A short transcript excerpt from a YouTube conversation (Ben Greenfield and another speaker) discussing the protective role of organized religiosity (regular communal worship) against loneliness-related harms ("deaths of despair") and the importance of deliberate family intentionality—e.g., a written family mission—to cultivate "strong men" across generations rather than creating "weak men."
Just as importantly is this idea when you look at deaths of despair, deaths of suicide, all the diseases that we see related to loneliness, those don't necessarily disappear in someone who's spiritual, but what seems to make the biggest impact on them is organized religiosity. Actually going to a church, actually having a body of people who you depend on and who depend on you, having some kind of a systematized meetup, you know, where you're singing songs together and praying together and being part of a communal body of believers.
I feel like what you're doing is the opposite of that, of honoring that. And, you know, your sons and your great, great grandchildren are going to ask themselves, what does it actually mean to be a Greenfield man? Or how would a Greenfield man respond in this situation?
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Was. What's the saying? Strong men make good times, good times make weak men, weak men make bad times. I think you can make good times for your family and avoid creating weak men or weak people if you have, like you mentioned, intentionality and purpose built in to the actual mission statement of that family.
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