This is absolutely spot on – and I have seen the terrible consequences of fatherlessness, and the lack of male leadership and healthy role models, in so many of the young people with whom I have worked.
You are right to call men back to responsibility, yet the renewal ahead may not be a climb back into hierarchy but a turning toward harmony. The absence of grounded fathers has left a void in families and in faith itself. Gentle note, the 38 percent effect you cite tells a more nuanced story however.
It isn’t proof that men are spiritually leaders; it shows that children internalize faith when it is rooted in structure. The father, archetypally, bears that structure. When he lives it publicly, it becomes real. Here, faith stops being only an emotion and becomes the framework of life itself.
The feminine and masculine were never meant to compete. They are distinct expressions of one divine order, complementary gifts through which creation finds balance. The feminine current is wisdom, compassion, and intuitive knowing — the inner flame that gives life its warmth and meaning. The masculine current is structure, protection, and moral clarity — the vessel that allows that light to endure.
When each awakens the other within, balance replaces rivalry and spiritual authority becomes partnership. Then the home becomes a living temple: the mother bearing light, the father giving it form. Faith is transmitted not by decree but by presence. Hope this helps clarify. Thank you for the article.
Religion has little to do with human morality. It is just a way to deceive and force dependence on people. It has caused more harm and violence than wars. It strengthens religious authority and dispels human empathy and intelligence. It is deplorable that someone as brave and intelligent as Hirsi Ali has fallen victim of deception. My condolences and wishes for her to break free of authoritarianism.
I think there is a difference between the perversion of religion that has caused so much suffering through the ages and true belief, in which "service is perfect freedom".
It is also very hard to have a moral framework without being answerable to something beyond ourselves. What we currently think of as universal 'human morality' is actually deeply rooted in Christianity. It was Christianity which brought an end to child sacrifice, bestowed dignity and intrinsic worth on women and children, opened hospitals and schools across the globe and it was the Christian west which ended the slave trade (at least within the western sphere of influence – it continues elsewhere to this day).
Many Christians have behaved totally contrary to Christian teaching over two millennia – but that doesn't mean the teaching is wrong. If we all lived in accordance with Christ's teaching, the world would be a much better place.
It’s true that religion, when reduced to authority or fear, can strangle freedom. History gives us many examples. But faith in its living form is not obedience; it is the awakening of the conscience.
The great tragedy of modern times is that we’ve thrown out spiritual knowing because institutional power misused it. Spiritual life at its core is not belief imposed from outside, but a path of inner experience — learning to perceive meaning woven into the world, to see spirit within matter. When this awakens, empathy and intelligence deepen together, not oppose one another.
Restoring the West’s turn to faith need not be a submission to authority. It can mark the next stage of human freedom — discovering truth through love rather than through force. Religion degenerates when it forgets this; it heals when knowledge and reverence become one.
I don't think this is an issue that solely resonates with religion, it is an issue with societal & family fabric, values and moral framework. Fathers are, I agree, crucial to raising children into well balanced adults. I also agree that mothers and fathers have very different roles and skills to that job. But IMO it is the ability to look at yourself in a mirror and know that you are a morally good person. It that is what you want to call religion or the role of religion in our lives that is fine. I don't care who it is that gets the rules & guardrails needed to our kids as long as it is the Judeoo-Christian values upon which Western civilization in based. JMO.
You are absolutely right that this reaches beyond religion into the fabric of culture and conscience. But the moral clarity we hope for, that moment of looking in the mirror and knowing what is good, may need roots deeper than social consensus.
What we call Judeo‑Christian values are really the living memory of that meeting between the human soul and a higher moral order. Whether we name it faith or simply truth, the aim is the same: to raise children who understand that goodness is not imposed from outside but awakened from within. 🙏🏽
I appreciate your comment. Ummm…progress isn’t measured by how far we drift from the past, but by how consciously we evolve its truths. What looks “regressive” can sometimes be restorative, remembering principles we abandoned before we understood their depth.
The renewal of the sacred feminine and masculine, the re‑centering of family as a vessel of meaning, these are not steps backward but forward through integration. Important to note real evolution doesn’t reject tradition; it spiritualizes it. Moral freedom and reverence can grow together when we act from consciousness, not convention.
If we call every return to wholeness “regression,” we risk mistaking alienation for progress.
This is absolutely spot on – and I have seen the terrible consequences of fatherlessness, and the lack of male leadership and healthy role models, in so many of the young people with whom I have worked.
Thanks @Lucy Beney! Agreed…
You are right to call men back to responsibility, yet the renewal ahead may not be a climb back into hierarchy but a turning toward harmony. The absence of grounded fathers has left a void in families and in faith itself. Gentle note, the 38 percent effect you cite tells a more nuanced story however.
It isn’t proof that men are spiritually leaders; it shows that children internalize faith when it is rooted in structure. The father, archetypally, bears that structure. When he lives it publicly, it becomes real. Here, faith stops being only an emotion and becomes the framework of life itself.
The feminine and masculine were never meant to compete. They are distinct expressions of one divine order, complementary gifts through which creation finds balance. The feminine current is wisdom, compassion, and intuitive knowing — the inner flame that gives life its warmth and meaning. The masculine current is structure, protection, and moral clarity — the vessel that allows that light to endure.
When each awakens the other within, balance replaces rivalry and spiritual authority becomes partnership. Then the home becomes a living temple: the mother bearing light, the father giving it form. Faith is transmitted not by decree but by presence. Hope this helps clarify. Thank you for the article.
Religion has little to do with human morality. It is just a way to deceive and force dependence on people. It has caused more harm and violence than wars. It strengthens religious authority and dispels human empathy and intelligence. It is deplorable that someone as brave and intelligent as Hirsi Ali has fallen victim of deception. My condolences and wishes for her to break free of authoritarianism.
I think there is a difference between the perversion of religion that has caused so much suffering through the ages and true belief, in which "service is perfect freedom".
It is also very hard to have a moral framework without being answerable to something beyond ourselves. What we currently think of as universal 'human morality' is actually deeply rooted in Christianity. It was Christianity which brought an end to child sacrifice, bestowed dignity and intrinsic worth on women and children, opened hospitals and schools across the globe and it was the Christian west which ended the slave trade (at least within the western sphere of influence – it continues elsewhere to this day).
Many Christians have behaved totally contrary to Christian teaching over two millennia – but that doesn't mean the teaching is wrong. If we all lived in accordance with Christ's teaching, the world would be a much better place.
It’s true that religion, when reduced to authority or fear, can strangle freedom. History gives us many examples. But faith in its living form is not obedience; it is the awakening of the conscience.
The great tragedy of modern times is that we’ve thrown out spiritual knowing because institutional power misused it. Spiritual life at its core is not belief imposed from outside, but a path of inner experience — learning to perceive meaning woven into the world, to see spirit within matter. When this awakens, empathy and intelligence deepen together, not oppose one another.
Restoring the West’s turn to faith need not be a submission to authority. It can mark the next stage of human freedom — discovering truth through love rather than through force. Religion degenerates when it forgets this; it heals when knowledge and reverence become one.
I don't think this is an issue that solely resonates with religion, it is an issue with societal & family fabric, values and moral framework. Fathers are, I agree, crucial to raising children into well balanced adults. I also agree that mothers and fathers have very different roles and skills to that job. But IMO it is the ability to look at yourself in a mirror and know that you are a morally good person. It that is what you want to call religion or the role of religion in our lives that is fine. I don't care who it is that gets the rules & guardrails needed to our kids as long as it is the Judeoo-Christian values upon which Western civilization in based. JMO.
You are absolutely right that this reaches beyond religion into the fabric of culture and conscience. But the moral clarity we hope for, that moment of looking in the mirror and knowing what is good, may need roots deeper than social consensus.
What we call Judeo‑Christian values are really the living memory of that meeting between the human soul and a higher moral order. Whether we name it faith or simply truth, the aim is the same: to raise children who understand that goodness is not imposed from outside but awakened from within. 🙏🏽
The point is serious and well made. But I couldn't help remembering the famous Norman Rockwell illustration: https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2023/04/rockwell-files-sunday-morning/
It's depressing to see such smart people advocating such regressive ideas.
I appreciate your comment. Ummm…progress isn’t measured by how far we drift from the past, but by how consciously we evolve its truths. What looks “regressive” can sometimes be restorative, remembering principles we abandoned before we understood their depth.
The renewal of the sacred feminine and masculine, the re‑centering of family as a vessel of meaning, these are not steps backward but forward through integration. Important to note real evolution doesn’t reject tradition; it spiritualizes it. Moral freedom and reverence can grow together when we act from consciousness, not convention.
If we call every return to wholeness “regression,” we risk mistaking alienation for progress.
The Marxxxist religion is Nihilism. A final step from alienation. It has infiltrated & controls many Christian churches & The Church.