A Feminized Society

by Michael

Jeff recently introduced me to an excellent on-line magazine, Salvo (I wish I had thought of that name). It is very smart and addresses the sort of things I envisioned this blog addressing... it just does it better. We hope you still find a place for us in your Internet schedule after you check it out. I was reading through some of the articles and I came across this one, dedicated to the death of masculinity in the popular culture. I've heard this warning siren before and despite what Time Magazine says, I can buy into the idea that we have marginalized masculinity to the point of ungodliness. I see it in the church culture that has no idea what to do with the adventurer's spirit which men bring to the table. We want you to leave all that scheming and horsing around behind, to be replaced by being nice and sitting still for a sermon or a Sunday School lesson. I see it in the way we vilify anything that causes injury or death. Why should we get out of Iraq? Because our young men are dying there, and no one should have to die for any reason other than really old age... and even then we don't like it.

But what would a society with a healthy view of masculinity look like? What would a properly masculine church look like? Would women be cast back into their proper "roles"? Would bullying or throwing a well provoked punch or spewing threatening words at some interloper all be acceptable behavior? Boys will be boys. Would we no longer humor frivolous personal injury lawsuits thereby opening the door for all sorts of reckless behavior? Its a dangerous world out there and you just need to deal with it and stop whining. Would we all start carrying concealed weapons and be encouraged to get involved if we see a crime being committed? Would entire church congregations march up to the front door of known drug dealers and pimps and make thinly veiled threats? Would a new emphasis on masculine behavior send us back to the time of gunslingers and rouge samurai's, or churches that don't give a flying flip what the government tells them they can or can't do?

There is no doubt that the more polite a society is, the less it will tolerate the chaos brought on by unchecked male behavior. But I'd like us all to imagine a happier medium than the one we now live in. In the church especially, we need to find our adventurers spirit. I heard an inner city minister discuss the three levels two different cultures can interact on. The first level is the one where the two cultures have the same needs in common and generally fill those needs the same way. When the cultures interact on that level, they understand each other. The second level is where they have the same needs but have different ideas about how to fulfill those needs, like in how to properly parent children. Some dialogue can occur here, but it may not be very productive. The third level is where the needs are not the same at all, so the cultures will seem very alien to each other when these issues arise. What does this all have to do with masculinity? It turns out men mostly concern themselves with third level issues, while women are primarily concerned with first and second level issues (quite a generalization, but it seems right to me). That means when we go as a church into an alien culture we know that we get the biggest response when we address first level needs (entertaining children at VBS, for instance), and who responds to our efforts... women. The men stay on the periphery, largely uninterested in what these strange people have to offer. Even when it is not in another country, the church is in many ways crossing cultural boundaries as it tries to reach out to the greater Atlanta community, and if it is too feminine, it will perhaps default to addressing first level needs. If this happens, men will continue to find the church irrelevant. How much longer can the church thrive if this is the case? What say you on this issue?