The Gods of Gen-Z

“I am the Lord your God…You shall have no other gods before me.”

On September 21, news broke that influencer Braden Peters, known as Clavicular, has been charged with rape. 

Best known for popularizing the term and ideology of looksmaxxing, the pursuit of maximum male attractiveness, Peters’s ethos claimed that physical allure is life’s highest good and that every interaction is rooted in a power dynamic of desirability. 

Given that looks are paramount, no cost is too high if the payoff is greater beauty. Hitting your face with a hammer buys a chiseled jaw; taking testosterone at 14 years old buys a muscular physique; and using meth buys a bodyfat ratio under 10%. In short, Peters made looks his god, and he worshiped his god. 

Now that Peters has been charged with rape, it’s time for all the warnings by the expert class: “Generation Z imitated everything Braden Peters did, so they will surely imitate here, too. Look for more assaults against women now by this demographic.” Gen-Z, it will be said, is off the rails. 

Yet as a member of that generation I can promise that despite the popularity of Peters, very few of us are hitting ourselves with a hammer or using meth (at least, not with the goal of improving our looks). However, the rise and fall of this looksmaxxer does point to a key truth about the younger generation that the experts have missed: left without a God, we’ve made our own gods. 

Millennials have been generally rightly maligned for their habit of falling into a sardonic sort of atheism that makes them seem aloof and dispassionate about everything, the “you do you” vibe that supposedly lets them float through life unbothered. As the last generation that grew up while Christianity still seemed to be the norm, Millennials express their rejection of that norm in standard terms. 

Gen-Z, on the other hand, is not aloof or dispassionate. We have chosen gods. It is no longer punk rock to say “haha christianity stupid.” But that’s not because Christianity is back to being a respected option. It’s closer to being a non-entity. While some of us turn to the true God, that choice just seems like one among many. Each person chooses his own god and worships it. Braden Peters made looks his god. Don’t like that god? Just pick a different one, no one will mind. There are many, many more. 

Adjacent to looksmaxxing is the popular gym culture that pushes steroids to younger and younger people, making a god out of being as muscular and lean as possible. The overwhelming sentiment in the gym community is that as long as someone is 18, injecting himself with half a pharmacy of drugs to make his muscles bigger is worthwhile, even if it means future infertility and 20 years off his life. It’s a fair exchange for gains in the gym. 

Video games have also become a god. Many top players of one game, Apex Legends, have said they must play at least 10 hours a day, every day, in order to maintain their rank. They sacrifice their health, their social life, and much more in order to win this earthly crown. 

Sports are another god, especially football. Every year when the college season starts, some clip encouraging servile fandom makes the rounds. “I missed my best friend’s wedding because it was during the Michigan game” is the type of heroic act this worship demands. Similar to gamers, sports fans sacrifice their health and social life, in this case to make sure they know every team, every player, every stat. 

Without God, we find gods. 

Because it isn’t in style at the moment to bow down to an actual golden calf, even Catholics can forget the importance of the First Commandment: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me.” 

I chose the examples I did because I myself have been tempted to make a god out of each of them with the time I devote to them. What has stopped that from happening is the pre-Confession conscience exam based on the Ten Commandments which asks, “Have I put other things before God in my life?”

There is a silver lining here for Gen-Z. The kids have passion. It may be misdirected passion, but the spark is there, and it is much easier to redirect a fire than to create a spark in an indifferent heart. So what is the solution? While there is no easy fix, there is a hard fix, and it is to remember the call of Christ to baptize all nations. Now, before you click away because I am bringing up the topic of evangelization, hear me out. I would like to share some advice on evangelizing my generation based on our propensity to follow false gods and make sacrifices to them. 

Don’t sugarcoat the faith. Don’t tell your nephew who doesn’t go to church that Mass “only takes an hour.” Tell him, rather, about prayer and fasting, about the lives of the saints, about the daily commitment to God’s law that is necessary for following Christ. Again, don’t tell your young married coworker that she is mistaken about the Lord’s desire for her to be fruitful in the home rather than the workplace. Instead, share with her the beauty of the sacrifice she could make, and how her work as a mother would glorify God in an unrepeatable way. 

The yearning for worship is engrained in us, and as soon as we find something to worship, we make sacrifices for it. After growing up in a world searching for meaning, Gen-Z adults are ready to pour their lives into something. Most of the time it just happens to be the wrong thing. Redirect this fire and we will make true saints out of sinners.