As first reported by the BBC, a sharp uptick of men have been attending a Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (or ROCOR) in Georgetown, Texas, led by Father Moses McPherson. 

According to McPherson, ROCOR has been gaining a lot of traction with men due to its traditional ideas: 

ROCOR, a global network with headquarters in New York, has recently been expanding across parts of the US - mainly as a result of people converting from other faiths.

In the last six months, Father Moses has prepared 75 new followers for baptism in his church of the Mother of God, just north of Austin.

"When my wife and I converted 20 years ago we used to call Orthodoxy the best-kept secret, because people just didn't know what it was," he says.

"But in the past year-and-a-half our congregation has tripled in size."

These traditional ideas go beyond just typical beliefs, but involve changing entire lifestyles. This includes homeschooling and traditional practices when it comes to gender roles. 

And according to the numbers, this faith is seeing rapid growth: 

The true increase in the number of converts is hard to quantify, but data from the Pew Research Centre suggests Orthodox Christians are 64% male, up from 46% in 2007.

A smaller study of 773 converts appears to back the trend. Most recent newcomers are men, and many say the pandemic pushed them to seek a new faith. That survey is from the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), which was established by Russian monks in Alaska in the late 18th Century and now has more than 700 parishes, missions, communities, monasteries, and institutions in the US, Canada and Mexico which identify as Russian Orthodox.

After watching McPherson's YouTube channel for a bit, I can see why many people would gravitate toward him, especially men. McPherson seems to reject modernist takes on gender roles and encourages young people to get married, settle down, and have children. In one short, he holds up a pregnancy test and encourages couples to get a positive one. He also calls masturbation "pathetic and unmanly".

A lot of McPherson's positions seem to be blunt, unwavering, and unapologetic, and I think that's what is attracting a lot of men right now. They feel like they can be proud of their masculinity in the way that God sees it, and this ROCOR growth seems to show that men aren't just seeking that kind of welcome; they want to foster it and find fellowship in that kind of scene. 

Modern society makes it clear that masculinity is unwelcome and distasteful, and men are often made out to be the bad guy no matter what the scenario entails, yet at this faith, men are held in higher esteem. They're obviously still held highly accountable for their actions, but this accountability comes with love and encouragement, not blame and derision. 

Obviously, this is going to have some political issues attached to it. As the BBC reports, the church's Russian origin is a factor in how it's viewed by many: 

The head of the Russian Church in Moscow, Patriarch Kirill, has doggedly backed the invasion of Ukraine, calling it a Holy War, and expressing little compassion for its victims. When I ask Archpriest Father John Whiteford about Russia's top cleric, who many see as a warmonger, he assures me the Patriarch's words have been distorted.

But it appears that some see Russia as the last bastion of real Christianity, and that potentially, ROCORs are a path to seeing Russia in a far more friendly light. 

At its core, however, appears to be a real need for men to escape modern ideals which encourage women to be loose and disrespect their own bodies, for men to be passive and feel guilt for simply being men, to eliminate gender differences entirely, and that LGBT inclusion is a norm, not a fringe. It even pushes this on children. 

And this orthodoxy seems to give many men a stability they see lacking in mainstream society. 

It's unclear if this will spread, but given the recent uptick and society continuously trying to push one new fresh hell on the people after another, I can see this popularity continuing to rise.