Chapter 1 - Introduction from BECOME FORGED - MAXIMIZING MASCULINITY Something's wrong. If we take the time to stop and look around, life seems normal enough. And through the day-to-day, the current becomes normal, so much so that we become blind to the unhealthy reality which constructs our society. Unfortunately, it has become commonplace to cry out about all kinds of major problems in our society, and it has also become common place to scream, with the next breath, solutions at the top of our lungs. However, if a solution requires something of someone else, is it a solution, or an abdication of responsibility? Stick with me here, there's a point to all this. When we clamor for the increase of welfare, are we taking responsibility for the solution, or hoping other… read more

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” -Matthew 25:35-36 “Where charity is not, justice cannot be” -Saint Augustine From its earliest days Christianity has been a source of selfless charitable compassion, not only evident by todays worldwide ministries but also since ancient times. What began as the world’s example of serving others selflessly through Christ, quickly spread throughout Rome and continued through the so called “dark ages” of medieval times. Many of todays well-known, international charitable organizations were founded in the… read more

The influence of Christianity on western civilization is ingrained all around us in our original culture. Not only did it provide the fundamental bedrock of the United States Founding itself, but it also remains evident in many of our cultural customs. Some of these things are very common and hardly considered when it comes to their source of origination. They can include deeper things like how our western worldview was formed and the moral expectations of how we treat one another, to phrases we say in our everyday language, to even the names we grant our children. The majority of our population enjoys and partakes in these things, even those that would consider themselves completely secular. The deeper fundamentals of our worldview’s foundations have been covered at length in other… read more

How can children grow up to love liberty if all they witness is authoritarianism and provision? “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”―Ronald Reagan In the US in the 1830s many utopian communities arose around Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. They believed in an ideal of equal sharing of everything, i.e., tools, labor, the fruit of their labor, etc. These communities would be considered socialist by today’s definition. Very few of these communities survived more… read more

Were the Founders of the United States simply “deists”? Debunking this modern myth. Most who are even somewhat familiar with apologetics and debate concerning political history may recall the common assertion: “the Founders certainly weren’t Christians! They were only diests!” Such is a phrase often repeated with zealous gusto. It seems the only time the term “deist” even appears in contemporary conversation is in the context of the United States Founders specifically somehow being averse to Christianity. It is interesting that secularists that have pushed this claim do not use the term “theist” as if to intentionally avoid a reference to theism directly. Such a reference to “theism” might imply that the Founders connected the God they spoke of with the God of the Bible, or at… read more