Young faith influencers turn misogyny into moral mission

Christian manosphere – Connor Tomlinson’s rise from weekly Mass to conservative media star shows how a “Christian” framing is being used to launder misogynistic online ideas into mainstream politics, culture and public life—while critics warn of a growing crisis of belonging for you

When Connor Tomlinson talks about faith, he sounds less like a crusader than a young man trying to make sense of the world. The content is calmer than the loudest corners of the manosphere—fewer screams, more confidence. But the calmness is part of what has helped his videos travel.

Tomlinson is 27 and a regular commentator on GB News. In a YouTube interview from 2024. he says he was baptized as a baby but was “not a regular church attendee.” He tells viewers that it was in 2019. after conservative Christian friends inspired him. that he “make the grown-up decision to just believe it and see what happens.” From there. he says. he began attending weekly Mass and was confirmed as a Catholic.

Soon after. he started writing opinion pieces for Conservative media outlets and then became a contributor to a group called Young Voices. The US-based Koch Foundation supports the group, which aims to place young, right-wing commentators into prominent media roles. Since then. Tomlinson’s social media channels—he has more than 100. 000 followers apiece on YouTube and X—have hosted hundreds of videos from a conservative Catholic perspective. covering everything from rants about immigration to discussions about what is supposedly wrong with women.

In a YouTube clip from 2023. Tomlinson and disgraced priest Calvin Robinson claimed that “seeking attention on social media [was] a form of digital infidelity … makes your man feel unwanted. and profanes the sanctity of your relationship.” They criticized both liberal and conservative women. calling them “titty Tories.” They suggested that posting selfies online negated any worthwhile work those women may have done. and—quoting from the New Testament—advised them to focus on “finding a good husband.”.

Those messages aren’t arriving in a vacuum. A 2024 study from King’s College London found that the political divide between young British men and women has grown over the last 20 years. with young men more likely to identify as right-wing and to feel negatively about the impact of feminism. At the same time, a narrative has been spreading about disaffected young men turning to religion. Last year. the Bible Society reported a five-fold increase in the number of 18-24-year-old men attending church services in the UK since 2018.

The Bible Society report was based on self-reported data and does not reflect an actual rise in recorded attendee numbers. Still, the claim has been seized on as evidence that this demographic is turning to faith. What seems to be true. the story’s critics argue. is that parts of the manosphere—an umbrella term for men’s rights activists. pick-up artists. incels and others—are going Christian. or at least presenting themselves as such. The move helps some figures gain legitimacy and influence outside the internet, including in politics.

That includes Joseph Robertson, Tomlinson’s close friend and a 29-year-old former Reform UK party candidate. While the leaders of the manosphere often express an overt hatred of women and focus on manipulative pick-up techniques. figures like Tomlinson are said to build their case around ideas of a perfect Christian family. But dig further, critics argue, and the lines between the worlds begin to blur.

Tomlinson argues that women are unfit for 9-5 jobs because they are “impressionable. led by material incentives and easily manipulated.” He also claims it is the job of a man to “be the vanguard against the degeneracy that has wasted so many fertile years and the potential of women who are not ugly. who could’ve been someone’s wife.” Both he and Robertson blame societal problems on the contraceptive pill.

US author Rollo Tomassi—described as the “Godfather of the Manosphere” and given as his real name George Miller—offers a version of the same worldview from a different moral foundation. Tomassi’s “Rational Male” book series teaches that women with multiple sexual partners are “low-value.” He has written that women use sexism as an excuse for their own unsuitability for professional careers.

The difference, critics say, is how misogyny is justified. Tomassi’s view. they report. leads to the idea that men can use and abuse women because that is “nature intended.” For Tomlinson and other Christian figures. it compels men to take women under their wing and teach them how to live because it is “God’s plan.” In both worldviews described here. women are said to be held responsible for humanity’s downfall. and valued only when serving men’s needs.

Both Tomlinson and Robertson, however, are strongly critical of the manosphere. Tomlinson believes it “perpetuates the paradigm of the industrial and sexual revolutions … which made men and women so maladaptive and unattracted to each other in the first place.” Robertson appears to agree. and has written critiques of self-appointed manosphere leader Andrew Tate and the perils of pornography.

When contacted about the statements and their misogyny. Tomlinson said: “The time I spend with my wife. mother. grandmothers. friends. etc. matters more to me than if someone I don’t know calls me mean on the internet … Men should be considerate. compassionate. and chivalric toward the women they love and who love them. Women should return that compassion and consideration in kind. We may do it in different ways, but that’s the core of it. Ideology obscures those relationships. makes people think in zero-sum terms about competing categories. and is making people miserable … So you’re welcome to engage with what I’ve written and said throughout my career. and I hope you do so in good faith. But I don’t feel compelled to defend myself against such a bad faith charge as ‘You’re a misogynist.’ I would rather spend time with my wife.”.

His defenders argue that his religious beliefs should not be read as misogyny. Critics insist the framing is doing real work anyway: reframing manosphere theories as “the Christian way to think and live” has been developing for years, and is visible in how certain figures move.

Daryush Valizadeh—also known as Roosh V—was presented here as one of the first major names. As a pick-up artist. he taught a version of Tomassi’s beliefs via his Return of Kings website. described as lucrative. The account says that in 2019 Valizadeh disappeared. then returned with a blog post claiming he had “received a message while on mushrooms” and was taking the movement in a new direction.

The shift. according to the report. replaced the “Red Pill”—a trope where “taking the Red Pill” is said to reveal unsettling reality. here tied to claims about women’s “true intentions”—with the “God Pill.” Misogyny. critics say. remained the same. now “fueled by the teachings of the Russian Orthodox Church.” The rebrand lost some fans. but opened the door for a new wave of manosphere influencers keen to present their misogyny as piety. The argument: instead of humiliating women through coercion for sex, they were recast as “good guys” restoring a natural order.

Since then. the account describes a pipeline of men into the space—Tomlinson. Robertson. Calvin Robinson and others connected to the far-right student organization Turning Point UK. It says they justify hatred of women using pseudo-intellectual arguments and reference Christian teachings. and that they are more appealing to men who want to subjugate women while avoiding the “bare-faced aggression and criminality” associated with figures like Andrew Tate.

The worry deepens where institutional ties appear. The groups linked to these figures are described as including ADF Legal. an anti-LGBT Christian advocacy group that advised the Orthodox Conservatives. a pressure group with which Robertson is said to be closely involved; the Family Education Trust. an evangelical-tied group whose policy suggestions are said to have entered parliamentary discussions (with Robinson and Tomlinson said to have attended their conference last year); and the anti-abortion group Right to Life. for which Tomlinson. Robertson and Robinson are described as advocates.

These groups. the account says. seek to limit access to abortion. prevent children from learning about the LGBT community. and push Christian and traditionalist beliefs into policymaking. The framing offered to followers is described as “the only way to ‘save’ the west. ” with the beneficiaries described as white Christian men and the women who obey them. while feminists. people of colour. Muslims. the LGBT community and others are portrayed as having no place.

What makes Tomlinson and his peers more than just online agitators. critics argue. is a kind of packaging: many deny they are “far right” while holding beliefs aligned with ethnic and Christian nationalism. The account defines ethno-nationalists as believing identity is based on ethnicity and culture. and Christian nationalists as believing Christianity is the only way to save race and nation—both. as described here. tied only to the white. western world.

Examples of those views are said to appear across Tomlinson’s output. In an interview with the Daily Heretic. a YouTube channel hosted by journalist Andrew Gold that focuses on “culture war” topics from a right-wing perspective. Tomlinson is said to have claimed he is not an ethno-nationalist. At the same time. he’s reported to have said former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was not “nationally English. ” and that only those who can trace British ancestry back to the Neolithic era are truly British. He also believes Britain is a Christian country. The piece adds that less than half of those asked on the most recent census identified as Christian and 37 per cent claimed no religion at all.

Robertson’s rhetoric, in a video posted to X last year, is described as blaming “the sacred act of motherhood … has been demeaned and discarded” by feminists, which has “disrupted the natural harmony between men and women” and was “derailing the proper course of western history.”

For critics, the appeal is partly delivery. Whereas the angry rants of Andrew Tate are described as easily dismissed. Tomlinson and others deliver ideas in a “calm manner. ” making them more accessible. Even when they talk about enforcing modesty by “bring back women shaming women. ” or about men being “the rock upon which [their wife’s] emotional waves may break. ” the account says it is delivered with “calm confidence.”.

And while many manosphere leaders are described as grifting their audience. Tomlinson and his cohort are portrayed here as believing their own hype. They are described not as angry older men but as young. relevant “intellectuals.” For an audience of lost young men uncertain of their role in life. critics say. that confidence becomes trust.

But the worldview, the report argues, is not sustainable either socially or financially. The story describes a “clear crisis of belonging” among boys and men in their teens and early twenties. It cites conversations in the course of writing a book, “Incel: The Weaponization of Misogyny,” with youth leaders and teachers. Friends exist. the account says. but friendships stop at school gates. and a lack of community spaces confines many to bedrooms and screens. The report adds that algorithms promote the most lucrative content, often the most controversial.

In that setting, critics say, the Christian manosphere offers a “calm utopia” that seems like a middle ground. Yet Tomlinson and others are also said to propose a version of life “socially and financially unfeasible” for most. The account compares it to the “tradwife movement,” where influencers advocate women quitting jobs, marrying and starting a homestead. It says Christian manosphere figures recommend young men seek out a simple life with a simple wife. while they themselves navigate power funded by podcast subscriptions.

It is not only outsiders challenging the movement. The offline Christian world, the report says, has begun separating itself from some of these figures. Last year. Calvin Robinson was dismissed from a US diocese of the Anglican Catholic Church after he appeared to mimic Elon Musk’s “Nazi-style salute” at their National Pro-Life Summit. The piece also says he has never been ordained in the Church of England despite completing his training at Oxford.

A year earlier, the Free Church of England is described as firing one of their reverends for posting multiple online videos in which he criticized “woke” topics and referred to progressive female ministers as “witches.” The account also notes that the new Archbishop of Wales is an openly gay woman.

For the Christian manosphere, critics argue, these setbacks become proof of the British Christian establishment “going woke,” pushing them deeper into extreme orthodoxy to justify their positions.

Still, the report ends on another set of efforts—secular ones focused on conversation, belonging and safety. It says Mike Nicholson. CEO of the group Progressive Masculinity. told the author last year that his team were going into schools and creating spaces for young men to talk about issues in the online world. Nicholson is quoted as saying they “don’t teach boys to be men” but “give boys the agency and the freedom to design the man that they want to be.” He adds that when boys were challenged on harmful beliefs in a safe environment. the response was “phenomenal.”.

Nicholson is further quoted saying: “This idea that boys and men don’t like to talk is an absolute fallacy.” He says, “In the right spaces, somewhere they feel safe, they love to.”

Parents concerned about their sons are also told they can improve communication. The account describes the PACE model, developed by an educational psychologist to help children through trauma. It says PACE stands for Playfulness. Acceptance. Curiosity and Empathy. describing how to approach concerning child behaviour without fear or censure.

Young men, the story insists, are bombarded with digital hate every day. “It is our job to provide them with a nurturing. safe environment. ” it says. encouraging critical thinking about online content and how they interact with it. It adds that it is vital to remember that young men consuming harmful content are seeking answers to internal questions rather than validation for pre-existing beliefs. and that engagement can lead them toward healthier sources than the Christian nationalist movement.

The article first appeared in New Humanist, spring 2026.

Connor Tomlinson Calvin Robinson GB News Young Voices Koch Foundation Christian nationalism misogyny manosphere Joseph Robertson Turning Point UK ADF Legal Family Education Trust Right to Life Progressive Masculinity PACE model UK young men religion