Andrew Tate, Christian incels, and Biblical solutions

This article was first published in the Social Issues Bulletin – Issue 52: Spring 2023.

Have you heard of Andrew Tate? If not yet, best to acquaint yourself, because you are about to. Recent research found that 8 in 10 boys between 16 and 17 years of age had read, listened to, or watched content online from the four-time champion kickboxer and self-described ‘most googled man on the planet’. Emory Andrew Tate III – Tate’s full name – was banned from Twitter for five years from 2017 after a string of tweets which led to him being accused of victim-blaming raped women.

Born in Chicago, Tate was brought up in Luton, Bedfordshire. He began to achieve broader notoriety and attention in 2016 when he appeared on Big Brother and was subsequently evicted from the reality show after video footage emerged of him beating a woman with a belt (this was said to be consensual) and in another video telling a woman to count the bruises he had given her. Following his initial ban on Twitter, Tate managed to evade that ban and set up another account briefly (but long enough to be verified), before that account was also banned in 2021. While the ban was lifted in 2022, Tate’s online presence was boosted when he went viral on other social media platforms, particularly TikTok with his opinions on masculinity, women, and money garnering the most attention. Following the removal of his Twitter ban, Tate’s account gained over a million followers within 24 hours. He now has 5.1 million followers many of whom actively support, defend, and promote Tate’s content despite his being imprisoned in Romania for suspected involvement in human trafficking – an unsurprising charge for some of us familiar with Tate’s words.

As a pastor actively engaged in my local community and deeply involved in the lives of a range of men young and old, I know the need to deal with the Andrew Tate phenomena biblically and specifically. As much as I wish it was not so, it may be that the spirit of Andrew Tate seemingly has more influence on some young men in your church than the Holy Spirit sent by Jesus. While Tate’s influence is denied by some – even of those who may actively view his content – the attitudes, actions, and manner of approach promoted by Tate will be recognised in the lives of young men in particular. In the following, I seek to present a pastoral view and challenge of the Andrew Tate phenomena, presenting Biblical solutions.

What Andrew Tate gets right

It is very hard to find anything good in Andrew Tate’s manner, message, and methods as a whole. That said, I believe there are some things that need to be said and approached from a positive angle to try and understand and appreciate the reason for Andrew Tate’s reach. Satan disguises himself as an angel of light; he gets enough right and has enough truth in his perversion of the same that many are led astray.

1. Andrew Tate addresses men as men

Tate’s content is primarily directed at men. He realises that the excesses of extreme feminism have at times led to the abuse and abandonment of men and the denigration of masculinity. Imagine wearing a t-shirt that says ‘The Future is Male’ and the backlash that such would rightly receive. And yet ‘The Future is Female’ is a slogan that one sees crop up a good bit without much protest at all. In a world affected by extreme feminism, male leadership is often viewed as intrinsically suspicious and male voices speaking on anything related uniquely to women are looked down on regardless of expertise or qualification to the point of being silenced. Women’s opinions are elevated and at times deemed superior and men’s are denigrated, distrusted, or doubted as inferior. Popular media – when it portrays whole family units – often portrays the woman of the house in a positive light with the man as oafish, lazy, and stupid – think Homer Simpson or Peter Griffin. Without looking into the reasons why at present, it is not too difficult to find anti-man sentiment not just in broader society, but in churches as well. In such a climate, it is important that men have another man speaking to them, addressing them directly as men, understanding their issues and concerns, and addressing these in a clear and certain way. Without commenting at present on the substance of his content, Andrew Tate does this.

2. His coaching of men presents the goal of ‘empowering them to be better in all realms.’

Here’s the reality: sometimes the portrayal of men in popular media is accurate. Whether by nature or by giving up in light of perceived societal denigration, men can and do behave poorly. Whatever the reason, many do not strive for excellence or display any motivation to improve and be better at living life, choosing to embrace oafish, laziness and stupidity. Lack of discernment, discipline, desire and drive in men across age categories cripples them from meaningful, productive, prosperous living resulting in feelings of emasculation. Is it wrong for a man to address these issues in men? No. Indeed it is needed. Men need to be trained in how to earn and budget (both saving and spending) well. Men need to be equipped with the tools and resources and knowledge to be better providers and protectors of their families. Men need to learn and grow in being better communicators, lovers, workers, sons, brothers, fathers and friends. Andrew Tate presents his method as being all about empowering men to be better in all realms, giving a sense of ownership of their lives and the personal responsibility to improve one day at a time. In a world of complexity and confusion, where men have often been very bad at living life and where some men perhaps feel the particular hurt of absent or apathetic fathers, a solution that presents itself as helping them to be different will be attractive.

There. Somehow I managed to present two positive points about Andrew Tate. And it is precisely these positives of Andrew Tate that make him so dangerous.

The perverting influence of Andrew Tate

Andrew Tate’s origin story might not come as a surprise. Born in Chicago, at the formative age of 11, Tate’s parents split and his mother proceeded to bring him up in relative poverty in Luton, Bedfordshire. Looking at various stories from Tate’s childhood gives an insight into some of his mentality. His father, Emory, was discharged from the US Air Force after being diagnosed with Narcissistic Disorder. He was a champion chess player who was in and out of Andrew’s life growing up then even less regularly after divorce. Andrew praises his parents for their influence and his father for teaching him what it meant to be a man.

After my own research, one thing is evident. Andrew Tate says he takes inspiration in how to be a man from his now deceased father; the same father whose mistreatment of his family, particularly his wife led to Tate’s growing up in a single-parent home. His words are charged with anger and arrogance – indicating his own sinful narcissism – and he openly portrays, promotes and praises behaviour that can only be described as abusive. I dare not sully this journal with examples of Tate’s crass, crude, sometimes incoherent rhetoric – you can go to the source yourself if you wish – but this content has garnered over 14 billion views, earning him an estimated net worth of $20 million. Hyper-sexualised, shamelessly objectifying and misogynistic, Tate’s words with the aforementioned positive hooks appeal to disaffected, depressed young men who are often of underprivileged upbringing, broken family lives, and struggling with direction in their lives. Tate stokes the fires of their anger and outrage, tapping into legitimate felt needs and presenting warped solutions that promise to see masculinity regained. Some, applying Tate’s methods, will doubtless experience greater degrees of success in some areas of their lives, but the end will almost certainly be ruin just as it is likely to be for Tate himself. There is so much material of Tate’s where he brags about his coercive behaviour against women that he will almost certainly face criminal conviction whether for the human trafficking he is being investigated for or not.

Christianised Andrew Tates

Christian young men often saved from the disaffection, divided and deprived situations Tate speaks into, often fatherless themselves may well be sucked in by some of Tate’s methods for self-improvement. They will try to rationalise Tate’s more jarringly inappropriate statements as unnecessarily detracting from what they see as better points. Some on social media have even come to Tate’s defence following his recent arrest ignoring the wealth of evidence from Tate’s own testimony that he is guilty of grooming, coercion and exploitation of women. Tragically, there will be young men who try to marry a Christian lifestyle with Tate’s principles in their relationships or pursuit of the same. Perhaps finding Tate unpalatable and too problematic they may well seek out professing Christian teachers who can scratch their itching ears with hyper-patriarchal language.

I have personally seen the negative impact of Tatesque Christian leaders like Doug Wilson and Michael Foster in the lives and relationships of their followers. Tragically in seeking help from such sources – perhaps even Andrew Tate – many young men lacking wisdom and balance are in serious danger of consigning themselves to live as incels, unable to meaningfully or helpfully communicate, particularly with those of the opposite sex.

This can and does carry over into church life. Women will be disrespected, talked down to, ignored, denigrated and generally viewed as less trustworthy even when carrying out their God-given and ordained responsibilities in family and church life to the best of their ability. In a vicious cycle, female victims of such treatment will often begin to view men and male leadership in particular with suspicion and through the lens of their hurt and offences against them. The presentation of biblical complementarity in relationships is consequently viewed as equivalent to patriarchy and this almost always leads to a response that veers toward extreme feminism – an equally unbiblical anthropological perspective.

So what can you do?

Tragically, many cannot see that their view of masculinity and femininity is driven more by culture than by Christ. Pastors, teachers, evangelists, Sunday school teachers, members – whoever you are in the life of the local church – you have a responsibility before God to be discipled and to disciple in a way that is practical and relevant for Christian living in the present day.

Teach positively on Biblical masculinity and femininity

Men and women both want and need to know who they are. Identity, meaning, purpose and destiny are areas where we have specific questions and need specific answers for clearly directed and disciplined lives. We should sound out the clear and certain teaching of Scripture in these areas, celebrating the unique, complementary and mutually beneficial roles and responsibilities of men and women while acknowledging areas of similarity all in the context of our union in Christ.

Don’t shy away from pinpointed discipleship on tough topics from the pulpit 

Reasons to avoid dealing with difficult, intimate and personal areas of human relationships are fading. It is possible and, I believe, wise and helpful to address these matters from the pulpit for all the congregation. Sex, sexuality, domestic abuse, pornography, objectification, prostitution, divorce and money matters all need to be dealt with. The prophets, Jesus himself, and the apostles all did so. Is there a reason we so often do not? If we do not deal with these areas clearly, people will find themselves discipled by others who are neither trustworthy in orthodoxy nor orthopraxy.

Introduce spaces for men and women to share openly

Transparency is key for the bearing of burdens as we confess our sins to another. Men and women will have various frustrations – sometimes rightly, sometimes wrongly – often perhaps with each other. It is important for churches to have opportunities at which men can mentor and build up men and women can do the same with women. Occasionally such meetings can be joint – when dealing with marriage for example – but as a whole, at the very least I recommend operating ‘pastoral surgery’ times when matters can be discussed freely and openly, sins being confessed for the bearing of these burdens. When it comes to men, this can be challenging. Men can be more closed and can be good at hiding and not sharing honestly. Those affected by fatherlessness and similar traumas to their development will present a range of challenges. Seek to be equipped to speak into their lives with practical, Biblical wisdom that convicts, challenges and works to Spirit-inspired change.

A final word: live worthy of emulation

Andrew Tate is popular because he sets a model – a paradigm even – of how to live. We serve Jesus Christ who calls us to live in imitation of him. Can we, in humility, say to our young men and women like Paul says to the Philippians, ‘Imitate me as I imitate Christ’ (1 Corinthians 11:1)? If we strive to live in such a way ourselves, I truly believe the impact we have can provide a healing balm to the wounds caused by the harmful ideologies espoused by Andrew Tate and others. Our words alone accomplish nothing. Let’s live in such a way that shows the beauty of what it means to a man or woman in Christ!