Lent 2026 · Day 5: Not All Men. But All Men Benefit When They Stay Silent

Let’s just say it.

“Not all men.”

Fine.

But enough men. Enough men who don’t speak up. Enough men who laugh. Enough men who go along to get along. And that includes Olympic athletes. The U.S. men’s hockey team wins gold. Good for them. They played well. First gold since 1980. Historic moment.

Then they get on a celebratory call with the President - this country’s clown shoe of a leader - who takes the opportunity to diminish the U.S. women’s hockey team. You know. The women who have medaled in every Olympics since women’s hockey became an Olympic sport. The women who consistently outperform the men. And what happens?

They laugh.

This is why I hate, “Not all men.”

Patriarchy doesn’t just look like overt misogyny. It looks like loyalty to other men. It looks like protecting access. It looks like staying silent so you don’t disrupt the vibe. It looks like bonding over women being minimized and used as the punchlines. It’s the same energy that protects sexual abusers. The same energy that shrugs at workplace discrimination. The same energy that claims to “protect women’s sports” while casually disparaging women athletes.

I’m tired of INCEL culture. I’m tired of Red Pill podcasts. I’m tired of grown men calling themselves “alpha males” like we’re in a National Geographic documentary. And I ask this sincerely when I talk to my straight women friends about their dating experiences. Do men even like women?

Because a lot of behavior doesn’t suggest affection. It suggests entitlement. It suggests proximity without respect.

My life is different. I decenter men. Honestly, I like women too much not to. I am a woman. And, women have been treated like property, trophies, or accessories to men for thousands of years. We have only recently had the option not to center men. And they cry about it. Men are still structuring the world in a way that forces us to orbit them.

If men want to prove they’re not all trash, then prove it. Prosecute the powerful abusers. Call out your friends. Refuse the laugh. Interrupt the joke. Don’t nod along when the President diminishes women who have objectively outperformed you.

Be better.

Do better.

And if that makes you uncomfortable?

Good.

Because here’s what keeps happening: men claim to protect women. Protect our daughters. Protect women’s sports. Protect family values. From who?

Other men.

Statistically. Historically. Empirically. Women are overwhelmingly harmed by men they know. Not bears. Not shadows. Not abstract threats. Men.

And here’s the trap. Bad men create the harm. “Good men” distance themselves from the bad ones. But too many good men stay silent when the bad men are powerful.

Lenten Reflection · John 8 Revisited

John 8 isn’t about stones. It’s about hypocrisy.

A group of men drag a woman into public, ready to condemn her for sexual sin. They are confident. Righteous. Certain they are on God’s side. And Jesus exposes the real issue: not her behavior, but theirs.

We love condemning the visible sin in other people while ignoring the rot in ourselves. We quote Scripture at gay people like it’s a weapon. We threaten hell. We clutch pearls. We pretend moral superiority. Meanwhile?

Adultery is referenced repeatedly in Scripture. Dishonesty. Exploitation. Abuse of power. Pride. Greed. Violence.

And yet those sins get forgiven quickly when the sinner is straight. Especially when he’s male. Especially when he’s powerful.

Make it make sense.

It doesn’t.

We tell the gays and theys they are an abomination, but we shrug at infidelity. We excuse misogyny. We normalize abuse. We laugh when women are diminished. We elect men with documented harm toward women and call it “family values.” John 8 exposes something terrifyingly modern: We are very comfortable condemning the people who threaten our social order.

We are much less comfortable confronting the people who benefit from it.

Straight men are not morally superior. They are socially protected.

And protection without accountability breeds rot.

Lent is not about shaming marginalized people into compliance.

It’s about repentance. About integrity. About turning inward before pointing outward.

If you’re quoting the Bible at queer people while staying silent about powerful men harming women, you missed the entire point.

Jesus didn’t side with the mob.

He exposed it.

God, please save me from this nonsense. Take care of yourself. Take care of each other.