Latest / Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo / Mark Hancock: The Attack on Boys And The Need For Trail Life USA
Transcript
- 0:00Hello again, friends. Very important topic today and I'm going to go to traillifeusa.com.
- 0:06We've got our guest, Mark Hancock, while introducing him in a minute. But I want to quote today's guest,
- 0:11and then we'll get to him. He said in the face of a cultural tide insisting that truth is relative,
- 0:19and masculinity is toxic. A remnant is rising. This remnant is made up of young men grounded
- 0:27in faith, fortified by character and equipped with leadership skills honed through experience.
- 0:35We'll be right back on World View Matters. Welcome to World View Matters, discussing controversial
- 0:44issues, discerning current events, defending biblical Christianity. No topic off limits.
- 0:52And now here's your host, David Firazzo.
- 1:22Associate pastor who was also a ministry pastor in college and a youth pastor, a homeless ministry
- 1:29director and global event director for an international ministry. He holds two master's degrees
- 1:35in the mental health counseling field, and he spent time in private practice. He is the author of
- 1:42Trail Ready 101 devotions for dads with boys. And Mark was also named to the American Family
- 1:51Association's 40 Faithful. I love that organization. Mark lives near Greenville, South Carolina with
- 1:58his wife of over 35 years. Mark Hancock, thank you so much for your time today. Good to see you.
- 2:04David, it's pleasure to be with you again. So thank you. So when we first talked, it was years
- 2:09ago on the radio. So people didn't see you, which you know, think what you will about that, friends.
- 2:15But we talked about the problems at that time with the Boy Scouts. There was a lot of upheaval
- 2:22with some of their compromise and some of the letting homosexual men in the organization. And
- 2:28it just went down from there, it seems. So tell us about your involvement in getting Trail Life USA
- 2:34off the ground. Yeah, well, it's an interesting history to watch this organization, 115-year-old
- 2:40Boy Scouts of America that gave us presidents and astronauts and senators and more generals and
- 2:46great, great men over the years decided in 2013 that they're going to begin to abandon some of
- 2:52the more traditional tenants and values that they had held for years. And out of that, about 300
- 2:58volunteers across the country said something needs to be done. And Trail Life USA was started. We
- 3:03launched on January 14, 2014. And now we've grown to over 1,300 troops, 65,000
- 3:10trailmen across the country in all 50 states. And doing what you expect from outdoor boys organization,
- 3:16hiking and camping and fishing and troops and patrols and uniforms and handbooks or robust
- 3:20words for them, everything you would expect except we're unapologetically Christian. And we're
- 3:26boy focused, which means that we believe that boys and girls are different, which isn't something
- 3:32that the Boy Scouts believes anymore. Well, it's interesting how you hear that and it's common sense,
- 3:38but today with what's been happening in our culture of delusion and confusion, wait, boys and girls
- 3:45are different and they were created by God. You know what I mean? You can kind of go, well,
- 3:51maybe 50 or 100 years ago, there was no problem with that. You know, I often ask the question,
- 3:55what would our great grandparents think? So Mark, what would our great grandparents think about
- 4:00the necessity to start this new organization trail life USA when they knew about the Boy Scouts.
- 4:07And as you said, it was once honorable, reputable, but just like a lot of other organizations,
- 4:15nonprofits, corporations, the compromise away from the biblical worldview, maybe politically correct.
- 4:21You know, so I mean, it's just sad, as you said, that that has happened, right?
- 4:27Yeah, it's tragic. And it's with the scary part, just how quickly this has become the norm,
- 4:32this and to where you're now countercultural, if you say things like boys and girls are different,
- 4:37when every legitimate science would point to the biology, psychology, chemistry,
- 4:42any legitimate science knows that boys and girls are different. And that boys should have their own
- 4:47program that's aimed at their strength, the same ways girls need a program that's aimed at their
- 4:50strength. It's not a value statement. It's not like boys are better than girls. It's just that
- 4:54they're different. And boys have paid a price under a culture that doesn't, that doesn't account
- 4:59for their wonder and their marvel and their, their, their uniqueness of the creation of a boy.
- 5:05And now their choice is likely to be in special education three times more likely to have ADHD.
- 5:10They've followed behind girls in every single academic category. And as now more girls go into
- 5:14college, getting master's degrees, doctoral degrees, bachelor's degrees, and boys, it's really
- 5:18tragic what's happening. I can tell you where boys are leading. They just tend to 14. It's the
- 5:23fastest growing demographic for suicide, which is really sad. So this kind of cultural acceptance
- 5:30of boys girls the same or somehow interchangeable has left boys really behind like there's some
- 5:36sort of a defective girl or some kind of social disease that needs to be eradicated or excused or
- 5:42labeled toxic. And it's really, it's really tragic what's happened. So trail of USA was built
- 5:48designed to recognize the wonder of boys. It's counter cultural in terms that we believe that you,
- 5:54the only way to raise godly boys is to surround them with godly men and, and unapologetically
- 6:00Christian. We give them a foundation to grow from that that's, that's really making a difference.
- 6:05And families are more and more family families are seeking us out every day.
- 6:09You know, I love the fact that you say unapologetically Christian. And I have to ask, I'm sure
- 6:16you've gotten some resistance and some flack from some in our culture that think you're you guys
- 6:22are whatever homophobic or, or too narrow-minded or too, you know, your Christian, whatever they
- 6:29label you as. How do you respond to that? Yeah, you know, that's interesting. When we first got
- 6:35into this, I mean, we really got in there to help boys because we recognize the price that they
- 6:39would have to pay with the changes that that Boy Scouts was bringing about. And we also know that
- 6:43churches would be in trouble. Churches that charter Boy Scout troops that have different beliefs
- 6:49and different doctrines, doctrines quote unquote than they do would be in trouble and that there's
- 6:53501c3 could be challenged. But we set out to say, you know what? We're going to be different. And
- 7:00we're not just an outdoor organization's having a Christian experience. We are at our core,
- 7:04a Christian ministry that uses the outdoors to turn boys into godly men. If there was a better way
- 7:10of doing it, I would be doing that. That we've discovered this magic of the outdoors, this wonderful
- 7:15place for boys and men and and and and we're seeing it make a difference. Not just in the boys,
- 7:21but in the men and and single moms that have put their boys in the program and say, hey, I need
- 7:25I want to surround my my boy with with good strong men. Fathers who are trying to connect with
- 7:30themselves men in our program who don't have a son in the program, but they're there because they
- 7:34found their brotherhood, their band or brothers, these guys who share their values and are focused
- 7:38on the next generation. So this is powerful thing across the board that that that's making a
- 7:43difference in men and their families and and boys without dads and with dads and this
- 7:49relationship with the son and certainly difference in the boys to counter this cultural tide that's
- 7:54against them. And I really believe David that we're just not creating a generation of boys that's
- 7:58going to be able to stand against the tide. But we're building a generation that's going to turn
- 8:03back the tide itself. That's going to stand against these sort of nonsensical kind of things
- 8:09that we've adopted as a culture and and and re engage themselves with the truth that we've known
- 8:14for generations and and and and and we're seeing that. We're seeing people who are rushing to this
- 8:22because they're saying, hey, that makes sense. Parents, any engaged parents can tell you that their
- 8:27son is different than their daughter or any teachers paying attention to tell you boys and girls
- 8:31are different. So what's wrong with with recognizing that we need an organization that that's
- 8:36aimed at them and we're unapologetically Christian because it takes us a strong a strong foundation
- 8:44but you can't talk to a boy about right or wrong or good or bad if you don't have some sort of
- 8:48foundation for truth. So the word of God is our foundation for truth and boys will embrace that
- 8:53when they understand there's a foundation something behind what it is that's you're telling them
- 8:58they'll push up against it but but they'll say, okay, I get who you are and that's kind of who we
- 9:04are and when we sit on an apologetic part we say, hey, you don't have to join us, you don't have
- 9:09to like us, you don't have to agree with us but this is who we are and our and our and our members
- 9:14and our churches and in the boys are bold enough to say that. So I wish there wasn't a need
- 9:21for an alternative to the boy scouts but thank you for what you're doing.
- 9:25TrailLifeUSA.com you started in 2014. Before we get to some I want to just share some of the
- 9:32quotes from other your other interviews talk a little bit more about trail life but I want to also
- 9:36mention your devotional trail ready. It came out in the last nine months 101 devotions for dads
- 9:44with boys so I know you've been either co-author or an author of other books but what took you
- 9:51on this path to to come up with a devotional? Yeah well you know in a culture that discounts
- 9:58boys and discounts men I really felt like it was important to write a devotional for men that's
- 10:02written in this in style that men like to read it's not deep theological doctrinal kind of stuff
- 10:07but it's something that he can read ponder and put to work that day with his son so if he has a
- 10:12boy in his household that he's that he's raising it kind of reminds him of his role there
- 10:17reminds him of the strength of his boys helps him to understand what's different about his boy
- 10:22that that that that maybe isn't the same as his girl so it's just these little pieces but what
- 10:27I love about it is is on one page you get the devotional on the facing page you have a day hike
- 10:32and these beautiful pictures of actually show you the inside these beautiful pictures on
- 10:37on every every devotional page has a day hike somewhere oh yeah and so in a description of that
- 10:43hike and so really cool thing David is I had a dad sent me a picture of him and his son they had
- 10:48the devotional open up to the page of Hawaii day hike and he was standing in the spot where the
- 10:53picture was taken so it's a great opportunity to remind dads of who they are listen
- 11:01dads are still the most powerful voice and the lives of their sons and and we we still have that
- 11:08we still own that unless we give it up and so it reminds we're reminding men who they are because
- 11:13they're being shamed at every turn and so instead of shaming them with a devotionalist or something
- 11:18it says hey you need to read more pray more date your wife more whatever it is you need to do more
- 11:23what's on no you already have these superpowers this is who you are let's just let's just let's
- 11:29just activate these skills because you are the most powerful voice in the life of your son
- 11:35so young moms if you have boys you can go to traillifeusa.com look up the book or it's on amazon
- 11:42that's often easier for people trail ready 101 devotions for dads why do I say that well mother's
- 11:49day is coming up but right after that the month after that father's day this would be a great gift
- 11:54for dad if you've got young boys so I want to ask you mark it says trail life USA partners
- 12:00with churches and parents across america and how do you do that how do you how would a church
- 12:06contact you or what does that relationship look like yeah well we consider ourselves an outreach
- 12:12of the local church we're not just not meeting in their basement we are a ministry of that local
- 12:16church in fact this is an interesting statistic and that 18% of our adult members join the local
- 12:23church after they join the troop that meets there so that connection between the church and the
- 12:29troop is really strong we have a specific role in every troop called the troop ministry liaison
- 12:34and that man's job is to connect the troop to the church and connect the church to the troop
- 12:39so the troop is serving the church and the church and troop are working together to make a
- 12:43difference in the community you can invite a boy forever to come to sunday school and he may or
- 12:47may not come but if you ask him to go hiking or whitewater rafting or camping or fishing or
- 12:53white you know repelling or something that boy is going to show up and what we see over and over again
- 12:58is that unchurched boy joins the troop and then the unchurched family joins the church so we are
- 13:04an outreach we partner with the church and we don't charter every church and we charter churches
- 13:09that we have a predatory and statement of faith that they have to align with and then we also have
- 13:13a statement of values that talks about things like the definition of a marriage and so sadly there's
- 13:18more and more denominations that we can't charter but the ones who are with us agree with the
- 13:25definition of marriage and one man one woman those sorts of things those sorts of values
- 13:29that we're reaching back and and maintaining for the boys that we are ministering to
- 13:36so on the website traillifeusa.com friends you can just scroll over how it works there's a program
- 13:42introduction and overview and frequently asked questions mark in about a minute here I wanted to
- 13:50just quote you or quote this press release on traillifeusa and let you explain something to me it says
- 13:57too many boys are turning to virtual worlds of TV video games digital media and their internet
- 14:04to find realms they can conquer in areas where they can excel when I was young I knew what when
- 14:10my parents said go outside and play I knew what that meant is that how big of a challenge is
- 14:15that with today's young men your boys today's boys they're they're all about the machines right how
- 14:22hard is that of an adjustment maybe for traillifeusa to get these guys engaged yeah well when we
- 14:29reintroduce them to the kind of thing that you're talking about they're excited about it but but I
- 14:34got to tell you the truth we've kind of driven them to those games when through participation trophies
- 14:40and nobody keeps scoring those kind of things we put boys in position where they say the boys
- 14:45are drawn to risking competition so we put them in position where you know you're not going to get
- 14:49to risk in competition because you're going to get hurt or maybe you're not brave enough or maybe
- 14:53your feelings gonna hurt maybe this is too hard for you and you're not going to win and so we
- 14:57tell them that over and over again in the real world then they find this beautiful virtual world
- 15:01that's designed for them because score is kept there's levels they fail and if they try harder they
- 15:08succeed and they feel good about themselves overcoming a challenge we've removed that stuff from
- 15:12the real world so we can criticize them for playing video games but at some point we have to own our
- 15:17part in that and that we have taken risk in competition out of the lives of boys we bubble wrap a
- 15:21minute society that's afraid they're going to get their feelings hurt they're going to get
- 15:25and every time we shield them from something that they may hurt them we're telling them you're not
- 15:30brave and so it's no wonder that we have more young men living at home than since we started
- 15:35counting that in the census in 1960 this failure to launch is because they haven't learned to get
- 15:40out there and fail to try something hard and then if you fail get up and try it again video games
- 15:46repeat the teach them that lesson over and over again the real world shields them from it so no
- 15:51wonder it's a scary place we don't let them fail and I'm really concerned we're raising a generation
- 15:56narcissistic unproductive narcissist where they're unproductive because we don't expect anything
- 16:01them in their narcissist because we don't let them fail but if we can give the boys opportunities
- 16:06for real world adventures real world risk and competition challenge I could provide in trail
- 16:11life we're building boys who understand that failure isn't the end you get up and you try harder
- 16:17so if you hike for for five days to the summit of a mountain you don't quit you push through
- 16:22you're really sore you're hurting you can't carry a pack another step but when you stand on the
- 16:25top of the mountain you learn and you're about yourself I can do hard things and it's worth it
- 16:30and that is gold solid gold for raising boys in a culture the discounts them great explanation
- 16:38friends we'll be right back with Mark Hancock and trail life USA we'll be right back
- 16:42today's show is brought to you by Harbinger's Daily the world news biblically understood stay
- 16:48informed at Harbinger's Daily dot com
- 16:59friends thanks to you and of course God and God glory to God episodes of world view matters are
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- 17:11can do so on apple spotify for the audio podcast video rumble youtube facebook and you can
- 17:19download the freedom project media app we have a new youtube channel by the way last couple of
- 17:24months we got this up it's youtube I'm sorry it's world view matters David Fiorazo on youtube so
- 17:31mark Hancock's our guest tonight trail life USA dot com did I say tonight it's daytime so
- 17:39mark I had John Cooper the lead singer of skillet on last year he wrote a book called Wimpy Week and
- 17:45Woke now he's talking about other things and just our culture and society but isn't that indirectly
- 17:52in way the way we're the messaging that young boys are getting because it's almost like you we've
- 17:58heard of toxic masculinity there's been an attack on well the the patriarchy or being male in our
- 18:06society being a man you know and it's it's something like we've never seen happen before
- 18:14yeah not allowed to be men go share your thoughts on that yeah it really is something and when
- 18:19you become sensitive to it as I'm sure that you are then you start to see it everywhere and
- 18:23sometimes it's subtle I remember not so long ago I was down at Kennedy Space Center and walked
- 18:29in to exhibit there and they had this huge video across the whole front wall and there was an
- 18:33astronaut a woman astronaut and the video she's talking to a room full of kids in the video see the
- 18:38backs of their heads and silhouette and she's telling you can do anything you got to work hard and
- 18:42school and and she's given this great inspiration speech and say man I wish my sons were here
- 18:48they would love to hear this and this is the kind of message I want them here and the camera came
- 18:52around behind her and face the show the kids faces and it was all girls oh my goodness so the
- 18:57message in that room was girls can do anything girls girls so I realized what they were trying to
- 19:03do because girls girls need to need to hear that but so do boys and I was so thankful that my
- 19:09sons weren't there because they would say oh this this message isn't for me and so in subtle
- 19:15ways we're shaming boys like this like I said earlier like there's some kind of defective girl
- 19:20why can't you sit still and be quiet like Susie and it's really tragic because
- 19:24boys aren't built for the same thing that girls are built for and but they're in a society they're
- 19:30sitting in classrooms and they're they're everything everything around them is structured for
- 19:35sit still be quiet pay attention and they're just not wired for that so everywhere they go they
- 19:40feel like they don't fit and it's no wonder that they're struggling like they are so I'm reading
- 19:46someone the press release there and that's interesting when it was Susie said that I thought okay
- 19:50that's more evidence of DEI right oh my goodness so in the press release it says you know talks
- 19:57about we celebrate the heroic deeds of people like George Washington Paul Revere Abraham Lincoln
- 20:03Ulysses S. Grant and others and it says today rather than exalting men for their significant
- 20:09contributions our culture is dismissing the heroism of fathers and forefathers and choosing instead
- 20:16to emphasize their shortcomings Mark Hancock how did that come to be accepted in a way
- 20:25in our culture in a country like America well we have to take responsibility for part of that
- 20:30because at some extent some of us have failed and we failed miserably and publicly but not all
- 20:37of us have and both but men are painted with this broad brush and in an in a society that that
- 20:43distance itself from biblical values you're gonna find that you're gonna find failures of character
- 20:48you're gonna find men men who men who fail but that doesn't mean that all men will fail you
- 20:52certainly there are bad men but they're not all bad and so that's why we're in the business now
- 20:57we've had over 120,000 men come through trail off USA and we've learned a thing or two about what
- 21:02makes them do things like go out and sleep on the ground you know and go out and give up a
- 21:08weekend to go outdoors in the rain or whatever we've discovered that men want to be inspired they want
- 21:12to be challenged they want to be guarded something bigger than themselves they want to find abandoned
- 21:16brothers that's why that's what creates the greatest generation that will storm the beaches
- 21:21and normative free the world of tyranny or will cross an uncharted ocean and a boat or get on
- 21:26top of a rocket ship to go to another planet that's how you build that is by giving
- 21:31boys real world experience in the company of men to show them what a man is like you know when
- 21:36you got a Supreme Court justice that can't give you the the definition of a woman how is an
- 21:41eight year old or ten year old boy going to define what it is that a man is without when he
- 21:46doesn't have an example one or four boys now doesn't have a father in the household 76% of
- 21:51public school teachers you know eighty something percent of science go teachers your female
- 21:55so girls have these wonderful role models that they can look to but boys are lacking these models
- 22:00and so it makes sense that that what we're seeing is is is a failure in men one we expect it
- 22:07and then we really promote it and averageize it but we don't spend time talking about
- 22:13men of of character and men of conviction they're kind of discounted on our side I'm telling
- 22:20trail men all the time the adult leaders cross the country listen it's more likely that they'll
- 22:25burn you at the stake in the public square than they'll build a statue in your honor but do it
- 22:30anyway you do it anyway because you're right and it's the right thing so what are some of the other
- 22:38activities yet I think you mentioned camping typical to from what most people remember the boy
- 22:44scouts used to do or maybe still do I don't know but what kind of activities do you guys do when
- 22:50we go on these trips yeah well it's across the board you know like I said we're all 50 states of
- 22:56different geographies all across the board that anything from a troop that submitted
- 23:01mountaineer not too long ago to a troop that did a 10-day hike across Iceland backpacking
- 23:07to a weekend campouts in a local state park or a national park or a week to last last July
- 23:14I went paddle 105 miles down the Missouri River with it with a group of men and boys
- 23:19through through Montana just it's it's amazing the opportunities that are out there when you begin
- 23:27to look for them so trips out all the time doing just incredible things with the outdoors.
- 23:32So for churches again do they go right to your website traillifeusa.com and say hey let's work
- 23:40on something and whatever city we're from well how do you advise a pastor or someone from a church
- 23:45that wants to get something like this going through traillifeusa in their church yeah well you
- 23:50said that tap at the top that says get connected they click on that and they can find a troop
- 23:56or they can start a troop and if you click on find a troop it shows a map the United States if you're
- 24:00on a if you're on a desktop and you can put in your zip code to show you the troops that are nearby
- 24:05you click on them connect with the troops say hey can I can we come visit you where do we find you
- 24:08what time do you meet or if there's not a troop in the area and you click on start a troop and
- 24:14it walks you through the process we have 20,000 adult volunteers across the country who help you
- 24:19get your church up and run and engage with the trail of USA troop wow I just did that it's really
- 24:25easy and interactive and there's one a few miles from here I didn't even know that so that's great
- 24:31so you can see in all the states there you can see all the dots and where where there are troops
- 24:36and of course people can start them too closing minutes here Mark
- 24:43how do you think the confusion like what you just said the Supreme Court justice she wasn't a
- 24:48biologist so she couldn't tell what a woman was how do you think the confusion has impacted boys
- 24:56and in the transgender ideology being pushed so much today to public people that should
- 25:03know better just don't want to I guess tell the truth yeah and I think that's it's especially
- 25:11impacted boys and the reason being is that it's not as popular not culturally politically correct
- 25:17to lift boys up like it like I told you earlier it's it's great to say hey girls are strong you
- 25:22can do anything you shouldn't quit you should try and you hear those messages all time for girls
- 25:26and they need to hear that message but it's not popular to give that same message to boys so
- 25:32so they're already in a in a posture where they're in a in a in a world where they just don't
- 25:37they just don't fit everywhere they go they just don't quite fit there except a trail of troop they
- 25:42find the place there but so they start out as a disadvantage so every message that comes from
- 25:48the culture whether it's subtle or whether it's direct is driving them farther and farther and
- 25:53and David you know I don't I don't know it seems so intricately designed that you got to
- 25:58it feels like it's intentional like like you're really trying to take boys out because we don't
- 26:04want men in the future engaged somehow I don't think people are smart enough to do it as well
- 26:09as it's being done but everywhere you look there's this it feels like it's coordinated by somebody
- 26:15or something uh that's that's making it more and more difficult for for boys to engage but I'm
- 26:21encouraged by the remnant now that's rising across across the country in these trails you say
- 26:26who are saying listen I know the truth I know it's right I'm not swayed by this I understand the
- 26:33difference between right and wrong good and evil truth and a lie and I'm gonna live for that
- 26:39and if I'm not popular if I'm hated if I'm discount that's okay because it's the truth
- 26:46well it's it's demonic that's why it's so prevalent today the enemy has been working overtime
- 26:51confusing people because it is an assault on God and the creative order it God's design of male
- 26:56and female marriage family um community I want to mention on front page of your website because we
- 27:02have 30 seconds left you do say it's as established on timeless values derived from the Bible and
- 27:09set in the context of outdoor adventure and then describes trail life USA thank you for being
- 27:14unapologetic about the Bible in the Christian worldview biblical worldview and people can donate
- 27:20to trail life USA um they again they're unapologetic and we're so thankful for that we're thankful
- 27:26that there is something out there that's doing something different than Boy Scouts so Mark Hancock
- 27:31thanks for your time today God bless your efforts brother and uh Lord willing we'll do this again
- 27:35sometime David it's been pleasure to spend time with you again God bless praise God again guys trail
- 27:42life USA dot com and that devotional for men with boys you can get that over on amazon trail ready
- 27:49uh 101 101 devotion so God bless you and as always keep speaking the truth about things that matter