Pseudo-Masculinity and Red-Pillism in Post-COVID Orthodoxy

Exploring the current trend of young, alt-right men converting to Orthodoxy.

All across the Western world, many Priests are reporting an increase of young men converting to Orthodoxy. Given the fact that statistically, almost every form of Christianity has historically seen more female attendees than male, the current trend presents an interesting question. Why, in the post-COVID world, are we seeing such an influx of men converting? I should first point out that I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing that young men in particular are converting. I want people to be Orthodox and I want the Church to grow. I also don’t like the suspicion cast whenever lots of men do anything, assuming that it must be inherently a bad thing. So whilst recognising that all in all, it’s a good thing that growth is happening, we might want to ask why now?

Although the general trend is very much positive, and should be celebrated, it’s important to also recognise that there is another trend hidden within. That is the fact that many of these converts are far-right, usually American-style conservatives, very much committed to a particular kind of ideological form of Orthodoxy. What they see in the Orthodox Church is not so much the presence of Christ, or a place in which to work out their salvation, but a place where their alt-right political ideology can find a home. For them, the Church becomes a battleground for the culture wars, and the Scripture and the Church Fathers become weapons to defeat their ideological enemies. Terms like “heretic”, “liberal”, and “woke” get thrown around endlessly, targeting those they feel like aren’t in keeping with their particular understanding “tradition”. Even Bishops aren’t safe from these attacks, with condemnations happening daily, especially online.

The Online “Orthobros” and “Hyper-dox”

I have spoken previously about how dangerous and problematic online Orthodoxy can be.¹ With little to no oversight, and the ability to reach thousands of potential converts online, certain figures have created an entire network of online pseudo-parishes, where they proclaim their ideology, and convert folks to an ultra-traditionalist and rigorist version of Orthodoxy. The influence of these figures cannot be understated. The majority of young people nowadays discover Orthodoxy online first, long before stepping foot in a parish and speaking to real human beings. The online space is also dominated by men, with YouTube viewership in particular, skewed to a young male audience.² These are broad trends, but two case studies that sum up the problem well, are that of Jay Dyer and Fr Peter Heers.³

Jay Dyer⁴ is a well known YouTube conspiracy theorist, “comedian”, and Orthodox apologist.⁵ With over 130 thousand subscribers, he’s one of the most popular online Orthodox figures, with his audience rivalling that of major Orthodox media companies. Jay is well educated in philosophy, and is an intelligent thinker and communicator. Much of what he says may be true, but it’s my opinion that he embodies the wrong spirit. His approach is aggressive, attack-dog style, and fuelled by conspiracy theories. His main targets are Roman Catholicism, the Orthodox Church of America (which he likes to call OC-Gay), and Ancient Faith Ministries. He is known for slandering hierarchy and harassing clergy and other online figures, and has even “doxed” people who dare to cross him. He runs a large Discord server, which allows him to convert people to his version of Orthodoxy in secret, and also gives him access to an army of zealous minions that he can (and does) deploy to attack his enemies. He misrepresents “patristic rhetoric” to justify his actions, and accuses those who dissent of “piety signalling”. I have even been accused of such by one of his followers in a Facebook group I moderate, demonstrating how deep their loyalty to Dyer runs. It’s needless to say that I fundamentally disagree with his approach.

Fr Peter Heers⁶ is primarily known for running the website and YouTube channel ‘Orthodox Ethos’, and is also responsible for the foundation of the publishing company ‘Uncut Mountain Press’. Since 2017 his viewership has progressively grown, and skyrocketed during the COVID pandemic, with his YouTube channel now sitting at over 70 thousand subscribers. His videos are extremely high quality and well produced, taking full advantage of social-media marketing techniques. Unfortunately, his content is steeped in ultra-traditional, hyper-rigorous, anti-ecumenical, sectarian rhetoric. The COVID measures and vaccines gave rise to the popularity of Protestant style anti-Christ and end-times conspiracies, and Fr Heers took full advantage of this trend, entirely embracing this unhealthy eschatological obsession. On top of this, he is well known for promoting a legalistic and anti-pastoral ethical philosophy, encouraging scrupulosity and spiritual anxiety. He is probably best known however for his views on the reception of converts by baptism alone. His support of rebaptism and corrective baptism is justified by cherry picking the Fathers and a handful of modern Saints, and imposing a post-hoc economia theory onto the canons. All of this has been soundly refuted over and over again throughout Church history⁷, and is by far the minority practice in the Orthodox Church. To put the icing on the cake, since his departure from Greece in 2017, Fr Peter has not operated under a Bishop, despite consistently claiming otherwise, and has been deemed to be acting “in a manner outside of the Holy Canons” by the Assembly of Orthodox Bishops in America.⁸ He is therefore, a non-canonical Priest of nobody, and nowhere, but the internet.

So what has this got to do with young men converting to Orthodoxy? Unfortunately, these type of online Orthodox figures attract hyper-masculine, alt-right conservative, red-pill adjacent, young men to Orthodoxy. Orthodoxy is sold as something fundamentally intertwined with the American conservative mindset, appealing to those committed to far-right conspiracy theories and culture-war politics. Additionally, the COVID measures and vaccines added fuel to the fire, acting as a rhetorical tool for lobbying anti-Christ and end-times theories. All of this has a deep influence on the type of men being converted, and the version of Orthodoxy they are being converted to. Orthodox Christianity is becoming increasingly absent of Christ, and more concerned with hot button cultural and ethical issues. This attitudes draws in zealous converts, who go on to perpetuate this hyper-doxy online and within their own parishes. I think it goes without saying that this is extremely damaging to the spiritual health of these young men, and undermines everything Orthodoxy actually stands for.

The Manosphere, Andrew Tate, and Red-Pillism

The growth of these problems actually find their root outside of the Church, in parallel cultural movements that have bled into our parishes. It’s no surprise that these trends come from without our walls, given the fact that they are fundamentally opposed to Christianity. The mid 2010’s gave rise to a number of men feeling increasing angry towards and disaffected by feminism. The so-called men’s rights activist movement⁹ was born as a sort of corrective to more radical forms of feminism, claiming that men have it “just as bad”. Not only did this spiral off into severely misogynistic concepts like “involuntary celibacy”¹⁰, it also begot the red-pill movement.¹¹

As a cultural philosophy, red-pillism (a reference to The Matrix) often operates under the guise of “return to traditional Christian values”, but is in fact, deeply anti-Christian. Not only does it seek to subjugate women to men, it rejects marriage and monogamy more broadly, especially emphasising that male sexual promiscuity is rooted in evolutionary biology, and so is morally permissible.¹² It also inverts the concept of “the patriarchy”, claiming that the legal system and society at large, is set up to benefit women, and that there is an active war on masculinity in today’s culture. The “manosphere” is the collection of online groups that endorse some type of red-pill philosophy, providing a space for men to spout their faux masculinity and misogynistic rhetoric.

Red-pill philosophy shot into the mainstream through essentially one man; Andrew Tate.¹³ If you don’t know who Tate is, you are lucky. Starting off as a semi-professional kickboxer, and then appearing on Big Brother in 2016, Tate went on to make his millions by running a webcam business (yes, that kind of webcam), essentially profiting off the sexual labour of young women. He then started various projects, including Tiktok, in which he spread his faux masculinity and deeply misogynistic views. Tate’s brand of masculinity is well summed up by Will James in his article about Tate’s influence on young boys in schools;

“Tate’s version of an ideal, successful life is one that promotes male supremacy and female inferiority, including the subjugation of women. The premise of much of his content revolves around the idea that men and their behaviours should be aggressive, misogynist, derogatory, and violent. For instance, Tate views women as the property of men and he says that women bear responsibility for their attacks in rape cases.” (Andrew Tate: A Case Study on the Effects of Online Influencers on Students’ Education)

It’s probably no surprise now that Tate and his brother are now facing charges of human trafficking and r*pe. Unfortunately, these cultural trends have had a profound impact on young men in the West, with bitterness, hyper-masculinity, male supremacy, “alpha-maleness”, aggression, egoism, and misogyny on the rise. Worse still, through figures like Jay Dyer, “Christianised” versions (with puritan undertones) of these ideas are creeping into the Church under the guise of Orthodoxy.¹⁴

The COVID Pandemic

The other cultural movement that has influenced these converts is the reaction to the COVID measures. Now it should be said that many governments (particularly the British one) failed to do a really good job dealing with the pandemic. But, to be fair, the whole world was plunged into a unprecedented situation that no one was really prepared for. Although the COVID lock-downs and social distancing made many people realise what’s important in life, and in doing so, leading them to embrace Christianity, for many, it had the opposite effect.

COVID gave birth to a whole variety of conspiracy theories peddled by alt-right commentators online, including (but not limited to); the pandemic was planned by an Illuminati-esque one world government to control the masses, the pandemic is fake, the vaccines are dangerous and/or carry some sort of implant and/or are the “mark of the beast”, you can’t get sick in church, not kissing icons is heretical, wearing masks in church is heretical, using more than one spoon is heretical, the pandemic is a sign of the end-times, etc etc.¹⁵

Through figures like Fr Peter Heers, these conspiracies are spread amongst the faithful, encouraging mistrust of the Church, and disobedience to the hierarchy.¹⁶ Many new converts who come across Fr Heers’ work, unfortunately are led to believe that this is what Orthodoxy is all about. Those who aren’t already, are turned into conspiracy theorists, and those who already were, find a home for their ideas. This obsession with the end-times and anti-Christ, distract from the real focus of the Christian faith (union with God), and can do deep spiritual damage.

Possible Solutions

I would like first to draw our attention to two Bible verses that provide us with important precedents;

“He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgement as the devil.” (1 Timothy 3:6)

“Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.” (Romans 14:4)

The first precedent here is that neophytes shouldn’t teach. St Sophrony of Essex says that it take at least 15 years for someone to properly appropriate the Orthodox mind (what he called the “dogmatic consciousness”).¹⁷ This isn’t because recent converts don’t know anything, it’s because they are invariably spiritually immature. That’s not a criticism. It’s simply to say that nothing can replace time spent living the life in Christ. There’s no fast track to sanctity, and teaching theology isn’t merely a matter of communicating data- it takes wisdom, pastoral experience, and spiritual knowledge.

The second is that clergy should not be giving spiritual advice or pastoral direction to those outside of the flock entrusted to them. The only folks actually ordained to give you spiritual direction are your Priest, and your Bishop. A Priest giving general spiritual direction over the internet is like a Doctor prescribing you medication despite having never met or spoken to you before. They don’t know you, your situation, or your particular ailments. Therefore, you should ignore those who deign to give spiritual advice over the internet.

Beyond avoiding bad apples, we also need a positive vision of masculinity that is firmly rooted in the Orthodox Christian tradition, and that isn’t arbitrarily restricted by gender stereotypes or political ideologies. Ephesians 5:25 gives us a good template for this;

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her”. (ESV)

This is ultimately what it means to be a man, what it means to be masculine; sacrificial love. Not demanding authority, seeking status, being prideful, being legalistic, or hating women. Instead; loving, self-emptying, and sacrifice. Just as Christ gave Himself up on the cross, so should we embrace our own crosses, putting death to our own will, and leading with love. Everything else is a distraction.

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An Addendum

I have received some critiques and feedback about this article and so I would like to make the following clarifications;

1. I hope and I pray that the converts I am speaking of here not only find a political home, but a place to encounter Christ. I hope their faith is transformed over time. After all, the Church is home for everyone, not just those I agree with politically.

2. My intention in this article was not to judge the motives of these converts. Only God knows their hearts. It is not for me to say whether they have impure motives or not. I believe that most of us have mixed motives when we make any choice. I am simply repeating what I have heard from Priests both in person, and online. If their assessments are wrong, then praise God!

3. It is clear to me that in the Church we have problems with both the far-right, and the far-left. The reason this article is about right-wing converts is simply because that is the current trend. If we were seeing waves of left-wing converts, importing ideas foreign to Orthodoxy, then I would happily write about that, but that doesn’t seem to be happening.

4. The broader point here is that I believe we, as Orthodox Christians, should to free ourselves, as much as possible, from the influence of secular ideologies. We must be very careful to not read the tradition in light of our own political bent (myself included). This is very difficult, but it is what I think we should strive for.

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NB: Everything expressed in this article is merely my opinion, and should not be taken as authoritative in any way. I am not a bishop, nor a saint, nor an academic, nor a spiritual father. If anything I say contradicts the teachings of your bishop, ignore me, and follow him. Additionally, all my articles are living documents, and so may be updated or refined over time, as I learn more, or discover better ways of articulating my points.

1. The Dangers of "Internet Orthodoxy"

2. YouTube by the Numbers, Omnicore

3. Other figures include, but are not limited to; David Ehran (therealMedWhite), David Patrick Harry (Church of the Eternal Logos), Roosh V, Dcn Ananias Sorem (Patristic Faith), Fr Zechariah Lynch (Inkless Blog, Patristic Faith), Glen Chancey (Orthodox Reflections), Fr John Whiteford, Fr Seraphim Holland, Fr Matthew Baleka, Fr Turbo Qualls, Fr Andrew Moore, Fr Josiah Trenham (Patristic Nectar), Abbot Tryphon, Brother Augustine, Andrew Wilson, and Rachel Wilson (Dissident Mama).

4. For more substantial critiques of Jay Dyer, I would recommend these articles; Jay Dyer and the "Psy Op" to Subvert Orthodox Christianity in America, and From "Orthobro" to Orthodox and the Danger of Jay Dyer’s church within the Church

5. For a good critique of internet apologetics I would recommend this article by Steven Christophorou; Why Christian Apologetics Miss the Mark

6. For a more substantial critique of Fr Peter Heers, I would recommend this article; Fr. Peter Heers, Orthodox Ethos, and the Sectarian Mindset

7. Rebaptism: Patristic Consensus or Innovation?, Benjamin Cabe

8. COMMUNIQUÉ

9. Men's rights movement, Wikipedia

10. Incel, Wikipedia

11. Red and blue pill, Wikipedia

12. I originally claimed here that this theory had been debunked based on the following article; Data should smash the biological myth of promiscuous males and sexually coy females. However, someone in the comments corrected me, but I do not have the knowledge to assess the arguments either side on this question. I have therefore edited this sentence to keep the point I was making, without committing myself to either view.

13. Andrew Tate, Wikipedia

14. Red Pill, Feminism, and the Manosphere with Jay Dyer, Church of the Eternal Logos

15. COVID: Top 10 current conspiracy theories, Mark Lynas

On social media, vaccine misinformation mixes with extreme faith, Elizabeth Dwoskin

16. I was going to provide references to a list of articles/videos produced by Fr Heers, but I do not wish you provide him with more viewership, and honestly it’s not worth anyone’s time. If you don’t believe me however, go on his website or YouTube channel and search ‘COVID’, and you will see what I mean.

17. St Silouan the Athonite, St Sophrony of Essex