“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness.” — Ephesians 6:12
I actually clicked through to Aaron Renn's article. It's excellent. As a fellow Eastern Orthodox Christian, I noted the observation that Rod Dreher was a co-religionist of mine, but I don't think Renn understood its significance.
Eastern Orthodoxy, that is to say the original church that was left after the departure of the Latin Patriarchate to form the Roman Catholic Church in 1054 A.D., has been living in negative world for large parts of its existence, certainly since the fall of Constantinople. Persecuted by Communists, before that by Ottoman Turks, before that by Pagan Romans, and before that by Jewish Pharisees who rejected the Messiah it understands the full meaning of John 15:18.
The mission for the church has always been to terraform the culture for the faith. But to be perfectly honest, the mission of Evangelicalism has always been to terraform the faith for the culture. This has resulted in wave after wave of progressive innovation: women abandoning headcoverings in the pews in the 1950s as feminism took hold, embracing contraception in the 1960s with the advent of the sexual revolution, women in the pulpit a few decades later as egalitarianism pushed aside both a Christian model of patriarchal headship and complimentarianism, and so on. The process continues with large swaths of Christian liturgy, doctrine, and morality being cast aside to make the product tolerable for a culture that no longer wants it. Evangelicalism cannot prosper and thrive in negative world because it is a form of the faith that was specifically designed not to. It's a feature, not a bug.
The same could be said about the Novus Ordo/Vatican 2 form of Roman Catholicism.
If the LCMS is to avoid what increasingly appears to be the shared fate of Western Christianity, it must return to its roots. Get rid of the boomer era praise and worship music. Toss the pianos and guitars. Run your setting 4 liturgy from beginning to end without audibles. Audibles are for quarterbacks, not pastors/priests. You'll be smaller, as will all of Christendom in the west. But smaller is better than gone.
"For narrow is the way that leads to life, and there are few that find it."
To my ear, it sounds like a liturgical form that most closely captures the sound of the Byzantine Chant of our Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom. It's quite glorious actually, and why the LCMS would abandon such a rich worship tradition is beyond me.
I got tired of nodding my head up and down in agreement as I read. And now it is on to the listening. Not sure what is going on recently in synod with some informal leaders (pastors) beginning to address things laymen have seen for a time but without a platform to share their concerns. Maybe there is hope for the good ship Missouri.
The Lost Generation, Sons of Missouri….I have a serious concern that some of the frailty we see there is autism. Yep, all the cultural, societal, woke infections are true, but the response is to try to not seem weak by playing the victim card and then retreating in to aberrant ideologies as a defense mechanism. We say, “poor disaffected young man” to their peril.
Sorry you feel that way, but giving them the vocabulary, descriptions, reiterations of the enormity of the problem allows them to wallow in their struggle rather than grow out of it.
So, your solution is that they need to take the L and bootstrap their way out of it? As Pr. Ramirez says, with due concern for the term, you're exhibiting a complete lack of empathy that will not fix the problem.
No L. No bootstraps. Reframing and growth. I listened to the podcast. I read this piece. It’s too much empathy. They need to learn to bear good fruit under the strains their generation gives them, or they will learn to play the victim card and will not be strong.
Or just not show up. Plenty of other church groups to consider. Those groups, some of them, are at least grappling with problems. Maybe half the problems they grapple with were already solved 500 years ago, but at least their minds are possibly alive, not reckoning that everything was settled so long ago. Oh also Lutherans: Not _everything_ was settled. Your problem is maybe half not honoring your own confessions, and half thinking no new work is needed.
No slander. If I put names to it, it would be, and I would be hated unnecessarily. Example- In liberal circles those with spectrum disorders who feel ostracized for their obsessions gravitate to LGBTQ. In conservative circles those with spectrum disorders gravitate to other extremes when they come under pressure.
Flying pride flags was banned in January 2025, but that does not erase the fact of state sponsorship and the reality that homosexuality and transgenderism are official American policy at the local, state, and national level. They are also embedded into American foreign policy, as is abortion.
Thank you - I appreciate you engaging in discussion. There's quite a few folks with ASD that you'd likely never know it. There's people that appear to have ASD that don't. It's also an all or nothing - one either has it or he does not. To what degree it affects his life is what we may or may not observe externally. I am becoming more and more concerned about how autism is discussed in our confessional circles. It's spoken of as if it is a sin, or at minimum, undesirable "personality" traits that can and should be rectified or controlled.
One more thought…where’s dad? That’s who needs to have your back. That’s who needs to check your bad decisions, who needs to be your bank so you don’t fall into debt. That’s who listens and stands with you in battle. That’s the one who says hold, don’t fight this one. That’s the one who knows when the burden is too heavy and shares it.
Is acknowledging a real problem "playing the victim card" or just accurately describing reality? If you get hit by an automobile while on a crosswalk, are you "playing the victim card" when you seek A) medical attention and B) recompense? Is that really weak? Or is it exactly the appropriate response?
Perhaps it should be clarified that the example of the disparate treatment of the young progressive woman vs the young man likely has more to do with the grievances being coded as left wing vs being coded as right wing - the LCMS is not immune from the punch right softpedal/charity-to/grace-to left phenomenon. For example, a Lutherans-for-Racial-Justice adjacent or a James Talarico-type young man would likely also get kid gloves treatment vs a young man who alleges that the church has compromised too much with the left-dominant world.
Glad you noticed this. I've been railing on this for at least 25 years.
There are many elements to a solution (if the church gets around to wanting a solution).
But there's one very clear thing the Missouri Synod can do, to get started dealing with this.
Repeal the 1969 change of polity, which was to allow female suffrage in the congregation.
The sleight of hand involved in how this was done has been documented by more than one person who was there.
It was a doctrinal change. That means the synod was in error before, or is in error after.
Almost every time I've brought this up, the response has either been resignation or hostility. Notable exceptions to this have been the few church women I've discussed it with. They understand better, and are more supportive of rolling back this error, than the poor whipped men.
I expect hostility from big men in the church if they even bother to respond. You will be ignored.
You can pretty much trace all of modern Missouri's problems to this 1969 error but so many have grown comfortable with it that deafness and blindness has set it in regrading it and suffering and winnowing will continue.
I do not expect the Missouri Synod to correct it unless / until there is a split over something much worse and the confessional side decides to go back to the roots and clean up everything. Or maybe the non-denoms will discover the sacraments and that will be how the Lutherans continue under a different name. Or maybe enough persecution will purge and purify all groups at least back to their own confessions and historic practices.
Spot on, but generational impacts are limited in full explanation. I'm a boomer but have been subjected to what we used to call "affirmative action" for most of my corporate career. Taking daughters to work was a thing in the 80s while leaving sons at home. Requiring boys to pay for largely invented past sins of patriarchy isn't new certainly, but in my observation growing in intensity.
I notice that Pastor Ramirez prominently features college in the necessity bucket, which undoubtedly gives rise to the crushing debt burden he references. As an old guy looking back at my own mistakes I would say that a good deal of the nonsense can be laid at the feet of American higher education and our refusal to notice that the emperor increasingly has fewer and fewer clothes. Church folks going way back to the Founding passed along the high ideal that a college education is the golden fleece for happiness and success. Beginning with the Greatest Generation having endured a major world war and the great depression, finally reached the place where they could grant the ancient gift to their children (notice that most often the cost was born by the parents). At long last, the great family dream was going to be realized and the greatest generation could look back at their ancestors with pride for finally being able to make the Dream Come True.
But, as always happens with pride, with each passing generation the ideal devolved into a (subtle at first, increasing with time) idol worship. It grew to the point that carrying on the parent's and grandparent's Great Pride, youngsters are now shucking out large fractions of a kings ransom (most often funded by debt THEY pay for) for an otherwise worthless piece of paper (vocationally) and a devastating destruction of a young person's world view (spiritual).
Saddled with a debt note that must be paid and poor job prospects for white boys in a feminized cultural ethos, is it any wonder that young men turn to distractions of food, sex, on-line games, thin digital social structures and products that immediately impact the senses? Is it any wonder that girls, intoxicated with their new found sexual powers and daily reminded of their aggression and dominance over men have turned to destructive explorations, forever dooming them to a life of loneliness and cats?
College is lie, folks. Hugely disproportionate relationship between cost and value. For most employment (other than very high income professions like doctors, lawyers, politicians) the value proposition just isn't there, and hasn't been for some time. Don't hear me say that I'm blaming younger folks. The blame, in my mind, is squarely on the shoulders of those of us that children naturally look to for guidance. The church has generally forgotten our great-grandmother's advice to never, ever, go into debt, for any reason. We actively send off our children and grandchildren to a literal hell-hole that will wreck their morals, destroy their faith and doom them to economic slavery. We pat them on the head and say "That's my boy/girl!"
The article mentions Jacob Savage’s article in Compact magazine. A book worth reading on the same topic, published before the Compact article, is The Unprotected Class by Jeremy Carl.
The taproot of DEI is feminism. It is the feminists who recruited liberal minorities and sexual deviants to their cause to undermine patriarchy. Our patriarchal system was dominated by straight male Caucasians. So it was easy to enlist disgruntled minorities and the sexually deviant. The face of feminism is slightly obscured now because of the presence of these other recruits, but clearly feminism is the engine that empowers the DEI movement. It is no coincidence that most of the liberal minorities and sexually confused who have advanced in business, academia, and government are female. There are a few token minority men and indeed a number of white liberal men, but the latter are sell-outs who embraced feminism either to advance themselves or because liberalism provides justification for their own pet sins.
It was hard for Boomers to reject feminism because, as you noted in your article, they did not directly experience the discrimination that younger males did. In addition, Americans have historically placed great emphasis on individual freedom. As a result, it was difficult for many to object to women assuming men's roles in the workplace so long as the competition was deemed "fair." Never mind that men and women have different, complementary roles as reflected in Biblical example and teaching. If those reasons were not enough to propagate feminism, our legal system severely punishes those who do not bow to it.
Besides DEI, we now have the emerging challenge of AI. This is a subject for another day, but very little good can come from it, and indeed a great many bad things will. Caught between DEI on one side and AI on the other, our society is in the jaws of Satan. We need bold Christian witness against both of these plagues.
You guys are going to hate me. As a 55-year-old male, I am in that forgotten place: Generation X.
Growing up, I knew I didn't want to work in the local paper mill, but I didn't have the money or support for college, so I joined the army for the GI Bill. While in the army, I was either deployed or living in the barracks. I was able to save over 80% of my take-home pay. I was injured and medically retired after five years. I have a 60% disability rating from the VA.
I went to college and met my wife. I went to classes during the day and worked evenings as a peer counselor at the VA. She was a third-year medical student. We finished school and started our lives.
When we decided to start a family, I stayed home to take care of the kids because she had more earning potential and I could pick up part-time contract work as a mechanical engineer. We had three daughters. For years, I was often the lone dad at the playground, piano lessons, gymnastics lessons, and so on. I can fix a car, kiss a boo-boo, and sew sparkly things on a show choir costume in a pinch.
A partner and I continued to grow our business. He worked normal hours doing the customer-facing side of things, and I work weird 'daddy hours' on design. EVERY SINGLE DAY, after school, I was waiting in the living room to do our after-school activities with our daughters. Practicing piano, finishing schoolwork, and having quiet reading time before they could go out and play. Over time, extracurricular activities took over, and I was less needed after school. But every athletic event, band concert, and show choir performance… had at least one parent cheering the girls on.
The business went well. When the girls each turned 16, we told them about their education fund. We had saved enough to pay the full cost of a four-year education at an in-state public school. If they wasted it, that would be it. But if they were responsible, got scholarships, worked part-time jobs, and lived frugally, that money could stretch to graduate school, a down payment on a house, or even the seed for their retirement savings.
Our oldest is a 4th-year medical student. Our middle child is a high school music teacher who just finished her master's degree, and our youngest is a high school senior who wants to be a mechanical engineer and be part of the family business, which now has 40 engineers and an equal number of support staff.
Between childcare and work, I doubt there are many weeks I worked less than 70 hours. I haven't had a new car in thirty years. My current vehicle is 20 years old.
While our lives didn't meet the traditional LCMS definition of a family and our house isn't as big as some of the neighbors', I wouldn't trade it for anything. In fact, we have two teenage sisters living with us as foster children. If everything works out, our merry band will increase by two kids when their adoptions go through.
I’m sorry, but I have to disagree with the notion that the Church’s problems, or the world‘s problems are most significantly caused or correlated to generational divides. Different generations, certainly do view and approach problems differently, but it remains evident that the most significant divisions in doctrine, practice, and world views are still what most people think of as left versus right. There are evil “isms“ on both sides, but especially at this time in our history, the evils and beliefs supporting practices on the left side of the column, dominate our culture in this country of the United States. Leftist beliefs, policies, practices, and propaganda dominate our institutions and most strongly influence our young people. Leftist propaganda has even crept into sermons in our LCMS congregations, which I have viewed lately. Some of our pastors don’t even have to hide it anymore when they openly commune an unmarried couple with one child out of wedlock, and expecting another, out of wedlock. Whether it’s feminism, or liberalism, or progressivism, or socialism, or communism, or Marxism, or “antinomian – ism“, these are all dominating our culture. Legalism on the right, historically has been a big issue, but now, it pales in comparison to antinomianism, which has also been widely embraced by the right in many Christian churches, including our LCMS.
The truth is the absolute certain division of most importance, from the beginning of time, has been evil versus good. Adam, trying to blame Eve for his corruption, well, we know how well that worked in God‘s eyes. Individuals of any generation who cooperate in evil are guilty. For example, if you are of a younger generation, and you have voted for the LCMS leaders who you are now complaining about, you are guilty. Individuals who are serious about a commitment to remain faithful to God’s Word, will fail in that, but there are people from all generations who are honorable, and people from all generations who reject the truth of God’s Word, succumb to temptation, and betray one another. Having been in the LCMS church all of my life, I have seen evil committed across the board, by LCMS members from every living generation, and all generations are well represented in the demographic of those who sell out to evil temptations. When it comes to a complaint about certain problems, it is best to take each one on a case by case basis, and while generalizations can be considered in the analysis, we do have to pay attention to the facts of each case which are more important in the final analysis, to reaching viable solutions or resolutions. Whether the individuals at fault in each specific case are from one generation or another, or multiple generations is not the most important factor; what is most important is standing against evil, false teaching, error, spiritual harm, and all legitimate harm to one another.
There are going to be conflicts of priorities, and God‘s Word can, and should guide us also in those conflicts. His Word should guide us about His priorities, and where there are conflicting interests, whose interests come first, on a case by case basis. That is usually where the rubber meets the road in conflicts, but while one generation benefits in certain areas from certain policies or practices, another generation benefits more from other policies and practices, maybe at a different time. In one case, a boomer involved in a conflict might be correct, while a millennial involved, might be in error, or a Gen Xers’ best interests might be more important in God‘s eyes, than a Gen Z’s in a particular case. But in another case, that could all be reversed in terms of which individuals’ interests are more important in God’s judgment, and it has nothing to do with of which generation they happen to be a member. Sweeping generalizations that all boomers or generation Xers have benefited from leftist beliefs and policies is demonstrably untrue. There are a very significant number of these generations, males and females, by the way, who have suffered, severely, because of left-leaning policies and practices, and therefore have tried to fight against them, making tremendous, life-altering sacrifices, often more strongly, and making greater sacrifices than members of younger generations who now complain about many of the same things that others before them have already fought against, sacrificed, and suffered to fight against. I have also, unfortunately, known too many of the older generations whose lives have been severely damaged and who’ve been persecuted because they’ve tried to stand against left- leaning policies and practices in the church and outside of the church.
When we look to who is running the LCMS now, you have to deal with those individuals and not lump all people in their generation together. Just because they are of a certain generation does not mean they are representative of the entire generation. There are also parts of the country distinct from other parts of the country in certain world views and tendencies of all types. Usually, it’s people from the Midwest complaining about coastal church culture, but I’ve lived it up close and personal to see that Midwest church culture has its own corruption to worry about. Midwest Church corruption may be slightly different from coastal church corruption, but it is just as harmful to the church at large. All error and corruption in our LCMS churches across the United States must be contended with according to God‘s Word, not based on wide-ranging stereotypes. Whenever we can, it’s better to deal with more specifics in confronting problems, and you will find people of different generations working together on both sides of the issues.
I’m all for the Concordia choirs and their tours, but humorous? It’s an odd sense of humor, at best. Why would anyone actually nominate women for the Synod President office, especially in our present climate where there is such a push in all church bodies, including our LCMS, to open up all offices held by pastors to women? As I said, a very odd sense of humor, and there’s usually some truth underneath humorous gestures like these. What’s next, a joke about nominating a couple of avowed atheist students for Synod President? Ha ha, very funny.
The two CUNE students were NOT nominated for the Synod President office. As stated in the Facebook post, Sophia Ball is the daughter of Rev. Benjamin T. Ball, and Ave Finnern is the daughter of Rev. Brady L. Finnern. These two men are among the 2026 nominees for the Synod President office.
Yes, thanks for clarifying. It is good news these women were not nominated. “Daughters of men“ is a common biblical reference (e.g. Gn 6) so I read it that way, as others probably did too. If one ignores the scripture usage, interpreting the sentence differently, then I can see their joke. I will edit/correct my comment by removing that link to the Facebook post because the rest of my comment is not particularly based on that Facebook post.
I really enjoyed listening & can't wait for future installments with Rev. David Ramirez!
I actually clicked through to Aaron Renn's article. It's excellent. As a fellow Eastern Orthodox Christian, I noted the observation that Rod Dreher was a co-religionist of mine, but I don't think Renn understood its significance.
Eastern Orthodoxy, that is to say the original church that was left after the departure of the Latin Patriarchate to form the Roman Catholic Church in 1054 A.D., has been living in negative world for large parts of its existence, certainly since the fall of Constantinople. Persecuted by Communists, before that by Ottoman Turks, before that by Pagan Romans, and before that by Jewish Pharisees who rejected the Messiah it understands the full meaning of John 15:18.
The mission for the church has always been to terraform the culture for the faith. But to be perfectly honest, the mission of Evangelicalism has always been to terraform the faith for the culture. This has resulted in wave after wave of progressive innovation: women abandoning headcoverings in the pews in the 1950s as feminism took hold, embracing contraception in the 1960s with the advent of the sexual revolution, women in the pulpit a few decades later as egalitarianism pushed aside both a Christian model of patriarchal headship and complimentarianism, and so on. The process continues with large swaths of Christian liturgy, doctrine, and morality being cast aside to make the product tolerable for a culture that no longer wants it. Evangelicalism cannot prosper and thrive in negative world because it is a form of the faith that was specifically designed not to. It's a feature, not a bug.
The same could be said about the Novus Ordo/Vatican 2 form of Roman Catholicism.
If the LCMS is to avoid what increasingly appears to be the shared fate of Western Christianity, it must return to its roots. Get rid of the boomer era praise and worship music. Toss the pianos and guitars. Run your setting 4 liturgy from beginning to end without audibles. Audibles are for quarterbacks, not pastors/priests. You'll be smaller, as will all of Christendom in the west. But smaller is better than gone.
"For narrow is the way that leads to life, and there are few that find it."
Yes!!! This is spot on.
Setting 4? Why 4?
To my ear, it sounds like a liturgical form that most closely captures the sound of the Byzantine Chant of our Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom. It's quite glorious actually, and why the LCMS would abandon such a rich worship tradition is beyond me.
https://resources.lcms.org/worship-planning/liturgy-audio-collection-divine-service-setting-four/
I got tired of nodding my head up and down in agreement as I read. And now it is on to the listening. Not sure what is going on recently in synod with some informal leaders (pastors) beginning to address things laymen have seen for a time but without a platform to share their concerns. Maybe there is hope for the good ship Missouri.
The Lost Generation, Sons of Missouri….I have a serious concern that some of the frailty we see there is autism. Yep, all the cultural, societal, woke infections are true, but the response is to try to not seem weak by playing the victim card and then retreating in to aberrant ideologies as a defense mechanism. We say, “poor disaffected young man” to their peril.
Uff da. Hard to imagine a worse response.
Sorry you feel that way, but giving them the vocabulary, descriptions, reiterations of the enormity of the problem allows them to wallow in their struggle rather than grow out of it.
So, your solution is that they need to take the L and bootstrap their way out of it? As Pr. Ramirez says, with due concern for the term, you're exhibiting a complete lack of empathy that will not fix the problem.
No L. No bootstraps. Reframing and growth. I listened to the podcast. I read this piece. It’s too much empathy. They need to learn to bear good fruit under the strains their generation gives them, or they will learn to play the victim card and will not be strong.
You're literally saying take the L and bootstrap yourselves. "Take this beating and stand in the snow all night, boy, it will make a man out of you!"
That is overstating my point. My point is this:
“Then let us follow Christ our Lord
and take the cross appointed
and, firmly clinging to his Word,
in suff'ring be undaunted.
For those who bear the battle's strain
the crown of heav'nly life obtain.”
Or just not show up. Plenty of other church groups to consider. Those groups, some of them, are at least grappling with problems. Maybe half the problems they grapple with were already solved 500 years ago, but at least their minds are possibly alive, not reckoning that everything was settled so long ago. Oh also Lutherans: Not _everything_ was settled. Your problem is maybe half not honoring your own confessions, and half thinking no new work is needed.
Can I ask, what in this was playing the victim card?
and What about formally addressing complaints and issues is inherently victimization?
What are you talking about with regard to autism?
Look at who are some of the “poster boys” for this cohort of young men. They fit the profile for mild autism.
Why resort to slander? Where are the posters of these boys anywhere in the Synod?
No slander. If I put names to it, it would be, and I would be hated unnecessarily. Example- In liberal circles those with spectrum disorders who feel ostracized for their obsessions gravitate to LGBTQ. In conservative circles those with spectrum disorders gravitate to other extremes when they come under pressure.
Does the American government fly a special flag at its embassies and military bases for the homosexuals or the white boys?
Does it anymore?
Flying pride flags was banned in January 2025, but that does not erase the fact of state sponsorship and the reality that homosexuality and transgenderism are official American policy at the local, state, and national level. They are also embedded into American foreign policy, as is abortion.
"those with spectrum disorders," I hope you mean, *some* with spectrum disorders.
Some is better.
Thank you - I appreciate you engaging in discussion. There's quite a few folks with ASD that you'd likely never know it. There's people that appear to have ASD that don't. It's also an all or nothing - one either has it or he does not. To what degree it affects his life is what we may or may not observe externally. I am becoming more and more concerned about how autism is discussed in our confessional circles. It's spoken of as if it is a sin, or at minimum, undesirable "personality" traits that can and should be rectified or controlled.
Ok, boomer.
One more thought…where’s dad? That’s who needs to have your back. That’s who needs to check your bad decisions, who needs to be your bank so you don’t fall into debt. That’s who listens and stands with you in battle. That’s the one who says hold, don’t fight this one. That’s the one who knows when the burden is too heavy and shares it.
We live in a fallen world, unfortunately quite a few young men don't have fathers in the traditional way.
Is acknowledging a real problem "playing the victim card" or just accurately describing reality? If you get hit by an automobile while on a crosswalk, are you "playing the victim card" when you seek A) medical attention and B) recompense? Is that really weak? Or is it exactly the appropriate response?
Perhaps it should be clarified that the example of the disparate treatment of the young progressive woman vs the young man likely has more to do with the grievances being coded as left wing vs being coded as right wing - the LCMS is not immune from the punch right softpedal/charity-to/grace-to left phenomenon. For example, a Lutherans-for-Racial-Justice adjacent or a James Talarico-type young man would likely also get kid gloves treatment vs a young man who alleges that the church has compromised too much with the left-dominant world.
Glad you noticed this. I've been railing on this for at least 25 years.
There are many elements to a solution (if the church gets around to wanting a solution).
But there's one very clear thing the Missouri Synod can do, to get started dealing with this.
Repeal the 1969 change of polity, which was to allow female suffrage in the congregation.
The sleight of hand involved in how this was done has been documented by more than one person who was there.
It was a doctrinal change. That means the synod was in error before, or is in error after.
Almost every time I've brought this up, the response has either been resignation or hostility. Notable exceptions to this have been the few church women I've discussed it with. They understand better, and are more supportive of rolling back this error, than the poor whipped men.
I expect hostility from big men in the church if they even bother to respond. You will be ignored.
You can pretty much trace all of modern Missouri's problems to this 1969 error but so many have grown comfortable with it that deafness and blindness has set it in regrading it and suffering and winnowing will continue.
I do not expect the Missouri Synod to correct it unless / until there is a split over something much worse and the confessional side decides to go back to the roots and clean up everything. Or maybe the non-denoms will discover the sacraments and that will be how the Lutherans continue under a different name. Or maybe enough persecution will purge and purify all groups at least back to their own confessions and historic practices.
Spot on, but generational impacts are limited in full explanation. I'm a boomer but have been subjected to what we used to call "affirmative action" for most of my corporate career. Taking daughters to work was a thing in the 80s while leaving sons at home. Requiring boys to pay for largely invented past sins of patriarchy isn't new certainly, but in my observation growing in intensity.
I notice that Pastor Ramirez prominently features college in the necessity bucket, which undoubtedly gives rise to the crushing debt burden he references. As an old guy looking back at my own mistakes I would say that a good deal of the nonsense can be laid at the feet of American higher education and our refusal to notice that the emperor increasingly has fewer and fewer clothes. Church folks going way back to the Founding passed along the high ideal that a college education is the golden fleece for happiness and success. Beginning with the Greatest Generation having endured a major world war and the great depression, finally reached the place where they could grant the ancient gift to their children (notice that most often the cost was born by the parents). At long last, the great family dream was going to be realized and the greatest generation could look back at their ancestors with pride for finally being able to make the Dream Come True.
But, as always happens with pride, with each passing generation the ideal devolved into a (subtle at first, increasing with time) idol worship. It grew to the point that carrying on the parent's and grandparent's Great Pride, youngsters are now shucking out large fractions of a kings ransom (most often funded by debt THEY pay for) for an otherwise worthless piece of paper (vocationally) and a devastating destruction of a young person's world view (spiritual).
Saddled with a debt note that must be paid and poor job prospects for white boys in a feminized cultural ethos, is it any wonder that young men turn to distractions of food, sex, on-line games, thin digital social structures and products that immediately impact the senses? Is it any wonder that girls, intoxicated with their new found sexual powers and daily reminded of their aggression and dominance over men have turned to destructive explorations, forever dooming them to a life of loneliness and cats?
College is lie, folks. Hugely disproportionate relationship between cost and value. For most employment (other than very high income professions like doctors, lawyers, politicians) the value proposition just isn't there, and hasn't been for some time. Don't hear me say that I'm blaming younger folks. The blame, in my mind, is squarely on the shoulders of those of us that children naturally look to for guidance. The church has generally forgotten our great-grandmother's advice to never, ever, go into debt, for any reason. We actively send off our children and grandchildren to a literal hell-hole that will wreck their morals, destroy their faith and doom them to economic slavery. We pat them on the head and say "That's my boy/girl!"
The article mentions Jacob Savage’s article in Compact magazine. A book worth reading on the same topic, published before the Compact article, is The Unprotected Class by Jeremy Carl.
This was an excellent article.
The taproot of DEI is feminism. It is the feminists who recruited liberal minorities and sexual deviants to their cause to undermine patriarchy. Our patriarchal system was dominated by straight male Caucasians. So it was easy to enlist disgruntled minorities and the sexually deviant. The face of feminism is slightly obscured now because of the presence of these other recruits, but clearly feminism is the engine that empowers the DEI movement. It is no coincidence that most of the liberal minorities and sexually confused who have advanced in business, academia, and government are female. There are a few token minority men and indeed a number of white liberal men, but the latter are sell-outs who embraced feminism either to advance themselves or because liberalism provides justification for their own pet sins.
It was hard for Boomers to reject feminism because, as you noted in your article, they did not directly experience the discrimination that younger males did. In addition, Americans have historically placed great emphasis on individual freedom. As a result, it was difficult for many to object to women assuming men's roles in the workplace so long as the competition was deemed "fair." Never mind that men and women have different, complementary roles as reflected in Biblical example and teaching. If those reasons were not enough to propagate feminism, our legal system severely punishes those who do not bow to it.
Besides DEI, we now have the emerging challenge of AI. This is a subject for another day, but very little good can come from it, and indeed a great many bad things will. Caught between DEI on one side and AI on the other, our society is in the jaws of Satan. We need bold Christian witness against both of these plagues.
Thank you, John, appreciate your input.
You guys are going to hate me. As a 55-year-old male, I am in that forgotten place: Generation X.
Growing up, I knew I didn't want to work in the local paper mill, but I didn't have the money or support for college, so I joined the army for the GI Bill. While in the army, I was either deployed or living in the barracks. I was able to save over 80% of my take-home pay. I was injured and medically retired after five years. I have a 60% disability rating from the VA.
I went to college and met my wife. I went to classes during the day and worked evenings as a peer counselor at the VA. She was a third-year medical student. We finished school and started our lives.
When we decided to start a family, I stayed home to take care of the kids because she had more earning potential and I could pick up part-time contract work as a mechanical engineer. We had three daughters. For years, I was often the lone dad at the playground, piano lessons, gymnastics lessons, and so on. I can fix a car, kiss a boo-boo, and sew sparkly things on a show choir costume in a pinch.
A partner and I continued to grow our business. He worked normal hours doing the customer-facing side of things, and I work weird 'daddy hours' on design. EVERY SINGLE DAY, after school, I was waiting in the living room to do our after-school activities with our daughters. Practicing piano, finishing schoolwork, and having quiet reading time before they could go out and play. Over time, extracurricular activities took over, and I was less needed after school. But every athletic event, band concert, and show choir performance… had at least one parent cheering the girls on.
The business went well. When the girls each turned 16, we told them about their education fund. We had saved enough to pay the full cost of a four-year education at an in-state public school. If they wasted it, that would be it. But if they were responsible, got scholarships, worked part-time jobs, and lived frugally, that money could stretch to graduate school, a down payment on a house, or even the seed for their retirement savings.
Our oldest is a 4th-year medical student. Our middle child is a high school music teacher who just finished her master's degree, and our youngest is a high school senior who wants to be a mechanical engineer and be part of the family business, which now has 40 engineers and an equal number of support staff.
Between childcare and work, I doubt there are many weeks I worked less than 70 hours. I haven't had a new car in thirty years. My current vehicle is 20 years old.
While our lives didn't meet the traditional LCMS definition of a family and our house isn't as big as some of the neighbors', I wouldn't trade it for anything. In fact, we have two teenage sisters living with us as foster children. If everything works out, our merry band will increase by two kids when their adoptions go through.
I’m sorry, but I have to disagree with the notion that the Church’s problems, or the world‘s problems are most significantly caused or correlated to generational divides. Different generations, certainly do view and approach problems differently, but it remains evident that the most significant divisions in doctrine, practice, and world views are still what most people think of as left versus right. There are evil “isms“ on both sides, but especially at this time in our history, the evils and beliefs supporting practices on the left side of the column, dominate our culture in this country of the United States. Leftist beliefs, policies, practices, and propaganda dominate our institutions and most strongly influence our young people. Leftist propaganda has even crept into sermons in our LCMS congregations, which I have viewed lately. Some of our pastors don’t even have to hide it anymore when they openly commune an unmarried couple with one child out of wedlock, and expecting another, out of wedlock. Whether it’s feminism, or liberalism, or progressivism, or socialism, or communism, or Marxism, or “antinomian – ism“, these are all dominating our culture. Legalism on the right, historically has been a big issue, but now, it pales in comparison to antinomianism, which has also been widely embraced by the right in many Christian churches, including our LCMS.
The truth is the absolute certain division of most importance, from the beginning of time, has been evil versus good. Adam, trying to blame Eve for his corruption, well, we know how well that worked in God‘s eyes. Individuals of any generation who cooperate in evil are guilty. For example, if you are of a younger generation, and you have voted for the LCMS leaders who you are now complaining about, you are guilty. Individuals who are serious about a commitment to remain faithful to God’s Word, will fail in that, but there are people from all generations who are honorable, and people from all generations who reject the truth of God’s Word, succumb to temptation, and betray one another. Having been in the LCMS church all of my life, I have seen evil committed across the board, by LCMS members from every living generation, and all generations are well represented in the demographic of those who sell out to evil temptations. When it comes to a complaint about certain problems, it is best to take each one on a case by case basis, and while generalizations can be considered in the analysis, we do have to pay attention to the facts of each case which are more important in the final analysis, to reaching viable solutions or resolutions. Whether the individuals at fault in each specific case are from one generation or another, or multiple generations is not the most important factor; what is most important is standing against evil, false teaching, error, spiritual harm, and all legitimate harm to one another.
There are going to be conflicts of priorities, and God‘s Word can, and should guide us also in those conflicts. His Word should guide us about His priorities, and where there are conflicting interests, whose interests come first, on a case by case basis. That is usually where the rubber meets the road in conflicts, but while one generation benefits in certain areas from certain policies or practices, another generation benefits more from other policies and practices, maybe at a different time. In one case, a boomer involved in a conflict might be correct, while a millennial involved, might be in error, or a Gen Xers’ best interests might be more important in God‘s eyes, than a Gen Z’s in a particular case. But in another case, that could all be reversed in terms of which individuals’ interests are more important in God’s judgment, and it has nothing to do with of which generation they happen to be a member. Sweeping generalizations that all boomers or generation Xers have benefited from leftist beliefs and policies is demonstrably untrue. There are a very significant number of these generations, males and females, by the way, who have suffered, severely, because of left-leaning policies and practices, and therefore have tried to fight against them, making tremendous, life-altering sacrifices, often more strongly, and making greater sacrifices than members of younger generations who now complain about many of the same things that others before them have already fought against, sacrificed, and suffered to fight against. I have also, unfortunately, known too many of the older generations whose lives have been severely damaged and who’ve been persecuted because they’ve tried to stand against left- leaning policies and practices in the church and outside of the church.
When we look to who is running the LCMS now, you have to deal with those individuals and not lump all people in their generation together. Just because they are of a certain generation does not mean they are representative of the entire generation. There are also parts of the country distinct from other parts of the country in certain world views and tendencies of all types. Usually, it’s people from the Midwest complaining about coastal church culture, but I’ve lived it up close and personal to see that Midwest church culture has its own corruption to worry about. Midwest Church corruption may be slightly different from coastal church corruption, but it is just as harmful to the church at large. All error and corruption in our LCMS churches across the United States must be contended with according to God‘s Word, not based on wide-ranging stereotypes. Whenever we can, it’s better to deal with more specifics in confronting problems, and you will find people of different generations working together on both sides of the issues.
C’mon. It’s a humorous post by the CUNE A Cappella Choir.
It’s not an official statement by the CUNE President or Board of Regents promoting presidential nominees.
So enjoy the choir (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HukYU0e0pmA&list=RDHukYU0e0pmA&t=470).
I’m all for the Concordia choirs and their tours, but humorous? It’s an odd sense of humor, at best. Why would anyone actually nominate women for the Synod President office, especially in our present climate where there is such a push in all church bodies, including our LCMS, to open up all offices held by pastors to women? As I said, a very odd sense of humor, and there’s usually some truth underneath humorous gestures like these. What’s next, a joke about nominating a couple of avowed atheist students for Synod President? Ha ha, very funny.
The two CUNE students were NOT nominated for the Synod President office. As stated in the Facebook post, Sophia Ball is the daughter of Rev. Benjamin T. Ball, and Ave Finnern is the daughter of Rev. Brady L. Finnern. These two men are among the 2026 nominees for the Synod President office.
Thanks for clarifying, I thought it was very funny.
Yes, thanks for clarifying. It is good news these women were not nominated. “Daughters of men“ is a common biblical reference (e.g. Gn 6) so I read it that way, as others probably did too. If one ignores the scripture usage, interpreting the sentence differently, then I can see their joke. I will edit/correct my comment by removing that link to the Facebook post because the rest of my comment is not particularly based on that Facebook post.