US youth joins the Russian “masculine” churches

Many people ask me: “Father Moses, how can I increase my manhood to ridiculous levels? “” “

in YouTube videoA priest defending a form of masculinity, not apologize.

Narrow jeans, cross your legs, using an iron, forming your eyebrows, and even eating soup are among the things that make fun of female.

There are other videos of Father Musa McPherson – a five -year -old father – weightlifting to heavy metal sound.

Protestanti grew up and once worked as a bishop, but it now works as a priest in the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia (Rocone) in Georgetown, Texas, a branch of the mother church in Moscow.

Rocor, a global network with its headquarters in New York, is expanded recently across the United States – mainly as a result of converting people from other religions.

In the past six months, Father Musa has prepared 75 new followers of baptism in his church, the mother of God, north of Austin.

“When my wife and I turned 20 years ago, we used to call the Orthodox the best secret, because people did not know what it was.”

“But in the past and a half, our group doubled three times in size.”

During the Mass on Sunday in the Church of Father Musa, the number of men in their twenties was shocked by their thirties who pray and cross themselves in the back of the plate, and how it seems that this religion – with traditions dating back to the fourth century AD – attracts young people uncomfortable with life in modern America.

The software engineer Theodore told me that he had a dream and a wife who loved her, but he felt the emptiness, as if there was a hole in his heart. He believes that society was “very harsh” for men and constantly telling them that they are wrong. He complains that men are criticized for their desire to be the breadwinner and support the residence wife at home.

“We were told that this is a very toxic relationship at the present time,” said Theodore. “This is not how it should be.”

All converts, whom I met, have chosen their offspring at home, partly because they believe that women should give priority to their families instead of their career.

Father John Whiteford, head of bishops in Rocone of Rabie, North Houston, says home education guarantees religious education and is a “way to protect your children”, while avoiding any talk about “transgender, 57 wings of the month or anything.”

Compared to millions of worshipers in the American Evangelical Megachurches, the Christian Orthodox numbers are small – only about one percent of the population. This includes Eastern Orthodoxy, as it is practiced throughout Russia, Ukraine, Eastern Europe, Greece and Eastern Orthodoxy from the Middle East and Africa.

Many were founded by priests and clerics who flee the Russian revolution in 1917, and Rocone is seen as more specialized for Orthodoxy in the United States. However, this small religious society is an audio society, and what is revealed within it reflects broader political transformations, especially after President Donald Trump’s exciting axis towards Moscow.

It is difficult to determine the real increase in the number of converts, however Data from the Pew Research Center Orthodox Christians suggest 64 % of males, up from 46 % in 2007.

A A smaller study From 773 it seems that the converts support the direction. The most recent new arrivals are men, and many say that the epidemic led them to search for a new faith. This survey from The Orthodox Church in America (OCA), which was created by Russian monks in Alaska in the late eighteenth century and now has more than 700 diocese, missions, societies, monasteries and institutions in the United States, Canada and Mexico, which is defined as the Russian Orthodox.

Professor Scott Kenworth, who studies the history and thought of Eastern Orthodox Christianity – especially in modern Russia – says that the OCA diocese in Cincinnati “completely explodes in the welds.”

He attended the same church for 24 years, and says that the group’s numbers remained fixed until Covid secured. Since then, there has been a continuous flow of new inquiries and people who are preparing for the mayors, known as Catechuments.

“This is not just a phenomenon of my own disadvantage, or a few places in Texas, it is definitely a broader thing,” says Professor Kenworthi.

The digital space is the key in this wave of new converts. Father Musa has a great follow -up on the Internet – when he participates a Positive pregnancy test image On Instagram feeding, he gets 6000 likes to announce the arrival of his sixth child.

But there are dozens of podcasts and other videos presented by the Orthodox clerics and the army of followers – especially males.

Father Musa told his group that there are two ways to serve God – being a monk or a nun, or marriage. Those who take the second track should avoid birth control and have the largest possible number of children.

Father Musa says: “Show me a saint in the history of the church who blessed any type of birth control.” As for masturbation – or what the Church calls for self -use – the priest condemns it as “compassionate and unfamiliar.”

Father Musa says that the Orthodoxy “is not male, it is normal”, while “in the West everything has become very feminine.” It is believed that some Protestant churches mainly meet the needs of women.

Father Musa says: “I do not want to go to the services that you feel that it is Taylor Swift.

Elisa Bilic Davis, the former Protestant who now belongs to the Greek Orthodox Church in Austin, is the teacher of Sunday’s school Its podcast. She says that many converts belong to the “anti -population crowd” and sometimes they have strange ideas about their new faith – especially those in the Russian Church.

“They see it as a military, rigid, disciplinary, male and authoritarian religion,” she says. “It is funny. It seems as if the old and crazy American Puritanians have come back to appear.”

Back Johnson worked as a 25 -year firefighter and host Anti -flow podcast.

He says he was initially afraid of entering his local Russian Orthodox church because he “looks different, covered with tattoos”, but tells me that he welcomed open arms. It was also admired that the church remained open throughout the Kofid insurance period.

He sits on a sofa in front of two huge TV screens at his home in Lockhart, saying that his new faith changes his view of the world.

“The negative American opinions on Russia are what worries me,” says Pak. It tells me that the “Legacy” media provides a distorted image of the conquest of Ukraine.

“I think there is a comment from the Boamer generation here in America that was living during the Cold War, and I do not fully understand the reason – but they say Russia is bad,” says Back.

The head of the Russian Church in Moscow, Patriarch Kirill, supported the invasion of Ukraine, describing it as a sacred war, and expressing a little sympathy for its victims. When I ask Father, Archbishop John Whiteford, about the best Russian cleric, who many see as warm, assures me that the words of the patriarch have been distorted.

Footage and pictures of Putin quoted from the verses of the Bible, and the candles were held during the services in the Cathedral of Christ in Moscow, and it seems that the Savior and strip him into swimming trunks to drown in the ice water on the diving feast, and hit a chord. Some – in America and other countries – see that Russia is the last stronghold of true Christianity.

Nearly a decade ago, another conversion of Texas from Texas, Father Joseph Gleleson, from America to Borisogglis, a four -hour village in northern Moscow, moved with his wife and eight children.

He told a Russian video host: “Russia does not have sexual marriage, and there is no civil unions, it is a place where you can school at home – of course – I love the history of Orthodox Christianity here.”

This is the trembling textun at the forefront of a movement that urges conservatives to move to Russia. Last August, Putin presented the quick track Common values ​​visa For those who flee from Western liberalism.

Returning to Texas, Pak told me that he and his converting colleagues run their appearance on immediate satisfaction and American consumption.

“We think about things in the long run, such as traditions, love for your family, love of your community, and love of neighbors,” says Pak.

“I think the Orthodoxy is well for us – especially in Texas.”