You see it on TV. You heard it from comedians. You even read it in children’s books. Men are bad. Dads are dimwits. There’s a lot I like about the Berenstain Bears series or Richard Scarry’s Busytown. But these classics from my childhood sure hit differently when I read them as a father, and the dads always come across so dumb.

Nancy Pearcey gave me context for these portrayals in her new book, The Toxic War on Masculinity: How Christianity Reconciles the Sexes (Baker). The bestselling author of Love Thy Body, Prof. Pearcey writes less about recent culture wars and more about a long-term transformations in Western society. For example, she says when we think about the traditional family we’re not being traditional enough. We should be looking further back than the 1950s. As we do we can see the contrasts between the biblical definition of a good man vs. the secular definition of a real man.

Prof. Pearcey writes, “Neither sex can fulfill its purpose by denigrating the other. Instead of accusing men of being toxic, a better strategy is to support their innate sense of what it means to be the Good Man.”

Nancy joined me on Gospelbound to discuss these historical shifts and what Christians and churches today can do to encourage good, godly men. If they don’t? Well, listen to this warning from Prof. Pearcey.

“Not long ago I got an email from a former graduate student who now teaches high school,” Pearcey told me. “She said, ‘All of my male students are fans of Andrew Tate. They’re even using Andrew Tate quotes in their yearbook.’ So I said, ‘Don’t you teach at a classical Christian school?’ So I was surprised. What it means is if we’re not giving young men a biblical view of masculinity, they are going to be reaching out and being influenced by these online figures who have a very secular view of masculinity.”