Chaps in Church
I get quite a lot of unsolicited mail from enthusiasts of various kinds, usually with religious views diametrically opposed to my own. Their passionate appeals and outpourings go largely unread as they wing their way to the wastepaper basket - where they are eventually joined by the impressively glossy pamphlets of an organistion called the Promise Keepers - PK for short, just like the chewing gum.
Now this group rejoices in the support and leadership (among others) of members of the Subritzky family, persons of (presumably) Polish Catholic origins whose religious ancestry appeals to me a great deal more than their present Benny Hinn-like affiliations - you won’t be surprised to learn!
But I read the stuff that PK puts out before I throw it in the bin for one very good reason - it appeals to men. Indeed, PK exists solely for men. And by men I mean Kiwi Jokers - not senstive, new age types wishing that they could give birth in a sitting position (probably underwater) and breastfeed the result into the bargain. Reading PK literature is a sobering experience, a real wake-up call. Here are men of the huntin’, shootin’ and fishin’ variety with whom I personally have little or no contact, and probably even less in common. But they want to be Christians, indeed they are Christians, and for the life of me I cannot see how they could be at all at home in our politically correct, largely feminized Anglican Church.
Much of the Liturgy we use is deeply subjective, more concerned to avoid calling God he or him than anything else, and frightfully caring and sharing. You have only to compare it with Eastern Orthodox or Roman Catholic worship (even the modern versions of the latter) to see that Sarah’s Circle has replaced Jacob’s Ladder with a vengeance: fashionable conservation and community instead of the holiness of God and the struggle against the world. Tree-hugging has almost become the eighth sacrament - especially if the tree is a native.
And our worship is only one indicator of a more general problem. Where are the men in our churches? One can only pay tribute to the faithful few! Not so long ago a woman priest took me firmly to task for calling God he in a sermon. Another solemnly informed me that the faults of women are caused by their ill-treatment at the hands of men. I thought at first that she was joking, but no, she was was quite serious. Imagine if I (or any other male priest) had said that the faults of men were caused by women!
Male virtues are scorned by the politically correct. If you look at the PK literature you see that men want to struggle and indeed fight for what is right. They want to make a difference for the good of their families and their communities. But heaven help the male priest who schedules Fight the good fight, Onward Christian Soldiers, or even Stand up, stand up for Jesus. Except in conservative Evangelical Churches, of course. But then, their men will very likely be members of Promise Keepers anyway.
Men are different from women - especially from the those politically correct women who often seem to have a personal axe to grind and are far too hurt to be humble. But they have been very vocal and very fashionable - often to the dismay of their more balanced sisters, the ones who actually like men. Nobody wins from the moral marginalising of men. It is in everybody’s interests that men be respected for what they are, and not nagged to be what they are not.
But how and when will mainstream Anglicanism learn to affirm and value the men the Promise Keepers have so convincingly shown are waiting just outside our Church doors, and make them feel at home inside them?
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