White conservative Christian men are rising up all over the nation to take their place at the top of their families, churches and communities.
We’re witnessing their rise to power through the Rededicate 250 events where men like Mark Driscoll called on young men “to get married, to build your business, to get into politics, and also to in every way empower your church to be the tip of the spear for the fight against evil.”
We’re noticing it in Doug Wilson’s call to repeal the 19th Amendment or in Al Mohler’s amendment to prohibit female preachers in the Southern Baptist Convention.
And their pursuit of power has reached cartoonish levels with their lasso-tossing booth at the Stronger Man Nation’s “Freedom Con: An American Congress of Christian Men,” where they called for “the rise of the statesman.”
In each of these contexts, women are threats that need to be warded off, put in their place or excluded.
But of course, male-only voting booths, pulpits and annual conferences are one thing. How can men survive the daily grind of being around women and become the warrior kings the Doug Wilsons and Mark Driscolls of the world want them to be?
To reach that peak, the Christian manosphere believes men need to be in top physical and spiritual shape. So one way they’re proposing to accomplish that is through “lust-free” gyms.
Porn addiction and infidelity
These stories typically begin with men recounting their past indulgence in pornography, adultery and other vices.
Jeff Hambrecht in an Instgram reel promoting his men’s-only gym.
“Why are we men’s only? Who are we?” asks Jeff Hambrecht, founder of Proverbs 27:17 Fitness in Oklahoma City. “In a nutshell, one of the No. 1 places affairs and infidelity occur, cheating, is the gym. Byproduct is someone who had an affair in my previous marriage. Doesn’t work out well for you fellas.”
According to the gym’s website, “There was a season of his life marked by homelessness, addiction and spiritual emptiness.” In another video, he admits, “I had a pornography addiction for almost 20 years.”
Mitch Parsons, founder of Youth Group for Men and Remnant Men in Denver, had a similar experience. “I quit four gyms before I built one,” he says on the Remnant Gym website. “I realized the problem wasn’t the gym. It was that no one had built what I actually needed, or what I wanted.”
According to Parsons, men are “breaking” under all the pressure. “I know because I’ve lived it,” he admits. “Eating disorder. Unemployment. Debt. Health failure. Recovery. The full spectrum of a man’s struggle and the faith that carried me through.”
The Oklahoma City gym already is open, but the Denver gym is slated to open next year. Potential members are invited to sign in advance.
Trying to survive women at the gym
Apparently, walking on the treadmill next to a woman is too much for these guys.
“I was tired of having nakedness shoved in my face every time I walked into a gym to train,” Parsons claims. “I had to choose between honoring the Lord, honoring my wife, and guarding my eyes, or training my body. So I quit four gyms.”
In addition to his false dichotomy, it’s notable he doesn’t mention honoring the women at the gym. In his mindset, God and his wife deserve to be honored. But women working the kettlebells don’t seem to cross his mind as worthy of honor.
Also, despite how often Parsons mentions having nakedness shoved in his face at the gyms in Denver, it’s unclear what he means by that. Gym policies across Denver require their members to wear shirts at all times. And Denver public indecency laws prohibit exposing one’s genitals in public.
Mitch Parsons
What was he seeing there that can’t be seen on any public place in America, from beaches to parks to baseball games?
Still, despite women being required to wear clothes at the gym, Parsons suggests: “Christian men are at war daily. There is no base camp.” He says even the church isn’t equipped to help “men who are drowning” because “the church wasn’t built for daily presence.”
Hambrecht compares such trials to fiery furnaces in ancient Babylon. “You’re going to have some hard times,” he tells the men of his gym. “He’s going to allow you and make you suffer because you’re going to come out on the other end unscathed and refined.” He adds, “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego went in the fire, but they came out unscathed.”
For the men of Oklahoma City and Denver, Hambrecht and Parsons have a plan.
“So what did God do?” Hambrecht asks. “He took what the devil meant for evil, turned it into good, put it on my heart to start this men’s fitness and ministry center where there are no distractions. There’s no temptations of women walking around fellas.”
Because they associate women with distractions and temptations, and don’t associate them with honor, they each came up with a similar plan: Create a gym that excludes women.
Sharpening each others’ iron
Both male-only gyms take inspiration from Proverbs 27:17, which says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”
Rather than having a gym where “nakedness” supposedly gets “shoved in his face,” Parsons dreams of “a place where Christian men gather, sharpen each other, and are formed under the fear of the Lord.”
His vision is for men to “sharpen each other in brotherhood” and suggests, “Real sharpening requires daily proximity to other faithful men who refuse to let you drift.”
“Real sharpening requires daily proximity to other faithful men who refuse to let you drift.”
Similarly, Hambrecht’s Proverbs 27:17 Fitness is a gym “where men step back into brotherhood — where friction is welcomed, accountability is normal and growth is expected.”
Hambrecht sees himself as helping men grow hard as iron by creating friction. “Men are not being led out there,” he says. “God’s called me to be a leader. I’m gonna lead some men to God.”
Fueling conspiracies and authoritarianism
Remember the broader cultural conversation happening right now among Christian nationalists is “the rise of the statesman,” which gets defined as Christian men leading families, businesses and communities and fighting evil.
As Hambrecht puts it, the goal is for men “to become warrior-king spiritual leaders in their homes and communities. … Men forged by fire. Ruled by Christ. Ready to lead.”
Similarly, Parsons says: “A formed man leads his marriage. A formed marriage anchors a family. A formed family becomes a witness to a community.”
“A formed man leads his marriage. A formed marriage anchors a family. A formed family becomes a witness to a community.”
Ultimately, Christian men exercising leadership in the community and fighting evil means cultivating conspiracy theories about LGBTQ people in the pursuit of authoritarian politics.
Parsons’ embrace of conspiracy theories is evident on his website, where he claims, “We live in a city that is putting litter boxes in high schools.” Of course, this isn’t true. Bret Miles, executive director of the Colorado Association of School Executives, told the Denver Post, “School districts are spending time chasing down storylines that were purely for political gain. They have nothing to do with what kids are experiencing at school, and it’s shock and awe. It’s just incredibly frustrating.”
But their fear of litter boxes allows them to take hold of power through authoritarian Christian politics.
According to a study by PRRI, white evangelical Protestant Republicans are “most susceptible to authoritarian views.” PRRI founder Robert P. Jones said authoritarianism is measured by how consistently people affirm the following four statements:
- “The only way our country can get through the crisis ahead is to get back to our traditional values, put some tough leaders in power, and silence the troublemakers spreading bad ideas.”
- “Our country will be destroyed someday if we do not smash the perversions eating away at our moral fiber and traditional beliefs.”
- “What our country really needs is a strong, determined leader who will crush evil and take us back to our true path.”
- “Our country will be great if we honor the ways of our forefathers, do what the authorities tell us to do, and get rid of the ‘rotten apples’ who are ruining everything.”
This is what Hambrecht and Parsons are doing with their male-only gyms. They’re spreading conspiracies about morality and traditional marriage that cast women as dangerous. They’re promoting men rising up as warrior-kings who are ready to fight evil, and they’re getting rid of women who they claim are ruining everything.
Coming to a city near you
To enter Hambrecht’s Christian manosphere, this looks like buying his “Jesus is King” T-shirts and hoodies and then working out in his “No Girls Allowed” gym while attending his Thursday night Bible study.
To join Parsons’ Christian manosphere, it’s a bit more intense. Gym members must sign a covenant called “Rule of Life” that requires such beliefs as “marriage as one man and one woman,” or “two genders, given by God at creation.” And it requires strict adherence to “the behavioral and moral standards of the Remnant Gym membership agreement.” Their website says, “Christian authority is enforced through ownership, contracts and the courage to hold the line.”
He shares Hembrecht’s theology of kingship and describes the pillars of manhood as knowing your identity is in having “royal blood” as “a son of the king.” Then he says, “Sonship hands him real authority and the tools to wield it. Not earned by striving, given by the King.”
It’s a hierarchical authority “over a marriage, children, a younger brother, the men around him.”
Tier 1 membership includes full access to the gym, all gatherings, the brotherhood lounge and permanent “founding-priority status” for $150 per month. Then for $250 per month, Tier 2 includes access to a golf simulation video game.
And he’s hoping to bring this vision to a city near you.
“Denver is the prove-it. The model scales nationally,” he says. “Houston. Nashville. Dallas. Atlanta. Every major American city has Christian men quietly breaking under what their cities are doing. Every one of them needs a base camp. We’re building the first one. Then we’re building the next.”
Rick Pidcock is a 2004 graduate of Bob Jones University, with a bachelor of arts degree in Bible. He’s a freelance writer based in South Carolina and a former Clemons Fellow with BNG. He completed a master of arts degree in worship from Northern Seminary. He is a stay-at-home father of five children and is the author of a forthcoming book, Weapons of Worship: How the Songs of Evangelicalism Form the Soundtrack of Extremism. Follow his blog at www.rickpidcock.com.