I've always been a bit baffled by those who rail against the feminizing of the church. It isn't like we want Spartans running the church, or Crusaders for that matter.
The argument has been made that "feminization" of the church leads to an abandonment of absolute truth claims. I think instead what is being abandoned is the masculine propensity to assume one's own opinions and interpretations are cold hard fact, and the feeling that it is necessary to push forward these beliefs against real or percieved opponents in a cold hard Neitzchian will to power kind of way. It's the warrior ethos that feels a need to defend against real and percieved threats, barking every time someone says something, instead of only barking when a burglar is attempting to ransack the temple.
Not to say we should flop all the way to the other side and passively be molded by others and never taking a stand like some overrought woman in a bad victorian romance.
In short balance in all things.
Peace,
Chris
2 comments:
I think it's caused us to lean towards an all-grace, nice happy New Testament God, forgetting the righteous anger, judgement God of the Old Testament.
It's not just the feminization, IMO. Our western culture is so foreign to things like, say, sacrifice, judgement, and anything negative; we're so damn politically correct, it makes me sick.
I wonder, when Jesus comes back -- this time the Messiah-as-King, rather than Messiah-as-Priest, judging all the nations and becoming physical king over Israel -- will our western, babied, feminized religion outright reject him because he's not like us?
Combine that with our rejection of most of the Old Testament (for example, rejecting of the Feasts of the Lord, which Jesus will reinstitute (see Zech. 18)) -- will we go up to Jerusalem to celebrate this supposed "Jewish" feast, or will we reject him as Messiah because he's not celebrating Easter?
Thanks for the shout-out . . .
In a related issue, I once attended a workshop at a Youth Specialties conference entitled, "Confronting false sexuality identities" - ie, how to keep your kids from going gay. Of particular concern in this seminar were boys who thought they were gay. If such a boy came to you to say that he were gay, or if you thought that a boy was gay, you were to have him do some "manly" tasks - mostly manual labor at the church or for an elderly person.
Manliness, it seems to me, is more about faithfulness than it is about anatomy or culture . . .
Peace.
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