech.” Even now, if you search for “Andrew Tate” on YouTube, one of the top suggested terms is “Andrew Tate motivation.”

A few months later, a pastor of a large church full of college students approached me. “We’re having an Andrew Tate problem,” he told me, “especially among our high school and college boys.” He asked me to give a midweek talk on the Andrew Tate problem. I had to wrap my mind around Tate’s appeal. Why is he resonating? What, if anything, does he get right? What does he get wrong? I wrote up the substance of that talk and Mere Orthodoxy published it.

For those unfamiliar with Andrew Tate, he is a former kickboxing champion who turned into an influencer who’s famous for bragging about his wealth, trafficking women into pornography, promoting misogyny and abuse, and being a soft convert to Islam. He offers to help men get what they want: riches and a harem.

His philosophy? 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. The first part of that message Christians can resonate with—the last half is evil. “Follow me as I follow the spirit of the Antichrist,” offers Tate, and men subscribe by the millions.

Many have speculated as to why Tate has found such appeal with young men and why, even within the church and church-adjacent environments, his message has connected with so many. Is it because the evangelical church has become effeminate? Is it because toxic masculinity is so baked into the patriarchal culture of evangelicalism that Tate’s words are indistinguishable from complementarianism? I don’t think those sociological explanations do justice to the situation.

Here’s the reality: Young men like sinful things. Tate embodies a distorted vision of masculinity: hostility, animalistic aggressiveness, and brash sexuality that appeals deep and directly to men’s limbic systems. He hits the pleasure centers like fentanyl and tells them “Everything you want is good.” Young men being obsessed with money, sex, and power isn’t new or newsworthy. The sinful flesh rears its ugly head in a fresh way amid every generation. Tate and his tribe of hooligans are just the digital reincarnation of Hugh Hefner and Jeffrey Epstein. Unoriginal, uninteresting, and unfunny, those who seek to monetize the baser desires of men will always succeed in their task.

What can Christians do about this? Young men resonated with Wild at Heart a generation ago for good reason: a sense of adventure, rebellion against the status quo, and the thrill of going “off script.” Having self-control is tiring. Someone telling you to unleash your wild side, go off-grid, and do things your parents won’t like will always resonate with teenagers. Instead of Tate’s vision, we can call young men to the great adventure, the quest of all quests, and the task of self-conquest and encourage them to carry their cross and follow the Suffering Servant, leverage strength to honor others, and subdue and have dominion over the sinful flesh. This cannot be done without the Spirit’s help, the Son’s substitution, and the Father’s love. But the good news is that the help and salvation we need is available. Christ is a true and better guide.

“For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come” (1 John 2:16–18).