Reverend Ben Cooper's Podcast
Reverend Ben Coopers podcast, offers an inviting space for listeners to explore Christianity and spiritual growth with wisdom, humor, and a deep commitment to biblical truth. Through Rev. Ben's engaging conversations with guests, the podcast not only explores the timeless wisdom of the Bible but also tackles the pressing issues of life, faith, and hope in a way that is accessible, thought-provoking, and enriching. Whether you’re seeking spiritual nourishment, answers to life’s big questions, or simply a place to reflect on your faith, the Rev Ben podcast is a valuable resource on your journey.
In each episode, Rev. Ben guides listeners through profound theological reflections, personal stories, and practical insights drawn from the Bible and the broader Christian tradition.
Reverend Ben Cooper's Podcast
Where Have All the Vikings Gone? - (#1051)
Title: The Fatherless Generation – Reclaiming Biblical Masculinity in a Broken Culture.
Fatherlessness has become one of the most devastating and overlooked crises in modern Western culture. In this episode, we confront the raw reality: 15% of UK families and 23% of US families are growing up without fathers—the highest rate globally. And the fallout is nothing short of catastrophic.
We dig deep into the data, sharing shocking statistics that reveal the scale of this cultural collapse. Children raised without fathers are:
- 20 times more likely to be incarcerated
- 70% of teen pregnancies come from fatherless homes
- 60% of teen suicides and 90% of homeless youth share the same root cause—father absence
But these aren’t just numbers. These are real lives, real stories, and real souls being shaped in the vacuum left by missing fathers.
Our discussion explores how the Church has retreated from its biblical mandate to uphold family structure. As a result, men are confused, silenced, and increasingly disempowered in a culture that criticizes traditional masculinity while simultaneously craving its strength and stability.
We ask the difficult question: What does biblical masculinity actually look like? It's not the toxic dominance the world fears, nor the passive detachment it accepts. Instead, we look to Jesus Christ as the perfect model of manhood—strong yet gentle, authoritative yet humble, a servant leader and warrior King. He offers men a path back to purpose, identity, and legacy.
This episode speaks directly to:
- Fathers longing to lead with clarity
- Young men searching for identity and role models
- Communities grieving the fallout of broken homes
We also explore the role of mentorship, accountability, and discipleship in healing this crisis. The solution is not political—it’s spiritual. And it begins with men being restored to their God-given role, leading with love, truth, and courage.
If you’re tired of surface-level conversations and ready to dive into the deeper cultural and spiritual issues shaping our families and futures—this episode is for you.
fatherless generation podcast, biblical view of masculinity, Christian response to fatherlessness, statistics on fatherless homes UK US, Jesus as model for manhood, raising godly sons podcast, how to be a godly father, spiritual impact of broken homes, mentoring young men in faith, church and family structure decline, restoring fathers through faith, Christian men and cultural identity
https://www.pastorbencooper.co.uk/
https://www.rbchristianradio.net/
Good morning everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. It is Thursday morning. It is Thursday morning, the 27th of July. It is 10.40. I didn't know what the time was. I'm trying to think where I am, what's going on, where am I? It is us, it is Simon and myself. Good morning world. It is hashtag Christian Straight Talk. Whatever you are doing, whatever your life is looking like, we've got and myself. Good morning world. It is hashtag christian straight talk. You know, whatever you are doing, whatever your life is looking like, we we've got to encourage you this morning. Never give up, never give up. God is with you and we've got some great scriptures this morning. Good morning to everybody in the world of buzzsprout and apple podcast and so many other places that you're downloading this stuff. We are so grateful to you across the other side of the world. Hashtag christian straight talk. We're in straight out of the barrel of truth and you know what Isn't life hard. God, simon, help us.
Speaker 2:Good morning Ben, Good morning everybody out there, and it's great to be back with you. And yeah, I think we've got to look at life, Ben. I think we've got to look at life and how life is, Because life ain't easy, is it? No, no, no. There's not many of us living the dream you know, reaching for the stars, flying with the eagles. There's not that many of us doing. That is there.
Speaker 1:No, not in any way.
Speaker 2:Most the majority of us are struggling like mad to to. We're hanging on to the edge of the table, to be honest with you, with our fingernails. We're hanging on, sometimes to our faith with our fingernails, through the word of God and especially, if you know, please, if you put your hope in the church, man the way things are going.
Speaker 2:You know it has to be the Lord. You've got to put your hope in Jesus and our Heavenly Father and, just yeah, let him wrap his arms around you. But, ben, this morning we're bringing to the table something that's….
Speaker 1:Big conversation.
Speaker 2:Big conversation, especially in the Western world. It is an epidemic. Yes, it certainly is, ben, and that is. We are living in a fatherless generation, ben, to be honest, aren't we?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we are really in a crisis within the West and when you look within the UK and you look what is going on the fatherless generation what do we actually mean? What is the term? What do we actually mean? A fatherless generation? I think we could open it up a bit more't. We we're in a leaderless generation. We're in a lawless society.
Speaker 2:What the bible says very clearly yeah, I mean, that's something that that we will speak about, because we're in a generation, uh, of families without fathers, but also also, as you quite rightly said, if a father's there, is he the leader? Yeah, and that's another point we'll make, but some of the stats, ben, don't make nice reading. So these are from 2021. Fifteen percent of all families in the UK are fatherless. Yeah, fifteen percent Families in the UK are fatherless.
Speaker 2:Yeah 15% In the States. It's higher and it's the highest rate in the world. Wow, 23% of all families are fatherless, as opposed to 3% in China and 4% in India and 7% across the world. See the Chinese tried it and 7% across the world. See the Chinese tried it with the breakdown of the family.
Speaker 1:They did. They realised that they can't do it, you can't work it, and when you come outside of God's plan for the family.
Speaker 2:It just shows what the breakdown of society is. It's very, very scary.
Speaker 1:And that's what we've got in the West, isn't it? You know, because we are so godless, because there is no emphasis and no drive anymore for the gospel across the UK, we have a serious breakdown within the family unit, within leadership, within church, and we are living, as the scripture very clearly tells us, that we are in a lawless society, that anything can go, everything is okay. But you start talking about Jesus and real values, you are in a very fine small minority of people and you get looked at as a weirdo.
Speaker 2:You do, but these are the values which keep the society moving, moving and strong.
Speaker 1:So, when you haven't got that, when you haven't got that, when it's the breakdown of the family unit.
Speaker 2:Ben so, amongst that 15% in the UK, 80% of that 15% are single moms.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So it's over 80%. So it's massive, isn't it? It's enormous, and that has been fuelled by many things, but one of the biggest things, especially in the States, was they brought in a bill in the 60s. Lyndon LBJ brought a bill that said any single mother cannot be living. There cannot be a man in the house for them to get the benefits.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And that would be the same in the UK.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So all of a sudden, where maybe there might be a guy in the house popping in and out.
Speaker 1:He's not there. He can't be there anymore. He can't be there on paper.
Speaker 2:Otherwise the lady don't get the benefits.
Speaker 1:Don't get the benefits.
Speaker 2:So that's fuelled that, Ben, and the knock-on effect of that is we're all seeing it across our society, isn't it, Ben? But what did Jesus say about that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we're in Matthew 19,. Matthew, chapter 19, verses 4 to 6, and it says Haven't you read? He replied that at the beginning the Creator made male and female and said For this reason, a man will leave his father and his mother and be united to his wife. The two will become one flesh. And it says in verse 6, so they will no longer be two, but they are one flesh. Now the last part of that text is interesting, that that is used in the marriage vows.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But you can't escape the fact. So we look at society, we look at everything. Do we blame the government for what we've got? No. Do we blame the government for what we've got? No. Do we blame the culture for what we've got? No. The real issue is the church hasn't preached creation. Because if you preach creation, you understand that male and female. Because if creation is the key and the foundation to the rest of the bible, because when you talk about creation you talk about redemption, you talk about family, you talk about salvation, you talk about the understanding of how god created. So, right at the beginning that we have here simon. He says that god created male and female. But what we have with the church the church is allowing pride and the family breakdown has come in, because the church is allowing same-sex genders to preach the gospel, to do whatever it wants to do, and it has taken away the clear-cut understanding that God created male and female. So we are in a real serious position. So no wonder we're a fatherless society.
Speaker 2:Well, I think it goes further than that. Even so, the church is not standing on the moral pillars that have been laid down by Jesus Christ. They've gone away from the Ten Commandments.
Speaker 1:The Ten.
Speaker 2:Commandments, which we've done an extensive podcast on.
Speaker 1:Goodness, gracious yeah.
Speaker 2:They've gone away from that and in days gone by, you could always rely on the church to be the moral backbone. Yeah, Not anymore. People don't even think about the church, do they? When they go to their moral, when they look at their moral codes. Yeah, you know, the ceiling is the moral compass is gone.
Speaker 1:It's gone, I think, what we've got, what the Bible says in the last days there'll be a lawlessness.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Children rising against parents. The children can't, the parents can't do anything about the children at a wayward. The educational system is teaching them everything apart from the Ten Commandments. So we have no real moral compass. We have no way of understanding what a family looks like. Yeah, of course there's a divorce rate. Of course there's things happen. We get that divorce rate. Of course those things happen, we get that. But the reason that there is a massive issue within the uk within the family, is because the church hasn't preached. The church is allowing it's allowing.
Speaker 2:It's allowing the the moral compass to go all over the place and it's allowing a society to step out of the father's plan. The.
Speaker 1:The father's plan.
Speaker 2:So here we have marriages, ben, in the UK and across the globe. Really one in two now ending divorce.
Speaker 1:One in two, so 50%. You know, and do you know what? I think it's actually climbing higher than that and people are not getting married.
Speaker 2:Well, the people aren't getting married, are they? And uh and uh in? If they, they marry, just marry. If they marry a second time, then it's 70 percent ends in divorce. And if the third, it's even higher, but amongst christians. I looked at that, I looked at this figure, ben, amongst christians, it's 25 percent ending divorce. You, you know that's what they're saying, but in the 60s, ben… it wasn't heard of, it wasn't heard of, it was unheard of, wasn't it?
Speaker 1:So yeah, so we can't escape this conversation that the church I believe and what I'm going to say could get me in trouble. I think the church in the UK is finished. The church in the UK is in so much trouble and we look at different denominations and all that sort of stuff. The only way that, if we can use the word, church is going to survive if it keeps in the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is where everything happens. But if you look at the church that we know it today, that's bringing all this pride into what's going on. It doesn't teach you how to respect your mother. It doesn't teach you how to respect your father, how to respect your elders. The children are lawless.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, our Heavenly Father was very big on respecting your father and mother, wasn't he?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And Ben the knock-on effect for society of having fatherless families. It has knocked on so much, Simon 90% of all runaways and homeless people children, kids, teenagers come from a fatherless family. Over 60% of all teens suicide spend.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know that, I know that I'm dealing with it. You're seeing it on a day-to-day basis.
Speaker 2:Over 70% of all teen pregnancies are from families where they've just got no father, so when you take the father out of the situation, then you are taking, you know, the God-ordained leader out of the thing, aren't they?
Speaker 1:So it's the same with the church. What has the church done? I use the word church because we're all in it. It has taken the father out it. It has taken the father out. The church has extracted the father out. We've got big denominations discussing at this moment the pronouns. We have got preachers on the social networks that are in pulpits. We've got men dressed as women, women dressed as men, preaching the gospel and not talking about the father and calling jesus she.
Speaker 2:So no wonder we are in a complete skip, but these figures I'm I'm giving to you. They're easy to get, so yes so we've got. Uh, the church and church leaders should be sitting down and going.
Speaker 1:What's going on?
Speaker 2:What's going on? What are we going to do to try and turn this around? How can we? You know, we have church schools.
Speaker 1:And the church schools are allowing this crazy thing to happen, where you can have a transgender come in and read from a book, but you can't talk about creation.
Speaker 2:These are church schools yeah, drag queen at a story time, all that stuff, yeah, yeah so.
Speaker 1:so the far, the word father has been belittled and the word mother has been belittled, and the two main areas of life. So in Matthew 19, it says have you not read, have you not replied or heard? It says at the beginning the creator. So straight away, when they come against the gender and all this and the breakdown of the male and the female, they're coming at God.
Speaker 2:They're coming at God. So you talk about the world, father?
Speaker 1:no, you talk about, absolutely no doubt, about the word father, as in the home, transfers also to our father in heaven. Look how they're trying to change the lord's prayer. They're trying to take what out our Prayer. They're trying to take what out Our Father. See, if the enemy can remove the word Father, suddenly the enemy has got what he wants. We cannot put the weight on the government. We cannot put the weight on society. We cannot put this weight onto the surrounding areas. It comes down to the church teaching and preaching creation, because at the beginning God created male and female. If there was a clear teaching in the church of male and female, we've lost our identity in everything.
Speaker 2:Lost our identity, and I'll come on to that as we get through this Ben, because this is a huge subject. But how many churches will preach this Ben? How many churches will preach Ephesians 5, 22?
Speaker 1:Start it, read it, let's have it.
Speaker 2:Wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is the head of the church and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let wives be subject to their own husbands in everything. Do you think that gets preached too much?
Speaker 1:That don't get preached at all. The reason it don't get preached is simply because the church has lost its foundation too long ago and it will not preach that. Because it cannot preach that, because then it is coming against the pride issue. Exactly Because if you preach a message like that, you are preaching to male and female and if you identify to nothing you know, I identify to whatever I want to be that cannot be preached because that will be taken as offensive. So suddenly all these scriptures of the family, of the man, of the female, of the mum, of the dad, are and they can't be preached because you are identifying that there is only two, male and, and if you only identify as two, you're putting yourself on the chopping block.
Speaker 2:But science tells us there's only two, and some of these statistics that we've got, really because we've gone away from that, that godly marriage that kingdom view of marriage. You know, even in a where there is a man and a woman in a marriage, or even say a partnership, where some people are not married or whatever, the average male child only spends 30 minutes a week with a one-to-one with his father. Now, there is no complicated formula to bringing up children.
Speaker 1:Ben, Bring a child up in a way they should go. What way is that Lord Through the scripture? Three things, Ben.
Speaker 2:Example, example. Example. It's how they look to their father. A boy will look to his father to see, you know, to see that. And I was interested the other week because my boy's running a, my grandkid's George. He's six years old and my son runs his football team. You know, saturday morning football team. They run around like little chasing a ball and all that. And the majority of the parents that bring their kids to training and to the games are the mums. Yeah Right, and one mum brought a new boy and she said to my Tom. She said I'd like you to toughen him up a bit because he's a bit of a wet blanket. She said but I shouldn't be surprised because his dad's a wet blanket. So there you go. So there you go. There you are. Example example.
Speaker 1:There you are. Example example there you are.
Speaker 2:Example example example.
Speaker 1:So, regarding the word example again, if a father is abusive to the woman, that will make the child think it's okay to be abusive to his mum.
Speaker 2:It's an example and I see this all the time in a generational thing and it happens. I see this all the time in a generational thing and it happens, and you have to. If you're in a marriage, if you've got kids and you didn't get any love as a child from your parents, you've got to break that cycle.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you've got to break it, you've got to break it.
Speaker 2:You know, ben, this fabulous thing getting back to that, you know, a child in a single home where the mum is bringing them up is 20 times more, and this is ghostful, uh, and a boy or a girl, male or female, is 20 times more likely to go to prison than than if it's if there's a proper marriage with a man and a woman, or even if it's a dad bringing them up, 20 times lighter to go to prison. And I see it all the time.
Speaker 2:I go into prisons, ben, you know so. Over 70% of all men in prison have had problems with their fathers or their fathers haven't been there. 80% of all violent rapes are from guys who haven't got a problem with their fathers. College dropouts 70% all suicides. You know, ben, you know this, but suicide is the biggest killer of men, isn't it? Between 30 and 50?.
Speaker 1:And yeah, I was reading yesterday I don't think this is a very conservative figure and they say that 76% of suicide is men at the moment. Well, I would push that to about 82%. So when you think the suicide rate is climbing, climbing rapidly in men.
Speaker 2:The majority of that, they reckon, is from men who didn't have a strong father. Yeah, and strong leadership in their house.
Speaker 1:Just on these last few weeks, I've dealt with five suicides. Five suicides in the last four weeks. Men, more women. The balance let's have a quick think of the balance. One, two it's been about it's been more men, more men. Let's have a quick think of the balance. One, two it's been about it's been more men, more men. But the area that we got this big issue comes back to the church. Whether it's suicide, whether it's family values, whether it's monetary, whether it's politics, everything comes back to the church, because the church has been given clear instruction from the eternal God of Israel. This is how to live your life. This is even farming, even living, even treating your neighbor, even everything is in the word of god. So if you don't have the word of god being taught and we've had this for generations, now haven't we? Suddenly we are living in the days of noah, so everything goes, anything can be achieved.
Speaker 2:All the moral compasses have gone, all the moral fabric of the society is gone because, as you say, anything can go Identity. So we end up, society ends up, you know, with… Lawless, lawless. Having to pay for men in prison, having to pay for men in prison, having to pay for single mums in homes, all that sort of stuff. I was in prison, doing a prison and chatting to the guys and they said in one particular prison it was Mother's Day. So they got all the guys 80, you know, 80-odd guys that come to the chapel or whatever to make a card for their mum, even if she wasn't alive A pastor, yeah.
Speaker 2:And all the guys made one for their mum. And so they said oh, it's Father's Day. Coming up, you've got 80-odd fellas Make a card for your father. One Made a card for his father. Old fellas, make a card for your father. One, make the card for his father One. Because there's so much. I have men, I have Christian men come up to me and go. My dad was weak and my dad never said he loved me, my dad never hugged me and my dad used to whack me Again.
Speaker 1:We know why that happened, All of this stuff Because we are when I say we, I'm talking about the church we have taken the Father out. I'm talking about the spiritual Father now, the Father in heaven. When you take the Father out, when you take God out of society, suddenly you took this restrictive power out, so to speak, and suddenly you've got this void and everything goes. So when we were just talking about children spending time with their fathers 30 minutes or so that reflects to the Christian as well. So there's a spiritual side to that as well.
Speaker 1:How much time do we spend, as believers, with our father? So the amount of times we spend with our heavenly father will be reflected to the children and and society. If you are spending time with your heavenly father and you are seeking the word of god and you are really in in that that drive for more jesus and more of the father, if you want more of the Father, you will get downloading and you'll have revelational knowledge of how to be a man or that person that God is calling you to be. And even when you take the word Father out, where are all the men? Where are all the men in the church. Where are the men? They've been crushed.
Speaker 2:They've been crushed. Yeah, You're right. They don't know whether they're.
Speaker 1:They're frightened to speak out.
Speaker 2:Yesterday or Sunday, that's the most of the most of the fellas are frightened to speak out. Frightened to because, Ben, I think you know, this issue of the church is huge, because the church is not preaching Jesus as a role model.
Speaker 1:No. So who is Jesus? Jesus is the image of the invisible God. Colossians 1, verse 15 through to 20 says Christ is the image of the invisible God. Who is and what is God? God is the Father. So if Jesus is not being looked at as the role model, we are not looking at Christ as the father. So if Christ has been removed out of church which he has and the father has been removed out, suddenly you've got this cross-fertilization of a man can be a woman, a woman can be a man and you've got all this interwoven stuff of this pride and gender issue. So identity is gone, identity is gone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so where do people look? Where do you look to? Where do you look to A role model?
Speaker 1:as a young man growing up, who are you going to look to? Who are you going to look to Andrew Tate? And you know You're not going to look to the leaders of this nation, are you?
Speaker 2:You're not going to look to someone like Andrew Tate, who's made a very successful living. I want to be like him and the problem is and I was talking to my boy about this the other night the problem is guys who want to be like Andrew Tate are not equipped to be like Andrew Tate.
Speaker 1:No, because there's far much more to it than what we see. There's a lot more to it than what we see. We see through the social media.
Speaker 2:So yeah, or certain parts of society will drift towards a rapper, you know or something. Who's got shows on social media. He's got loads of money, has loads of women, all that sort of thing, even the football stars or players, you know music industry. They've got too much money. They've got big cars, they've got this, that and the other Men will wear. They'll actually wear another man's name on on a t-shirt won't they, you know?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, definitely To to try and live up to that Expectation. But it's not for you, my friend, because there's so much about being a Christian is powerful in your life, because if we follow Jesus, then we'll fit into our God-given role, won't we? Yeah, we'll know who we are.
Speaker 1:Whatever, yeah, we'll know who we are.
Speaker 2:Whatever it is, we'll know who we are.
Speaker 1:So the role model for male and female is always Jesus is the same, it's Jesus. Yes, exactly, it's Jesus for both genders.
Speaker 2:It's interesting, ben, because if you are to follow your God-given destiny, well, it's quite simple, ben, isn't it? Follow Jesus, follow Jesus.
Speaker 1:Follow Jesus. So by following Jesus and as we're just talking about fathers, I think we can unpack that word a little bit more and look at the man. Look, what is a man? What does a man look like? In the West, a man can't be a man. The man's almost got to leave his balls at the church now because he can't be a man in the church. He's got to leave them in the car park with his car, because if you go in there with a bit of swagger, you could be seen to be a bit of a threat. You could be seen. You have to be this woke man that has lost his voice. Men have lost their voice in church. They can't speak out. They're listening to these messages that are very soft and very gentle. Ted Talks You've got preachers on the pulpits with flip-flops and shorts on shining teeth.
Speaker 2:I've got a mate in the States. He was a lieutenant colonel in the Navy and he was in charge of the Black Hawk helicopters back in the Balkans. And you know he calls it how it is. There's no grey area, no, he just calls it bang on.
Speaker 2:And he was on a retreat men's retreat and some guy was screwing up the cooking, you know, and he gave it to him, you know, in love. But he gave it to him, you know, and one of the guys who was overseeing it came up to him and go don't you think there was a better way to do it?
Speaker 1:Do you think you could have been a bit more feminine? Could you have been a bit more woke when you dealt with him, told him to pull his finger out, salt the steak out crack on the. He don't do that anymore. He don't do that anymore, but men have lost their identity.
Speaker 2:So where do men put Identity is another thing and we'll go into that more. We can do a deep dive on another podcast. But where do men put their identity? Ben, they put it in.
Speaker 1:So right, okay. So what am I going to do? Who is my role model If the church isn't preaching Jesus and it's preaching a different Jesus? I lose my way, because Jesus said come and follow me.
Speaker 2:So where's my identity? It's now in sport it's, in music it's in my house, it's in my money, it's in my car.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's in my pension, it's in my family.
Speaker 2:It's even. I mean, you hear it. You do a lot of funerals. Even when someone dies, they go. Well, how much did he leave then? Well, the answer to that is we all leave the same, don't we? We all leave nothing. We all leave the same because we all leave it all don't we?
Speaker 1:We all leave it all. We all leave whatever we've got. Whatever we've got, we leave it, and all I've got to give is the pen and the clothes I'm standing in. So the question is isn't it we can't blame the government, we can't blame the cultures, we can't blame society and other parts of the world? We have to point the finger at the church, the denominations, because that's where it sits.
Speaker 2:Churches have got to stand up. Look at this Paul, knew this Paul what a great writer.
Speaker 2:He knew this. In 1 Corinthians 14, 15, he says I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children, I warn you for, though you might have 10,000 instructors in Christ, yet you do not have any fathers, For in Christ Jesus, I have begotten you through the gospel. Therefore, I urge you, imitate me. So what he's saying? He's saying we've got 10,000 people that want to pick up the microphone and tell you what a new revelation they've got from the Bible or how great I am, or doing this, that and the other, but you've got no fathers in your church.
Speaker 1:So you've got no fathers, you've got no men. You've got no men, you've got no leaders. So when you look at the government today, we have the softest leadership team I have ever seen. They are so soft, you could just breathe over them and they would fall over. They are so polished, they are so sharp, they are so clean and squeaky. They're so worried about annoying anybody, aren't they?
Speaker 2:And they're training on people's toes.
Speaker 1:Look at this stuff that's going on with Ukraine. How can our leader partner with a nation that has no interest in us, that all they want is war and all our leader partner with a nation that has no interest in us, that all they want is war and all our leader is doing? Our leader is more interested in giving money to war than feeding the children. A real man if he is a real man, the leader of this nation should be looking at the children in this nation. Going. We are going to feed all of our children. I'm going to make sure that the schools are cooking hot meals. That's what a real man does. He looks after. He is a shepherd. What is Jesus? He's a shepherd. And what have we got in the churches? As we've spent many a time talking about, we've got herdsmen hired hands that are just in it for a few quid. Get me wages at the end of the month. So we are lacking leaders. Well, ben, it becomes quite scary. We're in a pandemic of leader-less.
Speaker 2:Look what it says in the. You know this is in everyone's Bible. It's not in certain denominations. In the last book of the Old Testament. Oh, the Old Testament.
Speaker 1:Hang on the Old Testament.
Speaker 2:I thought Joe Osteen said you ain't got to worry about the Old Testament.
Speaker 1:It's gone. No, Live your best life now.
Speaker 2:What are you going to live when you get to heaven? The Lord's going to say well, you had your best life.
Speaker 1:You had your best life. Go back down there with Joe.
Speaker 2:So what he says is in Malachi 4.6,. He says and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse. So I think we're in that time now we're in that time.
Speaker 1:We're in the time. We're in the time where you know, and I feel so sorry for women. I feel really sorry for women that are bringing up children on their own. I really do. I see it a lot in everything that's going on and they're doing so much and you know it can make you cry what a woman has to do this day and age, simply because the leaders that we have are not teaching the leaders and the men. And if you look at the war generation, look at the poppy generation, they're men, they're men, they were real men. Honestly, when you look at the poppy generation, now we have got a gaming woke, weak lot of a massive percentage of nah the poppy man, the poppy man that went to the fields that fought at 18, 17 years old and they, they were warriors, they were real men and I was.
Speaker 2:I was having a conversation, having a conversation with the guys that you know that have been the yeah the renderers and the plasterers. They're all Christian guys, all four of them all brothers and great guys, and we were saying, you know, the man has to be the leader of the family. He has to stand in the gap. It doesn't mean he has to do everything, no, it doesn't mean he has to but he has to stand in the gap. He's the shield.
Speaker 1:And he's the example.
Speaker 2:He's the example. So when your missus suddenly goes into a panic about something, you step in and just take over. When there's something happening with your child or your grandkid, you drive to play, you sort that out, you help them. You're there, you're the safety net, you're the shield. There's certain things that you won't be able to do, that your wife can do and other people in the family can do. But you are the.
Speaker 2:You are the stopgap you're the one standing there and, uh, you're the one who who meets the uh workman coming into your house and you're the one who sorts all that stuff out. Um, and you're the one, uh, if you're in a Christian family, you call the family together and you have a little prayer up with. You know, you lead, that you show by example. We've lost all of that, we've lost a lot of that, and so men are confused.
Speaker 1:Yeah, confused, lost identity has gone. So what we have is the woman is bringing up these children, because the church has taken the father out of the preaching. If you don't preach Jesus, a man don't know who he is. A man don't know who he is. Who am I If you don't talk about Jesus? If you want to follow and if you want to be someone that is carrying authority, someone that carries a great stature, someone that people look to, there is only one person in the world and his name is Jesus. He is the greatest warrior, the greatest man that ever walked this earth.
Speaker 2:And an interesting point on this one, ben I encounter many men, from certain cultural backgrounds especially, that have trouble believing that there's a heavenly father that loves them.
Speaker 1:Exactly yeah.
Speaker 2:Through what their own father had done to them, and there's no way really to explain that. The only way to put them right on that track is exactly what you said is to invite them to follow Jesus. So they believe in Jesus and the Holy Spirit, but the only father that loves them not so much.
Speaker 1:But if you follow Jesus it leads you to the father Ben, Even if you was in a secular society and you were just talking. And you're talking about role models. If you talk about role models for men to follow, the way to go is to follow Jesus. If you said, right, all the men that will walk this earth, even in a non-believing society, go study Jesus Christ, Forget about belief, but if you want to see what a man achieved, read about the life of Jesus.
Speaker 2:Read the Gospels. That's all you've got to do.
Speaker 1:And then when you read about jesus how he treated society I treated the leaders, how he treated his mom and his father, women, the respect women I retreated women. Yeah, so you can take the religious word off, you can take the word faith out of this and remove this completely. Because if you're looking for a role model, strip the word back of of I don't believe in Jesus, it's irrelevant. But if we're talking about what a man should look like and you read about Jesus Christ, suddenly you will find he is a warrior. He is a man of stature, power, authority, meekness, love, gentleness and respect. Jesus Christ is the ultimate man that has ever walked this earth.
Speaker 2:He's the ultimate symbol of manhood. That's totally right, and once we get this, then we start to understand that there is a Father God that loves us.
Speaker 1:Amen. And then suddenly and you're right, simon, you mentioned the word again the Father comes back into the arena.
Speaker 2:And then these guys can learn to love their Heavenly Father because their Heavenly Father's got such a love for them. And above that well, not above that, but second to that is that they'll be able to love themselves, which is a big thing, because many men don't love themselves, no, and that causes anger and anxiety. And what the church? I don't think the church, I don't think it grasps this, because I don't think it grasps what it is to be a man. I don't think it grasps what the men need other men, and I don't think it grasps that we have older Christian men in our churches.
Speaker 1:Full of wisdom, wisdom wise that have come through wars, come through life.
Speaker 2:Come through battles and they could mentor these young men.
Speaker 1:So what we have again? It comes back to the Moses basket, doesn't it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it does, it does.
Speaker 1:So what we have is the church lifting up young men and putting young men in the pulpit because they want the youth club experience, and you've got the man, the real man that has gone to war, gone to war and has come through the blitz and come through so much stuff in his life, sitting in the church and has to listen to this young man talk a load of rubbish, basically, when it should be the other way around. There's been a flip in the church. Well, Paul said it, didn't he?
Speaker 2:Paul says it 10,000 preaching teachers. I remember a few years ago they had a really big men's meeting. It was a Christmas do, a men's meeting. They asked me to come along and say a few words about what was going on in the area, about men's stuff, and then they had a young, vibrant young preacher standing up Full of air, and I looked around and they invited me to stand and speak. And I looked around and the majority of men were over 40. Exactly. And I spoke for 10 minutes and I sat down and the guys on the table went why couldn't you speak for longer? I said well, that wasn't my slot, you should have been able to speak.
Speaker 2:This guy stood up, spoke and he well, that wasn't my slot, you should have been that, let's speak. This guy stood up, spoke and he spoke. Well, but he couldn't relate to these guys. He was talking about gaming. He was talking about, you know, internet, you know all that sort of stuff, and these guys couldn't relate to it. So here we have mixed messages coming out and I was speaking at a men's breakfast thing the other weekend and the majority of guys there were well over 50. And I said to them where are the young guys. Well, if you were mentoring a young guy, if you were- out there mentoring.
Speaker 2:You'd bring them along to something like that, wouldn't you?
Speaker 1:Exactly, but it's all upside down inside, inside out, and it's all torn all over the place. So the church is irrelevant to what a man should be, because if you go into them a massive percentage on a sunday morning and you, you look and and certain denominations, what they're allowing and what they call a man to be, you know the identity has been lost. So if there is anyone listening to this out there that are men that are thinking to themselves. You know what? What do I do with my life? You have to follow Jesus. If you want to be that great father, follow Jesus. If you want to be that great husband, follow Jesus. If you want to be that great builder, follow Jesus. If you want to be that great person in your calling, you follow Jesus, because everything comes to Jesus.
Speaker 2:Totally, it's totally there, ben. You know, I remember going to certain places and meeting beautiful young women and they're going to me Simon, you deal with men stuff. I go, yeah. They say, go, can you find me a good Christian man? I go well, you're in a big church, yeah, but there's no proper men in there. There's no proper men, there's no proper men. And this was one of the biggest churches in East London.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And another lady in a big church up in Cambridge.
Speaker 1:Where are the men? Where are the men? Where are the Vikings?
Speaker 2:Yeah, but where are the proper fellas?
Speaker 1:Where are the Vikings? We're not allowed to be the man. We're not allowed to be the man because the church is preaching that, man, you can be a woman, you can be a woman, you can identify. So we're not having the real gospel coming across the pulpits and we've got a woke. I don't even like the word woke. The church is beyond woke. It is so soft. It has been so desensitized to the fear of God there is no fear of God anymore in the pulpits.
Speaker 2:No, there's not. No, you're right. And the young men, young men out there, are looking for a father figure. They're looking. You see it all the time. You know, you see it.
Speaker 1:So if I come into church, I'm a young man, I'm 18, 21 years old, I want to see what church is about. I go into a certain denomination, I sit down in the pew and I look up and I've got this um woman that is dressing like a man. And I'm listening to this stuff and I'm thinking, hang on, or I'll go into another church where I've got a man that is dressed as a woman and I've lost my identity as a young man because I've got no father in my house and suddenly I'm seeing this cross-fertilisation of this strange dress in society and I want some stability. And I thought the church was stable, but the church is lost.
Speaker 2:We can even come back from that. I mean many times at churches that I've been into, all of a sudden, you know, a waifu or a stray will come into the church and there's loads of guys, but they'll go. Simon, can you?
Speaker 1:Can you talk to him?
Speaker 2:Can you talk to him?
Speaker 1:Can you?
Speaker 2:talk to him. He's from the YMCA around the corner. Can you talk to him?
Speaker 1:Why can't you talk to him? Why can't you talk to him? Why can't you talk to?
Speaker 2:him we're too busy.
Speaker 1:We're too busy.
Speaker 2:And then you hear them trying to talk to me and they try and be all down with the….
Speaker 1:It's madness.
Speaker 2:And these fellas are looking for someone to look up to. These fellas are looking for someone Looking for a role model For guidance in their lives. They're looking for a rudder in their lives. They haven't got one.
Speaker 1:So if you've got the church saying you can identify to whatever, so you can identify to whatever you want to be. So there's this looseness of there's. No, you can be whatever you want.
Speaker 2:But there's young men out there that want, they want direction, they want direction, they need the direction, they need the fabric of their lives to be structured, structured, structured in the moral compass of A, b, c and D.
Speaker 1:That's why, in Matthew, chapter 19, it says that at the beginning God created the man and the woman. It's so simple. It's so simple yeah. It's so simple. So when you know, who you are.
Speaker 2:There has to be that. There has to be that when you know who you are, when you know your identity, when you know, when you know what, what god thinks of you, that he thinks you're a son, you're his son, you know. It don't matter what anyone else thinks of you and you have to have that structure. I remember speaking in a homeless sort of shelter type thing, and one guy there. He'd really done well with his life. He'd come in homeless off the streets, but he'd now got a job and he said to me he said I have to get up every morning, I have to make my bed before I go out, because if I don't make my bed I'll go back in it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah have to make my bed before I go out, Because if I don't make my bed I'll go back in it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah Got to make it, I've got to make it and I have to be disciplined. And he was on the exactly right track. He was doing really, really well and yet there was another guy just wandering around doing anything, things, you know, getting up while I was speaking, just you know, totally disrespectful, got totally disrespectful got no rules, no discipline in his life. This is where we're at, so you know we have men in.
Speaker 1:what I see is young men in our churches with no spiritual discipline Because the father has been taken out of the church, taken out the spiritual father.
Speaker 2:And I said to one guy I said you know you need a little bit of spiritual I don't like that word discipline.
Speaker 1:Don't like the word discipline, can we?
Speaker 2:call it scheduling or something.
Speaker 1:Can we call it reshaping?
Speaker 2:I said no, it's recorded discipline and if you want to get your life sorted, then seriously, you need to get into some. You know you.
Speaker 1:You need to get into some you know you need to get into the Word on a regular basis.
Speaker 2:You need to be structured.
Speaker 1:Because creation is about structure. When you look at creation again coming back to Genesis, when you understand the power of creation through the power of the spoken Word, everything is created in a certain order, at a certain time, in a certain way. So there is structure, but we don't have structure in the nation, we don't have structure in the church. We have this business ethics that is going on. Everything is business orientated. Everything that we do through work, through life, is a business formula, when actually we need the spiritual understanding of Jesus.
Speaker 1:Jesus has to be the key in church, in life, because if Jesus is the key, suddenly the Father is in the house. If you've got the Father in the house, you've got harmony. If you've got harmony, you've got peace. The Father needs to be in the church. But the Father's been challenged because there are many transgender preachers calling Jesus a she. This is where we're at and this is what we call in the church. So you've got young men going into church, going hang on a minute that preacher. I'm not sure who they are, but they've just called Jesus a she.
Speaker 2:I think there's that, Ben, but for a long time we have men leading churches wearing robes, wearing dresses, don't we? Yeah, and for a guy who's you know, a working man, blue-collar guy off the street, he doesn't wash?
Speaker 1:does he? No, no, he doesn't, he doesn't wash anymore.
Speaker 2:You know we're not swinging the old incense and wandering around with the cross and all that's religion. That's totally religion.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:You've got to cut through that religion and get straight to Jesus.
Speaker 1:There's no religion here, it's just Jesus.
Speaker 2:A relationship with Jesus Christ. It's walking, that's what he's calling you to do. Have a relationship with him. Cut through the religious nonsense. Have a relationship. Let him lead you to the father and the father's there with open arms. Amen 100% Wanting you to come back to him.
Speaker 1:So the fatherless generation doesn't sit in the hands of the politicians, doesn't sit in the hand of the culture, doesn't sit in the hands of the business. It sits and the responsibility lies and sits not in the congregations, but the leaders of these denominations have blood on their hands, seriously have blood on their hands. It sits, this whole weight of this fatherless generation, because we are in a great falling away, sits with anyone that is sitting at the top of the christmas tree of church calling all these shots. If you are in this position of leadership and you are teaching Jesus Christ, god bless you, amazing. But if you are at the top of these denominations teaching this stuff, hell's on its way for you.
Speaker 2:And we say if, as we come into land, because we've done 50 odd minutes, we're in, we're in, we're out-odd minutes.
Speaker 1:We're in, we're in, we're out, we've got to go.
Speaker 2:If you're searching for the Father out there, then you follow Jesus, and that's where you are, and he will lead you to the Father. And then, when you're with the Father, you'll find the love that you never, ever thought you'd encompass and you won't want to go anywhere else Now encompass, and you won't want to go anywhere else now.
Speaker 1:Simon, you said it it's. You know you follow jesus, don't you? Yeah, we're out of here. Hashtag christian straight talk. Thank you to everybody in the world of spotify, bus sprout I heart, radio, so many other platforms, apple, uh, podcast, google, all that, alexa, all the platforms. And thank you to everybody across the other side of the world. You know we are so grateful that you are listening to this stuff. Give us some feedback. God bless you. Whatever your time is here in the UK it's Thursday, the 27th of July, almost half past 11 in the morning. God bless, we'll catch you later. Take care, bye-bye you.
