When men need to chill out sometimes...

I love that I am male. It just makes me happy. I like that my body is strong (well, kind of), and my mind can push away emotional problems and needs in order to pursue something important. I like that I am visually stimulated, that I think spatially, and that I have strong problem solving capabilities. And I'm so grateful to be the complement to women--who are much more attraction and merciful than I am.

Okay, don't freak out, but I'm talking about gender differences. I confess, I believe in them, and I think it's okay to believe that women and men are made differently. In fact, I think gender differences are laws of the universe...ask most married people.

Three quick notes to cover my ass: Gender differences do not mean that women were made to cook and clean and men were made to bring home the bacon. Gender differences do not mean that men should make all the decisions. Gender differences do not mean that women should not lead in churches.

I also like being a Christian male. God knows how I am, because he made me. And being a Christian gives me a profound purpose and difficult challenges. How do I love my enemies? What does it mean to lose my life in order to gain life? Doesn't it bother me that Jesus and his disciples were so willing to die for what they believed in that all of them were executed or murdered? This is an awesome heritage.

Heck yes, What a challenge!

But...I think that this Christian male business can get a little out of hand. See this article referenced to me by a friend from last week's LA times. Take a minute to read it before going on. It's called "Manliness is next to godliness."

http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-godmen7dec07,1,6460310.story

I must admit that the reporter is probably not a sympathetic ear to "the Christian Men's Movement," but the substance of this article still strikes me as a little absurd, and a little off the mark.

I don't so much have a problem with the cussing. I tend to indulge in foul language myself, at times. "That sucks" just doesn't compare to "That's bullshi*" when you're pissed off about something, especially something serious. And the guy Brad Stine seems to have a strong prophetic voice for the church, though I don't agree with his politics (see www.bradstine.com).

My problem has to do more with the movement’s complaints about how church is done and the proposed solution. David Murrow is quoted in the article as complaining about the feminine decor or most churches...the article suggests alternatives such as playing NFL bloopers before a worship/meeting/man-time or going painting balling or camping or doing some kind of extreme sport. Great! Be relevant to people! (though I would be turned off by all of the above except camping...) But having a male-friendly venue is not what needs to change.

Don't get me wrong. I think extreme sports can do amazing things for men in a time when the rush of being a soldier or running your own farm/business exists only on a limited and controlled scale. The other day I suggested to a friend of mine that was making some bad decisions that he take up extreme sports to get the masculine angst out. (I could say a lot more about this...but back to the topic at hand)

I think we need to stop worrying about the structures and the frilly stuff, and start changing what it means to be a Christian Man.

I think the Bible is manly and exciting enough as it is. But we are an over-churched nation that doesn't think this book is revolutionary or exciting. Christian stuff is part of the culture, so in order to make it exciting we have to go paintballing before or after studying the Bible. And then we just remember how much fun we had paintballing.

But God is even more exciting than the Bible. Just think about it for a second. (If you're a Christian, pretend you're not for a moment.) There is a profound being out there who has much more power and wisdom than anyone you've ever met. This guy understands Einstein's theories on levels about which the great scientist never dreamed. He has affected the world more significantly than any of those guys on the most influential people of the millennium. Here's the best part: he knows more about you and your life than your parents or your pastors or your friends. And he can see where you're going. And he can change things in your life. Not in a predictable or programmatic way--not in a way that any preacher or psychologist can lay out for you--but in his own awesome (though frequently rocky for us) way.

And history has shown that if you really follow God, people will think you’re crazy and you will do really risky things. Sometimes, the church is the harshest critic of people who have honestly heard from God and acted on it. But we have to follow Him. No one else knows the way out of this messed up place. No one else can give us an exciting and meaningful life in an otherwise programmatic and superficial world.

Relating to God is manly enough for me. I don't need paintball.

getting started...

I read the most interesting religious op-ed I've seen in a while the other day in the LA Times....read it here...
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-stein17oct17,0,7811463.column?coll=la-opinion-columnists
(if the link doesn't work, the article is by Joel Stein and it's called An Athiest Tries Jesus)

I like this article, because this guy, Joel Stein, is authentically experiencing church. The way that most TV shows and politicians talk about Jesus shows that they don't know very much about what a Christian's day to day life or beliefs are like. There's this assumption that I watch the 700 club, and freak out about terrorists and islam, and think...well, I just don't think that much.

Excuse my tirade. I hate to write like a victim, because I'm not one. I think I'm more of an intellectual snob, and stupidity, especially on the part of "smart" liberal people, rustles my briches.

Anyway, I liked the article, because this guy was obviously not interested in God at all, and he was very honest about it. He didn't try to hide what he really felt behind a lie or an intellectual idea or a political cause. He felt weird about going to church, and he didn't really want to go.

And somehow, I don't blame him. Church is really weird if you've never been there before. Lately, I've been hanging out with Japanese people, and Japanese people NEVER go to church--they just don't even have churches, or Christians, in Japan. I've become really good friends with this guy named Hideki. Hideki is super cool in Japan. He's a ladies man. He dresses cooler than anyone I know. He went to the academic equivalent of Harvard in Japan. He's got it going on.

So, I brought Hideki to church once and he was completely confused by everything. Afterward, he had dozens of questions, and sometimes, I couldn't explain why we had certain rituals and why we play certain types of "corny" music. It was very refreshing for me to get down to the core of what church is about by explaining it to someone who doesn't have any context for church.

Then what is church really about? I think Stein's last paragraph gets to the core of what church and what life are about:
"And, as I drove away (from the church service), I wished I could just make the Kierkegaardian leap of faith to belief in God and be part of it. And I realized that, postmodernist or not, my pride was just as bad as Joyce's. But at least you can understand some of my sentences."

Aside from the jab at James Joyce (which may or may not be true...I'm too intimidated by his long, weird sentences to even open the book), he makes a great point. The idea of church is cool and I wish I could be more a part of it too. We come together with other people to try to get to know this guy, who is like a father, who is so much smarter and stronger and more influential than we are. This guy could change how this world works...he could end the nucular arms race with a word. He could convince dads to stay with their wives and their kids instead of running away in fear. He could make me feel better about getting out of bed in the morning to go to work. He could teach me how to be a better friend to my roommates and to my sister. And the coolest part is that this guy wants to be known.

In church, people get together to try to know this guy, but it's hard. Like Stein said, we have to set something aside and make a kierkegaardian leap of faith. I think I'm learning to leap. And Stein is right, we have to lay aside our pride to take the leap. That's scary, because without our pride, it feels like we're leaping off a cliff.

First Post

This could have potential...