Not Love

Andrew Tate on “Anything Goes with James English” podcast (2023).  Source https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjYjLJpzeas, Author Anything Goes with James English (CC Attribution 3.0 Unported)

The social media “influencer” Andrew Tate who once contended that the victims of rape should bear responsibility for their violation has, himself, been charged in Romania with rape, human trafficking, and the formation of a crime syndicate to sexually exploit women [1][2].

Evidence exists of Tate and his cohorts coercing women into sexual acts [3][4].  Tate contends that he is innocent.  Hopefully, the courts will sort this out, and the appropriate consequences will follow.

Another misogynist, even another rapist, is not news.

The larger question is why an egotist like Tate would have gained such popularity (particularly among young men), and why women so often fall prey to men like this.

Hypermasculinity

“Hypermasculinity” is the sociological term for a toxic form of masculinity characterized by the view that violence is virile; that danger is exciting; and that women should be treated with less regard than one would have for an animal [4].

To be a man, by this definition, is to be merciless and wholly self-centered.

Clearly, Tate peddled an exaggerated masculinity to which young men were drawn.  Generally, it is an immature or fragile (albeit large) ego that requires shoring up by such trype.

Women and Low Self-Esteem

Women settle for so little, for feckless men who use and abuse them.  We are beaten and branded, then asked to provide sex on demand.  We wear dog collars.

Such men waste our time, deplete our resources, and drain our hope.  They squander our money on liquor, drugs, gambling, and other women.  They abandon their children to the streets.  This is not love.

Love does not require that a woman demean herself.  No decent man would ask that of her.  Nor is self-abnegation by a woman a sign of love.  It is, in reality, her fruitless attempt to elicit love from a man who will never  reciprocate.

Why then do we do this?  Is it that we have been treated shabbily since childhood, as if our lives did not matter?  Is it that we are desperate for any shred of affection?  Or is it because we simply do not know better, because the women around us do the same?

God’s View

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her…” (Eph. 5: 25).

This was not God’s plan.  In His eyes men and women are equals (Gen. 2: 18).  Husbands are to love their wives, not be harsh with them (Co. 3: 19).  In fact, husbands are to be willing to give their lives for their wives.

Sex outside marriage is not love.  It is a poor imitation — a sin against our own bodies (Rom. 1: 29)(1 Cor. 6: 18) [6].

We must teach our children better — boys and girls alike.  The inferior arrangement so commonly on offer in this broken world of ours is not love.  It ends up degrading both men and women.

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[1]  Wikipedia, “Andrew Tate”, htt.ps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Tate.

[2]  BBC, “Andrew Tate charged with rape and human trafficking” by Lucy Williamson and George Wright, 6/21/23, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65959097.

[3]  YouTube, Andrew Tate prosecution reveals graphic claims of coercion, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tzr5BxHXE8.

[4]  BBC, “Andrew Tate:  the man who groomed the world?”, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001q1n6.

[5]  Britannica, “Hypermasculinity/Toxic Masculinity”, https://www.britannica.com/topic/hypermasculinity.

[6]  Got Questions, “What does the Bible say about fornication?, https://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-fornication.html.

The Maryland Attorney General has released a less redacted report on clergy sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore extending back to the 1940s. 

The report is available at:  https://www.marylandattorneygeneral.gov/reports/AOB_Report_Revised_Redacted_Interim.pdf.

The names of 5 high ranking Roman Catholic Church leaders alleged to have assisted in the cover-up are still being withheld while they pursue an appeal. 

The Archdiocese has meanwhile applied for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, in anticipation of the numerous civil law suits to be filed now that Maryland has lifted its Statute of Limitations for child sexual abuse.

This story can be found at:  https://apnews.com/article/church-abuse-report-baltimore-archdiocese-cb474913a4c57a4d32cb9521440687ac, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/29/us/baltimore-archdiocese-sex-abuse-bankruptcy.html, and https://www.nbcwashington.com/investigations/new-law-for-child-sex-abuse-survivors-begins-oct-1-flood-of-lawsuits-expected-against-baltimore-archdiocese/3432899/ .

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