In this week's conversation between Dr. James Emery White and co-host Alexis Drye, they discuss the subject of a recent Christianity Today article written by Russell Moore titled, “Why Young Men Are Failing to Launch.” The phrase “failure to launch” is not new on the cultural scene; however, it is increasingly becoming reflective of Gen Z men. This is a generation that Dr. White is very familiar with following the research he did for his book Meet Generation Z. So why do Gen Z men seem to struggle so much with branching out on their own?
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As discussed, one of the fundamental issues is that men these days don't seem to know what it means to be a man. This was a trend that Dr. White began to see in culture, and was what prompted the development of a series he delivered at Mecklenburg Community Church called “Defining Manhood.” This topic has also been broached through the Church & Culture Podcast in episodes CCP101: On Bluey and Modern Fatherhood and CCP72: On Toxic Masculinity.
In addition to the CT article from Moore, other journalists who study culture have also taken note of this issue affecting Gen Z men. While there are many others out there, these are a good place to start if you're looking for more to read on this topic. Hannah Fry, writing in the Los Angeles Times, titled her article “A ‘failure to launch': Why young people are having less sex.” Christine Emba wrote a very interesting article on this subject in The Washington Post titled, “Men are lost. Here's a map out of the wilderness.” Glen Stanton, in an effort to help shed some light on this topic, wrote an article titled “Manhood Is Not Natural” in The Journal of the Witherspoon Institute. An article in Medium was titled “Are Gen Z Men Really That Undateable?”
The conversation also explored whether parents could be to blame for this failure to launch. After all, Gen Z have been raised by Gen X. And much of their parenting was focused on not becoming a helicopter parent. The result? They became too under protective when it came to parenting. On that topic, Dr. White gave a series at Meck called “The Under-Protective Parent.”
Lastly, today's conversation talked about the prevalence of domestic abuse and the tragic affects that it has on families. If you or someone you know is being abused, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800.799.7233.
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