If we’ve seen nothing in the last decade or so, we’ve seen a massive influx of cultural decline and gender confusion. In the midst of this, soon-to-be Vice President JD Vance strides onto the battlefield like a general rallying his troops. Speaking at CPAC, he didn’t equivocate.

“Our culture sends a message to young men that you should suppress every masculine urge… that you should try to suppress what makes you a man in the first place.”

His message, cutting through the air like a blade, drew the applause of men and women exposing the inanity of modern society’s crusade against manhood. And as if that weren’t enough, he went further:

“Don’t allow this broken culture to send you a message that you are a bad person because you’re a man, because you like to tell a joke, because you like to have a beer with your friends, or because you’re competitive.”

In a time when masculinity is treated like a disease to be cured, Vance called it what it was—an essential, God-ordained force for good.

For young conservative men, including Christians, this sentiment doesn’t land on deaf ears. It’s a lifeline. Finally, someone with a spine, someone who wouldn’t tiptoe around the truth or grovel for acceptance in elite circles.

Here was a leader who didn’t simply tolerate masculinity—he defended and encouraged it. Not with the limp, apologetic language of a seminary professor agonizing over whether it’s okay for men to raise their voices, but with the conviction of someone who actually understands what it means to be a man.

The saddest part about it, it takes an atheist-turned-Roman-Catholic to actually understand what it means to be a man when our own Evangelical leaders are pushing us to act more like tempered women.

Compare Vance’s message with The Gospel Coalition (TGC), a group of latte-sipping, bespectacled moralizers whose entire mission seems to revolve around making sure Christian men feel as guilty as possible for being men. Their platform has become a sanctuary for the neutered, the apologetic, the ever-so-careful “theologians” who want you to know that masculinity isn’t inherently bad, but if you enjoy things like guns, big diesel trucks, or the simple satisfaction of being stronger than the average vegan—well, you might need to examine your heart.

And who are the architects of this insipid theology? The entire pedigree of effeminate moralizers at TGC from Brett McCracken, forever agonizing over whether Christians are being too “reactionary” toward the culture while admitting to watching gay sex scenes to make him better at evangelism to Sam Allberry and Ed Shaw, both openly sexually attracted to other men—all given platforms to redefine Christian sexual ethics while positioning celibacy as some kind of higher spiritual calling than marriage.

Jackie Hill Perry, who now spends her time baptizing secular social justice themes into whatever gospel she’s preaching that week. And Ray Ortlund, who delivers soft-spoken, poetic musings about godly manhood that ultimately land with all the force of a dandelion seed on a breezy afternoon.

And of course, there’s John Piper, who says he doesn’t know if he’d pull the trigger on an intruder in his own home assaulting his wife. The list goes on and the pansey parade is endless.

Is it any wonder young Christian men, the ones who are wired for action, protection, and leadership, have abandoned TGC’s brand of Christianity? They aren’t looking for permission to exist. They’re looking for men who will stand up and say, “Yes, you were made this way. Yes, it’s good. No, you don’t need to apologize for it.”

But instead, they get lectures from men who cross their legs like women and write tedious essays about how real strength is found in quiet contemplation, not in standing against a world that seeks to destroy them.

Masculinity is not an abnormality nor is it some unfortunate relic of a bygone era that we should suppress in favor of more enlightened, domesticated manhood. The very same things that draw men to heavy machinery, to weapons, to physical strength, are the same things that make them the protectors and providers that Scripture calls us to be.

A man who loves the roar of a loud engine is the same man who will stand in the gap for his family when danger comes. A man who thrives on competition and risk-taking is the same man who will lead, build, and conquer for the sake of something greater than himself.

A man who loves The Gospel Coalition will board an airplane by an airline that only hires women to fly their “unmanned” aircraft all for the sake of “diversity” and “inclusion.” And we see how well that ended.

And yet, The Gospel Coalition insists that these instincts must be softened, reined in, diluted into something more palatable to the soft-handed “theologians” who wouldn’t know what to do with a flat tire, let alone a real crisis. This is why young men are rejecting them outright. They see the condescension, the passive-aggressive shaming, the incessant attempts to recast biblical masculinity into something more… respectable. More effeminate. More acceptable to the overtly feminized culture that despises everything Christianity stands for.

Meanwhile, Vance says what any sane person already knows—men and women are different. And that’s a good thing. Vance stands with the confidence of a man who isn’t begging for approval, who doesn’t care if the New York Times or David French calls him dangerous. And that is precisely why young Christian men are drawn to him.

The divide could not be clearer. On one side, you have TGC, offering a watered-down, apologetic counterfeit Christianity that trades strength for self-doubt and leadership for endless hand-wringing. On the other, you have leaders like Vance, who recognize that the biblical model of manhood is one of action, courage, and unapologetic conviction.

And when the battle lines are drawn, when men are looking for someone who will tell them the truth about who they are, it’s not hard to see why they’re turning away from the milquetoast musings of TGC and toward men like JD Vance.

And if that surprises you, then maybe you haven’t been paying attention.