Young #US men are joining #Russian churches promising 'absurd levels of manliness' [and #ToxicMasculinity!]

by Lucy Ash, May 26, 2025

" 'A lot of people ask me: 'Father Moses, how can I increase my manliness to absurd levels?''

"In a YouTube video, a priest is championing a form of virile, unapologetic masculinity.

"Skinny jeans, crossing your legs, using an iron, shaping your eyebrows, and even eating soup are among the things he derides as too feminine.

"There are other videos of Father Moses McPherson - a powerfully built father of five - weightlifting to the sound of heavy metal.

"He was raised a Protestant and once worked as a roofer, but now serves as a priest in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (#ROCOR) in Georgetown, Texas, an offshoot of the mother church in Moscow.

"ROCOR, a global network with headquarters in New York, has recently been expanding across parts of the US - mainly as a result of people converting from other faiths.

"In the last six months, Father Moses has prepared 75 new followers for baptism in his church of the Mother of God, just north of Austin.

" 'When my wife and I converted 20 years ago we used to call #Orthodoxy the best-kept secret, because people just didn't know what it was,' he says.
'But in the past year-and-a-half our congregation has tripled in size.'

"Convert Theodore - who until recently rejected all religion - lifts weights three times a week with Father Moses
During the Sunday liturgy at Father Moses's church, I am struck by the number of men in their twenties and thirties praying and crossing themselves at the back of the nave, and how this religion - with traditions dating back to the 4th century AD - seems to attract young men uneasy with life in modern America.

"Software engineer Theodore tells me he had a dream job and a wife he adored, but he felt empty inside, as if there was a hole in his heart. He believes society has been "very harsh" on men and is constantly telling them they are in the wrong. He complains that men are criticised for wanting to be the breadwinner and support a stay-at-home wife.

" 'We are told that's a very toxic relationship nowadays,' Theodore says. 'That's not how it should be.'" [smh...]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c30q5l8d4lro

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/p2R0W

#ToxicMasculinity #Hypermasculinity #RussianOrthodoxChurch #Putin #MAGA

Those who didn't like a #Nazi soldier in the #Canadian #Parliament hopely also won't like a monument to Nazi commander Andrey #Vlasov at the #Russian #Patriarchate (#ROCOR) #monastery of #NovoDiveevo in the #US.

Vlasov wasn't a simple soldier but a commander and his unit was few times larger than #SSGalizien. Russian #Church in the #US regulargly #prays for this Nazi and defends him in official statements.

it seems #ROCOR civil wars are now a seasonal thing.

eventually they start to excommunicate themselves