On Monday, June 22, 2026, a man violently engaged with Montreal police, killing one plus an innocent bystander before he himself was killed by police.
As details emerged in the aftermath, the shooter was identified as a 25-year-old troubled young man with a history of posting disturbing content and following conspiracy theories, who had written a lengthy manifesto of his disturbing worldview before his death.
Having read the manifesto in its entirety, I was simultaneously fascinated, angered, and heartbroken by what was going on inside this man and how it informed his horrific choices in Montreal.
Although he never used the term specifically, most media outlets reporting on his writing rightly framed it as part of the “incel” camp.
This is a primarily online movement of mostly men who proclaim themselves “involuntarily celibate” (“in-cel”)—without romantic and/or sexual relationships in their lives—and who gather together online to vent their frustration, disappointment, and increasingly, rage, against a world where they feel left out.
As Christian men, it is crucial that we understand what this phenomenon is all about.
What Did the Manifesto Say?
The manifesto is exceedingly dark, full of sexist, despairing, extreme, and violent language. Interestingly, were it not for the incredibly dark content, one gets the sense that this was a highly intelligent young man—the writing is thorough and researched, even as the conclusions are radical and horrific.
He argued that a small group of the most handsome and successful men (“favored men,” in his language) receive the vast majority of attention from the vast majority of women. Because of this, the “common men” like him (his language) never have a chance with the ladies.
He called this a “hypergamy” state, a term describing a world where most men are left behind by women seeking these favored men. He vented much of his anger at these men, who he feels may look good but lack character, and at the women who can’t see that the “common men” would treat them much better if they were only given a chance.
He tied this into rage against capitalism in general, and feminism along with it, for forcing/allowing women to work outside the home, making them more prone to be picky in their romantic partners because they no longer need to depend on men to solely provide for them, as they might have in generations past.
His solution was a communist/Marxist society, where the government takes over and controls all means of finance, business, communication (including the Internet), and societal structure, and where women are pushed back into the home.
In his mind, this will force women to be less picky about their partners and give “common men” a much better chance of romantic and sexual connection.
And in the tragic conclusion to this thinking, his solution was for incels to rise up in violent revolution. Women and innocents are off-limits, but he went into extensive detail on how to target the business and political leaders who have created the culture that has allowed this “hypergamy state” to occur, and encouraged violent acts against them.
It is an extremely dark and disturbing read from a clearly unhinged young man.
What might we learn from it?
The Problem is Real
As awful as this real-life violence in Montreal was, this young man is not an outlier. The online world of incel is clearly booming, and gives the disaffected a sense of community—not in itself a bad thing—but also a place to share and fuel each other’s grievances and anger, which, we are learning, can easily become a very bad thing.
Beyond just an online presence, incel men acting out violently is becoming increasingly common; it turns out that when you gather an anonymous group of sexually frustrated young men together, and they begin to vent their rage and disappointment at their circumstances, some will look to take that rage offline and into the real world.
The incel community is here, and it is real. The Church must take it seriously, and that begins by acknowledging this.
The Pain is Real
In what is a clear and accurate summary of what drives incels in general, the shooter wrote, “To be forcibly deprived of romantic love is a terrible thing, and one who cannot attain such love cannot actualize his authentic self.”
Christian charity calls us to look beyond stereotypes and caricatures and to seek the humanity of every human made in God’s image, even those whose thoughts and actions we hate (Matthew 5:43-48).
Beneath the horrible language and even worse worldview, incels are men in pain.
And of course, they are bearing their pain badly. Pain is certainly no excuse for sin, and all men are responsible for managing their pain well, but this can help us find some compassion for the men caught in this movement, even as we condemn their words and actions in the strongest terms.
Beneath the horrible language and even worse worldview, incels are men in pain.
It is well documented that dating for men in the modern world is radically different and much harder than it was even a generation ago. With fewer in-person connections and more online/dating app engagements, it is more difficult to connect romantically than it used to be; one can see how men who crave connection can get frustrated.
Underneath this ungodly manifesto was a desperately lonely young man desperately seeking the intimacy of a real relationship.
This desire, of course, is a good and noble thing (Genesis 2:24; Proverbs 18:22).
We will never agree with how incels might conduct themselves online or certainly when they turn violent, but if we are truly called to love even our enemies, understanding this can help us to find some compassion for the underlying problem, even as we fiercely rebuke the unholy rhetoric and actions that stem from it.
From Pain to Bitterness
No one would fault a man for feeling lonely or hurt when romance is not working out. Even men who are married today can likely remember times of aloneness or rejection in their past.
But what a man does with that pain (or any pain) is a significant marker of the kind of man he is.
Does he seek help? Healing? Wholeness? A path forward?
Or does he stew in the pain and let it turn into bitterness?
The real and understandable ache of incels easily becomes selfish and then outward-focused, targeting irrational rage toward women, the “favored men,” and the society that lets the pain happen. Left unchecked, this pain easily becomes bitterness, and bitterness left unchecked will inevitably do tremendous damage (Hebrews 12:15).
As bitterness takes root, we see the evil it unleashes in the human heart, beginning with the evil words that start spewing forth (Matthew 12:34), which can eventually lead to evil actions (Mark 7:20-23).
From Bitterness to Extremism
For a man who wanted a woman so badly, the shooter didn’t seem to think much of them, regularly degrading females as “whores” or fools who can’t see a good thing in the “common men” who surround them.
It’s safe to say women do not want to be seen or spoken to this way. The tone in which incels speak of women highlights the darkness going on within them; any compassion we might have for their loneliness quickly turns to anger at how God’s daughters are dehumanized.
The shooter’s natural desire for a woman obviously became a place of pain due to its unfulfillment, and that pain made him bitter, and that bitterness moved to extremism, graphically insulting the very ones that he wanted most.
His extreme solution was a violent terror campaign—never against innocents, but against the powerful who contribute to what he viewed as an oppressive system stacked against the “common men,” saying, “Arm yourselves, with whatever weaponry you may acquire, be it a blade, a gun, a bomb, or all of them together. Then go forth, storm into the palatial workplaces, the conferences, and the dwellings of our enemies, and eradicate all of the scum that you find there.”
And then, tragically, he chose to act out on that impulse.
At the time of this writing, authorities believe he was likely planning to attack the corporate headquarters of Pornhub, a massive pornography company based in Montreal, as his manifesto makes clear that porn exacerbates incel loneliness by showing them women they could never “get,” and thus it needs to be eradicated. The police intercepted him before he could carry out his plans.
The wisdom of Ecclesiastes 7:18 says, “Whoever fears God will avoid all extremes.” That can be on any topic, in any direction—godly wisdom calls us to open listening, slow-paced processing before speaking, and calm and measured emotional reactions (James 1:19).
The age of the Internet makes it easy for us to reverse those godly commands: we become slow to listen, speak without reflecting, and quick to anger.
It is unlikely that most incels will act as this young man did. But nonetheless, therein lies the danger of online echo chambers, where we surround ourselves with only the voices that agree with us. Inevitably, the chorus of voices tends to grow more extreme, and with no moderating voices or balancing arguments, some will fall into the most dangerous posture, and the recent events in Montreal show us the tragic consequences.
What Now?
The Montreal shooting highlights a very real problem facing single men in our culture today. When life’s disappointments lead to pain and pain takes root as bitterness, an online community stirring up the anger will have the capacity to lead to extremism and violence.
There will be much more to study and more to say; the Church must learn to grapple with these issues and find ways to pay attention, listen deeply, and be willing to move toward those trapped in this dark world with the hope and healing that can only come from Jesus.
Understanding movements like this will help Christian men begin to prayerfully find ways forward—led by the Spirit, in the way of Jesus, and through the power of His Good News to all men.
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