Foster/Tennant continue on to talk of the necessity of fraternity in this next chapter. For the authors, having a gang, tribe, or brotherhood of associated men is something a man needs in order to be a man. The claim here is not just that men should have other men around them but that it remains a necessity as far as being a Christian man is concerned. The view Foster/Tennant put forward hails more from the masculinity movement itself than any biblical consideration offered in the chapter they write. The chapter begins with a quote from a Catholic scholar, descends into popular descriptions in five different movies, and ends with reference to comments made by Jack Donovan. Along the way, some biblical material is put forward or discussed but only in piecemeal fashion as the authors craft a larger doctrine in line with red-pill masculinity that easily make this chapter the most dangerous in the book. What the authors don’t do is make a biblical case for the sort of fraternity they espouse. There is certainly a kernel of truth to the notion that men befriend one another and sometimes develop lifelong relationships with other men but membership in the church is not like joining a motorcycle club. The problem here is that Foster/Tennant mean much more than mere friendship and the design they have in play goes against the very working of the gospel to move away from natural tribal affiliations and fraternities toward a gospel life in and among the wider church.
Foster/Tennant would have Christian men gather a “tribe” around them and aren’t afraid to use the term “gang” in reference to a brotherhood they feel should work as a primary guide and center of their life on mission. In fact, the authors even argue that male intimacy is a sort of lost art in today’s society and use the friendship of David and Jonathan as support for what they consider to be a model friendship. There is a subtle equivocation here between friendship and fraternity that Foster/Tennant miss as they present it. A deep and abiding friendship of two men is not necessarily the same as a fraternity or gang of men working together toward a common purpose. In fact, Jonathan and David were at the crossroads of a relationship where they had opposing missions in play between Jonathan’s father King Saul and the divinely ordained replacement found in David. Foster/Tennant would have the reader believe that these friends and newfound brothers are in play to help with one’s mission and yet that wasn’t the case with David and Jonathan. Yet, Foster/Tennant roll with the equivocation between friend and brotherhood because a story like Jonathan and David helps them establish their unique brand of brotherhood as a matter of male intimacy.
Foster/Tennant argue that “sexual homogeneity is what forms the strong bonds of friendship” yet somehow overlook the fact that it is entirely possible to be friends with members of the opposite sex as well as join them in common cause. Further, Foster/Tennant spend no time actually exegeting 1 Samuel 18 where Jonathan is first noted loving David as he loves himself, a virtual restatement of the Second Greatest Commandment, an obligation we have toward all those we know, and not just someone that might inspire us or we might befriend. As usual, the claims they make are just claims with little in the way of actual support for their argument. Instead, the reader is pointed to examples from several movies, an example of a returned soldier that misses the camaraderie of war, and the claim that all this just isn’t gay or homosexual in nature. Yet, Foster/Tennant outright say that men need the love of men. Men need this love emotionally and to exercise dominion over the world. The authors go so far as to say that it is needed for “the most basic piety…to exercise dominion over yourself”. Without the correctability offered by brotherhood, a man can’t even be virile according to Foster/Tennant.
But, does the Bible really teach that intimate male friendship and deep abiding relationships between men in their own tribe or gang remain required for a man to be Christian and live in obedience to Christ? The answer is that no such requirements are listed in the Bible for men to maintain same sex relationships and to say so does in fact border on a sort of homosexual or homosocial advocacy. Foster/Tennant can avoid the charge in their own minds because they present a reductive view of sexuality and sex in the first place as the engine of dominion. And, to be clear, Foster/Tennant would manifestly deny that there is anything “gay” in putting forward what they believe about fraternity. But, homosexual behavior is not just about the physical act of two men together. Homosexuality is also about the exercise of power, male intimacy, and things common to the very items described above that Foster/Tennant say is required for even “the most basic piety”. The background and argument for this point of view has to be framed from the observable postmodern culture inspiring it especially since the Scriptures aren’t playing a central role here in their presentation of the topic.
Jack Donovan is cited twice in the last part of the chapter and has a very similar view to the one espoused by Foster/Tennant but it’s likely that few know that Donovan himself has been (is?) a homosexual, a white nationalist, and a former Satanist who has been busy leading neopagan groups over the last several years. Curiously, his increased denial of his previous identities seems to track with his increased popularity in red-pill masculinity circles. I guess fundraising from normal folks is hard when you’re leading the Wolves of Vinland, a Norse neopagan group outside Lynchburg, Virginia complete with their own Viking long hall where they ritually slaughter animals on their compound.
Somehow Foster/Tennant feel Donovan’s contribution is important enough to directly quote in their book even while Donovan remains anything but a Christian and in no sense offers his consideration of the sort of tribes and gangs in question as biblical. Rather, Donovan’s position presents an evolutionary view of men associating with men to do men things. The point here is not to poison the well or offer any sort of guilt by association but instead to trace where these ideas are actually coming from as presented by Foster/Tennant with the very sources they use in their book.
Foster/Tennant are mimicking the general considerations of an Alt-Right, red-pilled, neopagan masculinity seen very easily in white nationalism and white supremacy circles. Further, the view the authors espouse is also the very sort of thing that is attracting gay men to white supremacy in recent years. Foster/Tennant are not making a biblical case in this chapter about friendship or fraternity even while they quote certain Bible passages they feel remain favorable to their view. Rather, they mimic a sort of churchified presentation of fraternity among men that is eerily similar to what neopagans like Donovan advocate.
But what does the Bible teach about tribes, fraternities, and friendship? Simply put, our Lord came to end the curse and separation of Babel through Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit. The particularity of Israel in the Old Testament became universal in Christ and that is why tribes and peoples now come to faith in Christ and do not in fact remain separate or look for new associations outside the church that already bought them. Nations still exist and tribes and peoples are to be led to the gospel, but as we advance toward the eschaton there is no sense in which Christian men or anyone else should be starting and maintaining new tribes or new gangs dedicated to this or that purpose the way Foster/Tennant suppose. Why? Because Christians themselves are together “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation (ethnos, tribe/people), a people for God’s own possession” (1 Peter 2:9). Note that membership in the church is available to all and in Christ there is no distinction between men and women or Jew and Greek (Gal. 3:28). The gang-level correctability Foster/Tennant would like to note as instrumental and required for men to be Christian is not seen in the New Testament and isn’t how the church functions. Instead, Paul encourages men and women–really, the whole church–to engage in “teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Col. 3:16). James 5:16 instructs us to confess our sins to one another and pray for each other. The church is to gather together regularly to encourage one another, stimulating one another to love and good deeds, and exhorting each other daily (Heb. 3:13 10:24-25). Real discipleship happens in the church among the whole congregation and not in some group of men along for the ride like they’re the Sons of Anarchy.
Additionally, confessional Reformed theology and practice has consistently stayed away from fraternal organizations and groups that Catholics and others consider valuable whether fraternal orders, monastic orders, or pseudo-religious groups like the Masons. There are very good reasons why this is the case including the tendency of an organization or group of people to replace the church, to corrupt men through inappropriate associations, and engage in false teaching. In fact, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church even released a report against Freemasonry and similar groups as the kind of thing that competes against the church and fails to establish true Christian univeralism found in all those from “every tribe and tongue and people and nation” that bow down before the Father (Rev. 5:9). No doubt, Foster/Tennant would like to claim their brotherhood is a brotherhood in the Lord but the problem is that the church’s brotherhood is one that includes men, women, children, and in Paul’s day even slaves and masters (Eph. 6:1-9; Gal 3:26-29).
Next Review:
The Anti-Technological Stance of It’s Good to Be a Man
No Fatherhood, No Manhood – Part 1
No Fatherhood, No Manhood – Part 2
No Gravitas, No Manhood – Part 1
No Gravitas, No Manhood – Part 2
How Porn & Video Games Hijack Manhood
Two for One Day – How to Bear the Weight/Manhood Through Mission
The Necessity of Fraternity