Month: June 2022 (Page 2 of 3)

Recently, I got an e-mail from my number one son in North Carolina that included an ad for Jeremy’s Razors.  When Mark wrote, “This advertising is causing more conversations in my world here than anything in the last few years,” I knew I had to see it.  Then Kurt, my second son, responded to the e-mail string, saying, “One of my favorites.  Some of my buddies have bought these razors.”

The company and the ad are both “old school.” See the ad on YouTube: “Jeremy’s Razors: the greatest commercial ever.” I consider the ad “slapstick” comedy, the kind that I enjoyed in the 70’s and 80’s (like I Love Lucy or Red Skeleton), when we were less concerned about being offensive and hurting people’s feelings.  But in our day of “cancel culture” many would deem it offensive.  The ad was a little too “edgy” for me as a more seasoned guy, who has stuck with an electric shaver all these years and doesn’t really prefer to see all the flesh.  But it still carries some insights for us.

Jeremy’s Razors started as a protest against a woke culture in which ads are pulled or walkouts are staged simply because the ads are deemed “offensive.”  Jeremey Boering launched his company on April first as a protest to the woke culture in advertising. In the first month, the firm already had 60,000 subscribers wanting razors.  The brand attracted more Twitter followers in the first month than Gillette has gained since it went on Twitter in 2009.  The ad has been watched over 15 million times.

With tongue in cheek, the ad asks, “Stop giving your money to people who hate you. Give it to me instead.”  Boering acknowledges in the ad that his company’s values are misaligned with a culture which sees anything masculine as “toxic.”  He wants to celebrate manliness.  He had no idea that he would be an immediate success.

Why?  Here is part of what I wrote back to Mark: “What impresses me about the ad and the response you are experiencing from other guys is the opportunity to identify with someone who says, ‘Enough is enough.’  It shows me there is a lot of pent-up emotion and frustration in men.  Together, guys are able to celebrate and ‘let off some masculine steam.’  Young men feel mistreated and misunderstood by a culture that wants to put them in a box.”  They see the ad as an act of rebellion against the dominant media that gives credence to social engineers who are committed to blending the genders. 

Men respond to the candor in this ad.  As I wrote to Mark, “Each man is unique, but he needs to have his soul renewed and made alive by the Spirit of the living God,  who enables each man to function as a man, not like a “shadow” based on the “broken” rhetoric of the feminine which has lost its God-given uniqueness.”  

My suggestion is for younger men to find male mentors to walk with them.  Along with that, find a band of brothers who are trying to understand manhood from a biblical perspective.  I, for one, have lived through the sexual revolution.  Many younger men only hear part of the story (a bent feminine) and not a strong masculine (tough but tender).  Healthy men, integrated in their masculine identity,  need to come alongside confused younger men who are in danger of losing their masculine soul.  If we don’t, men can easily become weak pushovers who cannot stand against the lies and illusions  of a woke culture.  Pray God guides us in that.

Samuel D. James has a very thoughtful article in First Things about the recent murder of 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas.  He was very perceptive when he wrote, “We have become a society filled with very young men who are ready and willing to throw away their lives and the lives of others…We are living in an age of literal “child-on-child murder.”

I have watched on TV and read articles of opinion makers, both left and right, being at a loss about what to do regarding mass shootings.   We are at an impasse on gun control.  James rightly notes, “An inability to talk about anything other than gun control threatens to deaden our lament and neutralize a vital conversation about why so many of our country’s most lost, most hateful people are boys with their whole lives ahead of them.”  

James makes a haunting observation when he points out, “Historically, mass killers were usually men who were old enough to have lived and abandoned a former life.  The current generation of shooters have had no life to abandon.  We cannot afford to stop asking why.”  

Most of these killers are just entering manhood.  They have been told they are “toxic,” with a masculinity needing to be deconstructed. They continue to lose traction in a culture focused more on helping young girls flourish.  They are loners, who can’t find traction in a culture that has called their very identity into question.  What does it mean to be a man?  These young men are not sure. 

As you might imagine, I have some passion about this subject; after all, this blog is called “The Wild Man Journey.”  Many readers have their own struggles coming to peace with their masculinity. Personally, I remember struggling mightily with my maleness in my 20’s.  Not until I was through school and had become a pastor did my soul grasp intuitively that I am a man.  Since then, I have been building on that foundation.  But I am still a work in progress.

Young men today desperately need help – not from politicians, social engineers, feminists, or even preachers.  Young men need older men coming alongside them, leading them into manhood.  As James wrote, “Many young men today are socially invisible…lacking the kind of thick attachments that make life worth living.”  How can we reach these lonely, young men?

First, be a strong advocate for the family unit, in which the father has an “exemplar” role to play.  I have said it many times in this blog, “a boy only has one father.”  If you have boys at home, take time to invest in their lives.

Second, the church needs to encourage male mentoring of young boys. It could be formal or informal.  But as a man who is trying to follow Jesus, make it your business to influence the boys and young men.  In my living space and at church, it is more informal.  But I am aware of making a difference, even if it’s only giving some attention to a young man.

Third, resist with all the grace that God gives to not become a “passive” male in America.  Male passivity leads to “absent fathers” and has contributed to a whole generation of “lost young men.”  Whatever your place in society, be proactive as an “engaged” male.

I resist all the talk about who is to blame for young men and mass murders.  I want to shout, “There is a “better way!”  That way is active, engaged men making a difference for the boys and young men around them.