Shawn Ryan's Story Reveals Why Men Are Coming Back to Jesus

Shawn Ryan's return to faith has captured the attention of millions, but his story points to something much bigger.

Across the country, more men are searching for truth, purpose, and a relationship with Jesus Christ. In his conversation with Tucker Carlson, Shawn Ryan shared how confronting the reality of good and evil, heaven and hell, became part of his journey back to faith.

In this episode of The Catholic Couple with Just Bobby, we explore why so many men are returning to Christianity and what they're truly looking for. Is it simply a reaction to a broken culture, or is God calling hearts back to Himself?

Scripture tells us that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," but our faith is meant to mature into a deep relationship with the God who loves us. Sometimes people come to Christ because they see the light. Other times, they come because they feel the heat. Either way, God's desire is to lead us home.

Join me as we discuss Shawn Ryan's journey, Tucker Carlson's observations, the growing hunger for authentic faith among men, and why this moment could be the beginning of a spiritual renewal.

If this episode encouraged you, please like, subscribe, and share it with someone who may be searching for Christ.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What if I told you that some people find God because they see the light? But what if I told you that most people find God because they finally feel the heat? Just a few days ago, Tucker Carlson released his podcast with podcaster Sean Ryan, and he described something that caught millions of people's attention. He talked about experiencing what he believed was hell.

SPEAKER_03 0:22

It's funny. Normally I have curiosity. I would like to want to know more, but I actually don't want to know more. Because it's upsetting even hearing that. And so you came away thinking that God directed you to this place to teach you something, and that thing was you want to avoid hell. I hope that's what it is.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

First I thought that's where I'm going. Um but now I think maybe that's what it is.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

Whether somebody agrees with every detail of his experience, that really isn't the point. The point is that what happened afterwards. You know, he's really been talking a lot about God and faith, and he started interviewing all kinds of different Catholic priests and exorcists, and he's been bringing on different people with different faith stories. And he started himself openly talking about the faith. And guess what? He's not the only one. We see other popular podcasters like Joe Rogan talked about even going to church. I haven't got that, but I have started going to church every now and again.

SPEAKER_04 1:33

Yeah? Yeah. Do you enjoy it? I love it. Yeah. It's about I do too. It's a bunch of people that are going to try to make their lives better. They're trying to be a better person.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

We're starting to see young men are filling Catholic and Orthodox parishes all over the country and actually the world. And you know what? All of a sudden, Bible studies are packed. Something is going on. Something is happening. And the question is, why? For years, our culture promised us that freedom meant having all the fun that you want with no limits. You know, whether that was more money, uh, more pleasure, or more experiences or more vacations and social media, getting the most followers, or, you know, doing whatever you want to do, whenever you want to do it. But somehow we became more anxious. We became more isolated, more addicted, and more lonely than ever before. And it's almost like we've been drinking salt water. More that we drink, the thirstier that we become. That, I think, is why so many people are starting to look back to God. Not because life all of a sudden got easier or they got it all figured out, because everything else, well, they stopped working. And here's something that Christianity has always understood is that love is only half of the story. The other half, well, that is holy fear. And today we almost never hear that word. Fear. Fear and yeah, I'm afraid to do something, but fear, like, we don't like it. We think, you know, fear is automatically means that there's terror or that we should run away. What scripture says that fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Not the end of wisdom, but the beginning of wisdom. And I I think I've started to understand why that is, because fear really reminds us that our choices, well, they actually matter, that heaven is real, that hell is real. We don't hear too much about the four last things the heaven, hell, death, and our last judgment. We don't hear about that from the pulpit. But eternity is real. Jesus preached about hell all the time. And that love, well, love always involves freedom, and that we have freedom to make choices, but there are consequences to those choices. And throughout Christian history, God has occasionally allowed certain people to get a glimpse of what those consequences look like for rejecting him. We see that the children at Fatima describe terrifying visions. We know St. Faustina, she wrote about hell. Many saints have spoken about the seriousness about eternal separation from God. And even Pope Leo XIII, after Mass, he experienced a profound vision that was famously how he came up with the St. Michael's prayer, where he was basically transported to hell and God allowed him to feel and experience what that was like. So that's why he wrote the St. Michael's prayer. Then you got to ask the question is that why would God want people to experience something like that? Not because he enjoys frightening people, because sometimes the house actually is on fire, right? And yelling fire isn't hateful. It is actually a loving act. If it's the house is actually on fire and yell fire, you can save people. C.S. Lewis, he wrote that pain sometimes is God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world. Sometimes pain is the only way to get our attention. And sometimes God, he does whisper. Sometimes he does send angels or, you know, do different nudges. Sometimes he allows us to hit rock bottom. Some people come because they saw the light. Others, well, they finally came because they felt the heat. And you know what? Both ways, light and heat can help people become saints. But here's where we often get off balance. You know, some Christians only talk about God's love. You know, God loves you so much. You know, God forgives you, God has mercy, God understands, you know, God accepts you. All those things are true, all those things are good. But if that's all we hear, then eventually we start to imagine a God who's simply just going to rubber stamp whatever we want, that our sins aren't actually sins or the things that we're doing that are causing us harm, well, they're okay. You know, God's going to forgive you no matter what. But we have on the other side where we hear some people only talk about judgment. We only hear about the rules. We only hear about, you know, eventually there's going to be the eternal punishment. There's going to be God's wrath, that every mistake, that you're disappointing God. That way of just talking about all the bad things isn't going to help produce saints either. You know, that can easily help people fall into despair. I think the Catholic faith has always held these two things together: both justice and mercy, both truth and love, both holy fear and confidence. God is not an abusive father just waiting to catch you doing something wrong. Neither is he an indifferent grandfather who's just pretending sin doesn't matter, that no matter what you do, nothing matters. The opposite is true. He's a perfect father. He's perfectly just, but at the same time, he's perfectly merciful. On the cross, he didn't just forgive our sins. He had to pay the debt. Justice was fulfilled, but then the mercy came to us. So, you know, just because he gives us mercy doesn't mean that justice goes away. And just because there's justice does not gonna not give us the mercy. But I think that's what first drew me to Catholicism over 17 years ago. Not because I was looking for more rules, because I definitely wasn't looking for that. I was looking for reality. I looked everywhere else for happiness and I came up short, whether that was getting the job that I wanted or the car that I was looking for, or those vacations, or the partying, or the great times, having all the people around me really like me. You know, the approval didn't change things. None of it could actually satisfy what my heart was actually looking for, what my heart wanted. And we know the famous quote from St. Augustine who said, Our hearts are restless until they rest in you. Turns out he was dead right. But here's something that I don't think gets talked about as much as that famous quote from St. Augustine that people aren't just looking for God, they're looking for each other. You know, after COVID, we see loneliness exploded so much people feel isolated. We see those deaths of despair. And there are thousands and thousands of people who talk online. However, nobody is there to help you when things are going bad, like in person, like when things are falling apart, when you get fired or a relationship falls apart, or you get that bad health diagnosis, right? Nobody who knows struggling online. People who are online are your friends, it's superficial. Like those people don't actually know you. They're not part of your actual life. You may be friendly and may chat from time to time, but I think COVID really pushed us out to see we need to find people who actually know what we're doing to have real conversations, you know, not just those conversations that are at that superficial level of, hey, uh, did you see what the Bears did? Or hey, did you see that there was these tornadoes? Or hey, did you see what this politician said or that movie? You know, that's fine and dandy. Those things are all good. But those relationships where you can say, you know what, I'm struggling, or I need help, or, you know what, I'm losing faith, or I'm having trouble being hopeful or being grateful. I'm really just struggling. And that's especially true for men. We've been taught to suffer quietly and don't talk about your feelings and just suck it up, just keep performing, just pretend, put on a happy face, all those, all those things. But meanwhile, there's people who are just starving for actual brotherhood. You know, that's the one reason I think I see so many men are being attracted to Catholicism. Not because it's easy. Actually, it's probably the opposite. It's because it is demanding. You know, the Catholic Church as something of you. It calls you to something that's higher, whether that's prayer, confession, being a disciple, to have discipline, to be able to fast, be able to sacrifice, to take responsibility and the mission, and obviously the beauty of 2,000 years. But ironically, the very things that our culture says that will make you miserable are the things that finally make you free and are that are fulfilling. Real Christianity was never meant to be lived out alone. Jesus didn't simply save people individually. Yes, you can have a personal relationship with God, but he formed a church, he called a family, he had disciples. Takes a family, it takes a body, it takes a communion of believers. You need people who actually know your name.

SPEAKER_02 10:33

Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

You know, that's not just a song from cheers. Everybody wants to go to a place where everybody knows your name. But you also want to have a place where you go to where you can talk about those more serious things, where you have people who challenge you, people who are gonna pray for you, people who are gonna support you, people who actually care when they notice when things aren't right or you aren't the same or you haven't been around. You know, that's why groups matter. That's why these relationships matter, especially within the faith tradition. That's why parish life is important. You know, faith isn't just about believing the right things, which obviously those are important, but it's about belonging and who you are becoming. And maybe that's what we're witnessing right now. Maybe it's not simply just some kind of religious trend, but maybe it's hungry people who are finally starting to realize that they can't survive on what the world has been feeding them. They are discovering that there's something ancient, that we are longing for what Jesus actually feeds us his own self, his body, blood, soul, and divinity. And that's something beautiful. It's something so true. And I think many people are starting to discover that that's what Christ wants for them.