Generation O: The Strategy To Mass-Orphanize A Generation

There is an anti-God strategy alive and operational, perhaps more than ever today, but it is not new: it is the plan of God’s enemies to make people orphans. 

Just before Jesus went to the cross to die, he made this statement: “I will not leave you orphaned.” (MSG) When you read “I will not leave you alone like orphans,” how does it strike you? I confess that the verse didn’t really grab me in any particular way. I didn’t grow up feeling like an orphan. I am the last of five children so we had a large household with lots of people around. My parents were hospitable and we had no lack of friends. I grew up with plenty of aunts and uncles and cousins. So I did not feel alone, nor did I feel like an orphan. I figured these words were probably just a statement from Jesus to get his disciples through the upcoming week which would, of course, be emotionally taxing.

Since the orphan theme has not been a big one in my life, this verse about comforting people who feel like orphans seemed nice, but not very relevant to me. Until I saw it differently…

I recently asked myself, “Why would Jesus insert the statement about orphans in a key passage where he is talking about a pivotal moment in history?“ It was then that I realized that this was not a personal comfort statement, but an intelligence briefing. It revealed the strategies of Satan and the malicious intent of God’s number one enemy.

I will not leave you as orphans [comfortless, desolate, bereaved, forlorn, helpless]; I will come [back] to you. John 14:18 AMPC

Looking back in history, it would be fair to say that the devil is an orphan. Lucifer was kicked out of heaven for various reasons, including unrighteous trade, and became an entity cut off from the Father of all creation. Someone with no father could be described as an orphan. Since then, Satan’s strategy has been to not only replicate orphans, but to rip people out of a relationship with Father himself. And then, those who are severed from fathers become orphans.

Orphans are not attached to nothing

The strategy of creating orphans does not just leave people with nothing in the place of the Father. The tactic is to replace a legitimate father with an illegitimate father-substitute. At the governmental level, socialism and collectivism result in the state becoming the parent. In the realm of education, the professor or the Dean, or the educator becomes the authority figure. In a gang, the gang leader becomes the replacement for a real father. In a tribe, the tribal leader or chief becomes the parental substitute. In a bad church, whether small, medium or mega, the pastor can become the orphanage director and the congregants get a bowl of soup twice a week. The insidiousness of the orphan-making process is that it appears to offer independence from authority, yet in its place, a worse and counterfeit authority is installed.

Now, think about some of the societal Giants that plague the human race. Which societal giants have as a deliberate objective the creation of orphans? What would you put on the list? 

• Would human trafficking make the list? I think so. Children are taken away from parents, and women in particular are promised more and taken into captivity. Cruel traffickers and pimps promise freedom but deliver destruction.
• What about nationalism? Surely, when you replace family ties and affections for a political hero or leader, or when the identity of a nation supersedes the fundamental building block of society, which is the identity of a family and the identity of a community that is devoted to God, then we are creating orphans.
• Wars quite literally create orphans, so they are in satan’s toolbox.
• Single parenting: government incentives sometimes discourage marriage and the phenomenon of absentee fathers or fatherlessness is fuel in the tank of societal orphanization.
• Media that routinely portrays fathers as stupid, Friends and the fellowship of perpetual youth, Modern Family. Etc. I asked Grok (AI) a question in this regard and here is the finding:

Based on multiple academic studies, content analyses, and media critiques spanning the last 50 years (roughly 1975–2025), the portrayal of fathers in TV shows has trended toward negative or non-positive depictions (e.g., incompetent, foolish, absent, emotionally disconnected, or ridiculed). While there's no single, comprehensive statistic covering every TV show due to the subjective nature of "negative" and the vast volume of content, aggregated findings from reliable sources suggest that approximately 50–80% of TV shows featuring fathers as central or recurring characters portray them in a negative or non-positive light, depending on the era, genre (e.g., sitcoms vs. dramas), and specific metrics used. This estimate is higher in recent decades (2000s onward) and particularly pronounced in family-oriented comedies, where fathers are often the butt of jokes. ... This trend isn't politically correct to highlight, but evidence substantiates that TV has increasingly marginalized fathers, potentially harming societal views of masculinity and family dynamics.

• Would pornography make the orphan-makers list? I believe it has the same destructive outcome, emasculating men and locking them in a fictional world where they don’t have to encounter real but less-than-perfect women who might challenge their shrinking masculinity. 
• What about churches and mega churches? Actually, this question applies even to tiny churches or home churches in instances where the church has become less of a household and more like an orphanage with the pastor, minister, or priest being the orphanage director. My brother, Doug, alerted me to this back in the early 2000s when he himself was leading a church. He realized his people, rather than taking care of their own households, were expecting him to do the job. He had become the orphanage director.

2020 Hindsight

The problem with 2020 hindsight is that we still do not have hindsight on what happened in 2020. 2020 was, of course, the year associated with the worldwide pandemic. It has had many lingering effects, some of them even medical, but many of them cultural. Actually, calling the calamity that crystallized during the COVID pandemic a “lingering effect” is like calling the Titanic a minor boating incident. What 2020 did was bring to a culmination a society-wide polarization that began centuries ago with the Enlightenment (a deceptive branding). But it had its roots in the ancient strategy of the devil of making orphans. If we don’t understand this, we are in danger of our favorite political or cultural bent becoming complicit in the tidal surge of orphanization.

This is not a uniquely Western challenge. Apart from the wars in Africa that have left millions as orphans, the philosophy of "ubuntu" can be used to promote collectivism over the nuclear family which can be incorrectly labeled a colonial construct.

The recent history of mass-orphanization

Let’s remind ourselves that Jesus gave us a key to recognize that anything that creates orphans comes from the opposing team, not from heaven. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve became orphans, cut off from their creator and father. “You don’t need Father-God” is a lie from the father of all lies. Perhaps the countering of this untruth is why, throughout scripture, God reveals his heart for widows and orphans in particular. The psalmist says, “God sets the lonely in families.”

In the last 250 to 300 years, philosophies have evolved in society that have slowly weakened the primary place of the family in society. Some Enlightenment philosophers, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Locke, Montesquieu and Adam Smith, were definitely pro-family and monogamous marriages. They offered fair critique of dysfunction and church overreach, however. Other philosophers, including Voltaire and Kant, were less clear on family. Rousseau did express views that the “general will” of the collective could override families. Such views were picked up by socialists and communists who furthered the philosophy even saying that family was a capitalist tool for inheritance and exploitation. Successive waves of anti-authority, anti-parent, and anti-establishment have been quite common. It is not that every single generation has got worse, as there have been some cultural backlashes and corrections, but the persistent dripping tap of anti-God philosophy has undermined the foundations of society. One should try to determine when the spirit behind these shifts is aimed at bringing about legitimate freedoms and when it is producing orphans.

I plan to do a few podcasts with historians, educators, cultural commentators, and marketplace leaders to unpack what I have just summarized in a paragraph. There were positive and negative aspects to the Enlightenment, as there are with many societal shifts. The focus of this short blog is this one strategic thrust: orphanization. 

Fatherless America

Around 1997 our business, The Institute, conducted a large project for Prison Fellowship Ministries. They were dealing with the problem of “fatherless America,” where they had a database of about 600,000 children whose parents were incarcerated. These kids were likely to become the future prison population of America, and we were devising a care system to increase the density of responsible adults in the lives of such children with a view to avoiding the inevitable path to prison. Easy to view this as a problem that belongs to “them,” but harder to see when the causes and symptoms are more culturally acceptable than a stint in prison. The problem that we have today dwarfs the challenge that those in prison ministry face. The challenges are far more widespread and intertwined in society across age groups and social strata. No generation is exempt.

X+Y+Z+A = O

This hypothetical formula only goes back to GenX, GenY, and GenZ, which is a short-term view of history, of course. Millennials and Boomers are not exempt from the wiles of the Orphaner. The simple formula simply highlights a common thread that has been woven into generations. No era is exempt from the orphan-intending schemes of the devil. Allow me to illustrate.

We returned from Germany not that long ago, where we had insightful conversations with young men who had bad relationships with their fathers. Who were their fathers? Their fathers were the men who returned from the Second World War, not only scarred by what they saw, but carrying the shame of having “lost” a war. There was no pomp and returning pride as we saw with my father and his generation of British, American, and Allied soldiers returning home. Our parents did not talk of the hardship of war, but mostly wrapped difficulty in a flag of victory. This did not seem to be the case for the German fathers returning home. To this day, it is frowned upon to talk about the positives of Germany because one does not want to appear to be nationalistic. The net result is a generation of young men today who have a desperate need for fathers who were not fully present.

This is not unique to Germany, of course, and I have seen this in the US as well. Some years ago when we were living in the San Francisco Bay area and were concerned about the spiritual condition of the city, a group of us gathered in a hotel room overlooking Union Square. As we prayed, I received the insight that many young men flocked to the city to take up jobs in Silicon Valley and the surrounding Bay Area. Over a period of about 10 years, I noticed these young men becoming older, but in their behavior, they were similar to what they were in college, except that they had more money and more toys. What they really longed for, although they didn't necessarily see it, was spiritual fathers who could call them out and help them step up to the next level. The problem, however, was that when people became fathers, they left the city. The net result was a city full of aging young men who didn't go through the godly migration from children to young men to fathers to elders. Many were orphaned spiritually while successful materially.

There were other complicating factors, of course, including some of the negative spin-offs of feminism and the labelling of toxic masculinity, which caused some men to retreat to their basements with their video games or online distractions. Disconnection from a healthy, real-life experience is a symptom of being orphaned.

Remember the Orphan

Jesus promises, “I will not leave you all alone like orphans.” Somehow, especially in this era, the outcome of independence, addiction to social media and online stuff, feelings of economic hopelessness, coupled with hyper-social-responsibility where one takes on despair because of climate change, immigration, AI, etc., people feel less empowered and more orphaned. Women’s empowerment has all sorts of consequences: emasculation of men who shy away from stepping in and stepping up, the myth of perpetual youth, and big government stepping in to become a source, provider... an orphanage director.

Things that appear to be empowering often leave one disconnected, alone. Canceling those you don't like, unfriending, self-care, boundaries that keep "toxic" people out, narrowing the selection of your friend group to only those who fit your profile... these have some positives and are sometimes necessary strategies. They can also lead to participating in homogenous collections of orphans if we are not thoughtful.

My Call to Action

This is a topic that breaks my heart. I wish I had seen it more fully a long time ago. In the bigger picture, “making orphans” is the work of the orphaned: it is Satan making people in his image. Knowing this, as I encounter things in life, especially things that look good or seem right, I have to ask, “Does this make orphans, or children of God? Is this a strategy of the enemy, or a force for the Kingdom of God?” Lord, increase my discernment.

God has given me some tools to help counter the rising orphan tide. I am glad for this, but I wish I had seen this broad strategy sooner. 

Parents, leaders in all spheres of society... each of us has to evaluate whether we are being who we should be to produce daughters and sons vs. orphans. We have to step up, eradicate convenient dichotomy, see and know people, live authentically, care deeply and live from the heart of the Father of all mankind. And if you need resources to help you do this, I can help.

"Practice hospitality." This crisp commandment must be obeyed more than ever today. Invite people into your home. Have inter-generational gatherings. Invite people that don't fit a narrow profile. And when people come over, listen.

Father God, Father of Lights, Head of Humankind... I appeal to you as Father, the Ultimate Father... draw the generations that follow me to yourself. As a young man, I felt my most important task was to properly reflect you to my children. Now my heart breaks for the generations that feel estranged from you for many reasons. Forgive me for where I have contributed to their aloneness. Set the lonely in families. Cause spiritual fathers and mothers to open their hearts and homes. Reconnect the generations. In Jesus’ Name.

“I will not leave you all alone like orphans. I will come back to you. ¹⁹ In a very short time the people in the world will not see me anymore. But you will see me. You will live because I live. ²⁰ On that day you will know that I am in the Father. You will know that you are in me and I am in you. ²¹ Those who really love me are the ones who not only know my commands but also obey them. My Father will love such people, and I will love them. I will make myself known to them.” John 14:18-21