That people are reported to be struggling to achieve deeper meaning in this uncertain time could be construed as good news. That there is a surge of people, and particularly younger men who are joining orthodox churches suggests a shift in our culture that could be either good news or dark news depending on the orthodoxy. The report of a rush to orthodoxy, for this writer was an initial cringe because of this current era of aberrant religious nationalism. It took great discipline not to start a process of highly sophisticated stereotyping building to a faux truth (lower case private truth) that leaves my assumptions comfortable.

The reason the founding fathers separated church and state was partially an innate wisdom culled from history that the two together are a recipe for violence and terror. Beyond that they could not have imagined how the 21st century would try to bind together not only religion and politics, but also weave in the impact of sciences of computers and technology. To avoid a new Reign of Terror, the orthodoxy of the 21st century must respect the bannisters embedded in their own religions that keep their adherents from drifting into the realms of government and civil power. Philosopher Hannah Arendt coined the term bannister and it represents a metaphoric support that keeps one from falling off the narrow stairway of good. The major religions and their prophet/teachers seem to have intentionally embedded their messages with foundational instructions that serve us as bannisters. They defined their messages in such a way the news they brought could not be mistaken for amoral abuse of secular power. Both Orthodoxy and Reformation have historically had difficulty respecting their own bannisters. Hubris too often brings out the chainsaws of heretics, down go the bannisters, out goes the true religious instruction, and the blood flows. 

Modest Proposal for Good

So, yes, it is potentially good us men (he/hims if you want translation) are finally looking at the nature of our own versions of gender and deeper spiritual meaning. The cycle of sports on television and making a living, no matter how impressive the life style accomplished, will always be insufficient for a meaningful life. Some forms of orthodoxy can provide the structure required to break powerful habits and addictions empty of actual meaning, spirit and purpose. But other unbannnistered forms of orthodoxy can put one on the path to violence and terror using surface interpretations of deep teachings. The founding teacher of Christianity made it simple with the oak hard bannister of The Greatest Commandment . .  ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ (translation: love all fellow humanity) . He sunk this bannistered instruction in concrete saying in conclusion ‘There is no other commandment greater’. You can express your values in politics and government, but you cannot love your neighbor through government enforcement nor can government or law enforce love. Violence, brutality, killing, injustice, insults to body and soul, swirl in our culture in the murky river of daily life, so stay with the spiritual bannisters of the religion to which you commit. Love in almost all religions is the higher standard to aspire toward if you want a religious renascence instead of a reign of terror. That would be good whatever the language, covenant, or God that guides you.