Category: Brother Al (Page 27 of 68)

I am a football fan, which means another season enduring ads trying to manipulate men in new, subconscious ways.  I notice some ads are beginning to make social statements. Rod Dreher calls this “woke capitalism.”  He maintains, “Woke capitalism is now the most transformative agent within the religion of social justice, because it unites progressive ideology with the most potent force in America: consumerism and making money.”

Men, be forewarned: you may be being manipulated by a woke capitalism that wants you to embrace the progressive social agenda, not because it means a better future for America, but because it is now mainstream and it sells.  And if you disagree, you may be on the wrong side of history.

Coors, for example, still wants to sell beer.  Beer is all about men, football and having a good time.  So the underlying message goes something like this: Men are willing to be made fun of, so long as they can just be who they are.  We can’t live up to today’s expectations of being a proper male.  So let’s just be boys… These ads can be very subtle. 

Case in point: one of the Coors beer (Made to Chill) ads.  Coors Light wants to be the official beer of the discontented male, and Coors tries to win over the male audience with a new appeal: “Chill Out”.  Two guys are settling down to watch football.  A guy asks his buddy, “Who’s playing?”  The answer, “Does it matter?”  To which the first guy replies, “Nope.”  Then this caption flashes on the scene.  “The official beer of who cares, it’s football.” 

What is the underlining message of this “Who Cares” ad?   Remember, a lot of psychological study goes into these ads.  Here is my take:  First, get men to laugh at themselves.  It fits the dominant narrative of the “dumb” male: uninvolved in the issues of the day; just wants to have a beer with his buddy.

Second,  this message reinforces the idea of “escape.”   The chaos, stress and confusion of life at the end of 2020 is too much for men.  They just want to have a place where life is normal.  This is watching football with your buddy.

Third,  the remark, “Does it matter?”  That is loaded with implications.  We are left to draw our own conclusions.  I take it to mean two guys have checked out on real life by escaping together into football. 

Fourth, and most damaging is the remark, “Nope!”  That is totally the stereotype of “toxic” masculinity.  Males in our culture have been told they have to be reeducated to know how to behave in our new “brave” world with its demands of feminine equality.  But men would rather “check out” of the drama of contemporary life.   

I could be wrong.  But that is my take.  My sadness is that many men subconsciously accept  the “I don’t care” message.  My suggestion is that you get your laugh from the ad and then take a look in the mirror.  

I know that I want to stay engaged, even at 79.  I ask God to give me a passion for his kingdom and a desire to understand what he is saying to America today.  I refuse to check out, just trying to survive…  

I am reminded and convicted by the words of Jesus to the church of Ephesus in Rev. 2:4-5, “But I have this complaint against you.  You don’t love me or each other as you did at first!  Look how far you have fallen. Turn back to me and do the works you did at first.” 

Here is more insight from Alastair Roberts.  He notes our society has difficulty with male virility because of what he calls, “gender-integrated environments.”   How  do we deal with the male libido?  “When historically male spaces become gender-integrated,”  maintains Roberts, “men must tone themselves down in practically every realm of life.”  Men then become stunted, needing to repress their natural strengths. 

Male virility left repressed will leave men undeveloped and starved for meaningful expression.  Roberts believes, “many men feel an unmet hunger within themselves and perhaps also a sense of shame at their emasculation.” Men become “unhealthy, repressed or impotent” when they must restrain themselves in ever “collapsing distinctions” between the sexes. “Men can’t become men by spending the overwhelming majority of their time in contexts where women are heavily represented,” Roberts warns. 

Roberts assumes the following  – “When we integrate the sexes throughout society and lose meaningful and productive realms of all-male or all-female society….men and women become stunted and we experience a sort of self-alienation…Virile masculinity takes up space and makes it difficult for women to occupy that space on equal terms.”

Masculine virility was loud and clear as I listened to “sports talk” radio on our long road trip to North Carolina recently.  The passion, excitement and seriousness with which the hosts and the audience dialoged about college and pro football was intense.  With all the critical issues in our culture, sports talk seems to be  the one place where men seemed free to express their passion.  There was fire in the belly for their teams and favorite players.   

I wonder about the “fire in the belly” of the men who read this blog.  Do you have the experience of Jeremiah when he said, “…his word burns in my heart like a fire.  It’s like a fire in my bones!  I am worn out trying to hold it in!  I can’t do it! (Jer. 20:9 NLT)?   Do you know your voice as a man or do you feel impotent in your expression?  The Palmist expressed it this way, “The more I thought about it, the hotter I got, igniting a fire of words’ (Ps 39;3 NLT).    

If you are a follower of Jesus, God’s word is within you.  God told Ezekiel to eat a scroll.  “Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll…..” (Ezk. 3:1).  So he opened his mouth and God gave him a scroll to eat.  God told him, “Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it” (3:3).  God gave John the Apostle a little scroll to eat.  “”Take it and eat it.  It will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey” (Rev. 10:9).

When we read about the stomach, you can be sure that both Ezekiel and John had digested what God wanted them to know.  It became a part of who they were.  Each man will express his virility, because of the word of God is within him, in a unique way that fits a man’s story and journey.  Don’t let anyone silence your voice.  It will lead to indigestion and emasculation.   

Remember Paul’s words to young Timothy.  “This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you.  For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self-control (II Tim 1:6-7 NLT).  We need to hear this word, so as to not be intimidated or silenced.    

Findings of the biennial State of Theology survey from Ligonier Ministers conducted with Lifeway found more than half of American adults, including 30% of evangelicals, I believe that Jesus isn’t God but rather a great teacher.  52% of American adults believe that Jesus was a great teacher and nothing more, while  65% of evangelicals agreed with the statement, “Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God,”  not both God and man.  An earlier Barna study showed that only 51% of Americans believed God to be “all-powerful, all-knowing, perfect and just creator of the universe who still rules the world today.”  In 1991, 73% of Americans believed that to be true.

Stephen Nichols of Ligonier Ministers noted, “As the culture around us increasingly abandons it moral compass, professing evangelicals are sadly drifting away from God’s absolute standard in Scripture.”  “The spiritual noise in our culture over the last few decades has confused and misled hundreds of millions of people,” according to Barna.” [We] can no longer assume that people have a solid grasp of even the most basic biblical principles.”  

These findings  come with a “trumpet alert” to men reading this blog.  Our culture will descend into chaos without a moral compass. “I appointed watchmen over you and said, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!'” (Jeremiah 6:17). This blog from time to time will sound the trumpet, warning of danger ahead.  Pay attention. “Shout it aloud, do not hold back.  Raise your voice like a trumpet” (Is. 58:1).  I raise my voice as a warning to all men who read this blog. Men, the enemy wants to take you out, intending to have you drift without direction in the coming chaos.   

Joel was told to blow the trumpet because the day of the Lord is coming. “Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill.  Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming” ( Joel 2:1).  God is warning his people.  A flood is coming.  But like Noah’s day, “people didn’t realize what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away.”  The enemy would like for you to be spiritual asleep and completely unaware of the coming flood, allowing you to be swept along by the coming confusion.

Men, don’t let yourself be caught napping in the coming tide.  You may be in danger of being swept away without a moral compass.  Remembering these anchor points will help.   First,  Scripture is your sure moral compass.  Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away away” (Luke 21:33).  The Psalmist declared, “Your word, O Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heaven” (Ps 119:89).

This second suggestion may surprise you.  I encourage you to have a passionate, loving relationship with Jesus.  The Psalmists panted after God.  Let your deepest passions be for God.  Allow yourself to be a lover of God.   

Thirdly, in your daily affairs, know that you are part of the kingdom of God.  It is now, not by and by.  Jesus’ resurrection power and life are available to you.  “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21).  

Fourth, I plead with you to find a group of men who are building an ark.  That is, they know what is coming and they are preparing to weather the storm, not just for their sake, but their families.  “By faith, Noah built a ship in the middle of dry land.  He was warned about something he couldn’t see, and acted on what he was told. The result? His family was saved” (Heb. 11:7 Message).  

InterVarsity Press (IVP) has reissued Os Guinness’s book, “The Dust of Death,” published in 1973 .  I read the book several times as a young pastor back in the early 70’s.  Guinness gave me a  confident voice in articulating the gospel.  As a feeling-intuitive student of culture, I desperately needed a biblically-based analysis of the culture in which I was beginning my ministry.  

I spent all of the 60’s receiving my education (Bible school, college and seminary).   As a young pastor in the 70’s, “The Dust of Death” came as a breath of fresh air.  Guinness gave me spiritual eyes to see how the culture was changing. “Although it wasn’t evident at the time,” notes Guinness, “the 60’s sowed the poison seeds  that are producing today’s bitter harvest.  The roots of those ideas predate the 60’s, but it was in the 60’s where these ideas became dangerous.”  Guinness helped me to avoid those poison seeds.

In his preface to the signature edition, now 50 years later, Guinness said this about the 60’s: “It was the period that shaped the lives, faith, hopes and experiences and horizons of a generation – a generation that in the sixties and early seventies were students, but are now the leaders and gatekeepers of the nations. In one way or another we’re all children of the sixties today, and we need to assess the best and worst of the legacy given us by that decisive decade.” In other words, we need to be aware of the seeds that have been planted in our lives. 

Guinness would make only slight changes in his analysis of the 60’s.  He acknowledges that he would would use the term “Christian faith” rather than “Christianity.”  “The reason,” writes Guinness, “is that the progression from “Christ” to “Christian” to “Christianity” is a movement toward impersonality and abstraction, both ideologically and institutionally.”  We are to make the gospel personal. 

I praise God that I journeyed through the 60’s and 70’s, being able “to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints” (Jude 3). By the mercy of God, I have always tried to put the Lord Jesus first, both in word and in deed.  I pray that I will continue to weed out any of the  poisonous seeds still remaining.  At the end of Revelation, Jesus declares, “Behold, I am coming soon.  My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.  I am the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End” (Rev. 22:12).  Jesus is the whole story and the real revolution.  

One area of hindsight has proved critical, “so much so,” observes Guinness, “that understanding it would make this new preface worth the price of the whole book.”  The “long march through the institutions” is seen as “the forward progress of ‘revolutionary faith’ and its dream of world brotherhood, equality, and a politics to end all politics.”

Men, we are in the midst of a cultural revolution.  It has been slow and methodical.  Back in 1967 German activist Rudi Dutschke wrote, “Revolution is not a short act when something happens once and then everything is different. Revolution is a long and complicated process.”  Fifty years later, the long march through the institutions has accomplished a great deal.  Guinness believes “America has been bewitched. The great American Republic is in the process of switching revolutions from the American to the French.”  

“Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls” (Jer. 6:16).   Choose which revolution you will participate in. 

I continue to ask the Lord to help me grasp the message of the prophets, so as to apply it to our day.  If God’s word is relevant for our day, the question I ask is, “What are the prophets saying in 2020?”  Amos assures us, “The lion has roared – who will not fear?  The Sovereign Lord has spoken – who can but prophesy?” (Amos 3:8).

In two places, Jeremiah (6:13-14 and 8:11-13) refers to prophets and priests  giving  false assurance of peace – “They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious.  ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.”  The NLT says, “They offer superficial treatments for my people’s moral wound.  They give assurances of peace when there is no peace.”  The Message says, “My people are broken – shattered – and they put on Band-Aids, saying, ‘It’s not so bad.  You’ll be just fine.’  But things are not ‘just fine.'”

We have endured another long and contentious  political campaign season.  We have been  bombarded by messages from both sides, telling us of solutions that will work for our nation.  The slogans and supposed solutions are beyond belief.  They are lies. They just don’t fit with a biblical worldview.  We need help.  The prophets call us back to God.  But are we listening?

The notes in the “Bible Speaks Today” Bible (BST) give this analysis: “There is something astonishingly perceptive and perennially relevant about Jeremiah’s analysis…it is a terrible thing to mislead God’s people into falsehood, complacency and immorality, to be chaplains to the unrepentant and to collude in the culture of lies.” 

“From the least to the greatest” (meaning all of society), we all want to benefit materially.  Add to this cultural impulse spiritual leaders (prophets and priests) who are not being truthful.  The result is a culture captivated by lies in both religion and politics.  When such collusion between those who peddle the lies and those who profit from them becomes established, it poisons the whole culture with greed.” BST)

What is sad in our day is the lack of moral integrity in our public dialogue.  Outrageous moral statements are made, obvious immoral behavior receives approval, and there is endless character assassination of political opponents.  There is no longer any “social trust,” observes David Brooks. Biblical moral values are not even tolerated. 

Jeremiah asks, “Are they ashamed of their detestable conduct?  No, they have no shame at all, they do not even know how to blush” (6:15).  The Message says, “There’s no hope for them.  They’ve hit bottom and there’s no getting up.”  Then God says, “As far as I’m concerned, they’re finished.”  

When I think of those who have established  the dominant narrative in our culture, which continues to echo throughout secular media, I think of hardened hearts that refuse to respond to the Spirit of God when confronted with the truth of Scripture.  Are we now  beginning to experience the wrath of God upon our society?  Paul gives us a warning, “But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who push the truth away from themselves” (Rom. 1:18 NLT).

Men, I beg you not to be drawn in by those who show no concern for the moral and spiritual condition of our nation.  When a person blushes, they are uncomfortable with their position for fear of being exposed.  This is no longer the case in our public discourse.  So beware.  Don’t be influenced by all the posturing from those who seem to have the right answers.  They are lying to you. Jesus gives us fair warning, “”Watch out that no one deceives you” (Mark 13:5). 

These are words of the prophet Joel, calling for repentance, knowing that God’s judgment was near.  It has been difficult to either date or trace the prophecy of Joel to a person or place.  “The events  described in it are, at one and the same time, unprecedented and timeless.  The message of Joel is, therefore, relevant to any situation in any generation.  What can it say to us?” (Bible Speaks Today)

Joel (2:11) warns of judgment: “The day of the Lord is great; it is dreadful.  Who can endure it?”  The land trembled as does America today.  As a nation we have turned from God.  Do we hear the warnings?   Who can save us?  “I don’t see our nation able to go much further unless we repent and call upon the name of Almighty God,” observes Franklin Graham.

Joel saw judgment coming in the form of an invasion of locusts.  God was giving warning that conditions were ripe for judgment. “Joel had the courage to talk of God’s direct and personal involvement in current affairs and to assert that he [God] and he alone had the answers to the national crisis” (Bible Speaks Today).  For us the question would be, “Where are the locusts today in our technologically brilliant but ethically bankrupt society?” (BST)

Joel alerts the people to prepare, “for the day of the lord is coming” ( 2:1). “He is emphasizing as strongly as he knows how that the great and terrible day is imminent” (BST).  It might not be the final judgment, but it will mean  present judgment and change.  “The day of the Lord is great; it is dreadful.  Who can endure it?” (2:11). The nation needed to wake up and pay heed.  “Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill.  Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming” (2:1).  

Men, I believe the trumpet has been sounding.  Darkness is descending on our nation.  Outright rebellion against God’s moral standard is being openly flaunted, while politicians on both sides bombard each other in ever despiteful language.  I often wonder if there is any hope for the healing of our nation.

Joel’s answer is clear.  It is a matter of repentance and returning to God.  Men, instead of getting caught up in the heated rhetoric of the dominant narrative of our day, especially during this electoral period, Joel tells us to “cry out to the Lord.”  I do that continually throughout the day,  knowing that only God can heal what is displayed daily on TV.    

God is looking for a change of heart.  Are we prepared for what is coming? “‘Even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning'” (2:12).  “Rend your heart, and not your garments” ( 2:13).  This is soulful behavior, not just talk motivated by anger, fear and frustration.  God is looking for heartfelt, passionate crying out to him. 

Why would God listen to men, when the culture is being stiff-necked?  Because God cares about the condition of our nation: “Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love…” (2:13).  Can God be persuaded.  “Who knows? Perhaps he will give you a reprieve, sending you a blessing instead of this curse” ( 2:14 – MSG).  

It could be that God might, “repay you for the years the locust have eaten” (2:25).  God is able to send a mighty “awakening.” “I will pour out my Spirit on all people.  Your sons and daughters will prophecy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions” (2:28).  

This blog comes as another “Wildman” alert: In the days to come, you will be greatly tempted to complain and whine, like the Israelites in  the wilderness, who “…whined like spoiled children” (Ps. 78:18 MGS).  More than ever, as the confusion gathers and the dissidence intensifies, God will raise up men whose conversation will need to be “always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that [they] may know how to answer everyone” (Col 4:6).  You may well be one of them!   

Jeremiah was called to prophecy to a people who would not listen.  This will also be true for you. “They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you” (Jer. 1:19).  Jeremiah had God’s assurance that he could persevere.   But He began to falter, being deeply conflicted in his calling to preach to a rebellious people.

In his self-pity he ended up blaming God.  “Why is my pain unending and my wound grievous and incurable?  You are to me like a deceptive brook, like a spring that fails.” (Jer. 15:18).  The Message says, “You’re nothing, God, but a mirage.” “How well he must have known God to feel free to speak to God with such desperate honesty” (Bible Speaks Today).  Men, be honest about whatever disillusionment you may encounter, as it is sure to affect you in the days to come.  Be prepared for opposition. 

In his disillusionment God warns Jeremiah not to be tempted to speak “worthless words.”  This could certainly include whining and complaining. “If you utter worthy, not worthless words, you will be my spokesman” (15:19).  God saw the heart of Jeremiah.  Knowing he was having a hard time, he asks him to repent.  “If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me” (v. 19).  He was being asked to check his attitude and repent.  You and I will be asked to do a lot of repenting before the Lord as the darkness intensifies.

Jeremiah was not to speak “worthless words,” that is, being negative and destructive in his speech.   Men, we need to keep a check on our patterns of speech.  Through repentance and lament God will keep calling us back to himself.  “God calls us up and out and back from such ‘worthless words.'” ( Bible Speaks Today).

God comes alongside his repentant prophet.  “Let this people turn to you” is God’s advice.  Don’t let them control the narrative:  “…but you must not turn to them” (15:19).  I have to continually do an “attitude check” so I don’t get negative.  For men it is so easy to fall into complaining about the condition of our contentious society.  With our words and presence we are to be lights in the darkness.  Darkness only invites negativity and death.  Light brings life (Psalm 36:9; John 1:4).

Men, hang unto the words God gave Jeremiah in his “recommissioning.”  It is similar to what Jeremiah heard in the beginning.  “I will make you a wall to this people, a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you to rescue and save you” (Jer. 15:20).  This is a picture of a man with courage and conviction, willing through love and grace to stay in the battle.

May God put fire in your belly, like he did for Jeremiah.  “The words are fire in my belly, a burning in my bones.  I’m worn out trying to hold it in.  I can’t do it any longer” (20:9-MSG).  Let the Word God has given you burn like fire, even if you go through some pain in the process.  It’s men who are aflame for God who will be able to confront the darkness that is coming in the days ahead. 

I want to bring your attention to the two prayer events that took place on Saturday (Sept. 26) in Washington, D.C.  You might have watched on line or even attended.  I watched on line. This was a “kairos” moment in time (ancient Greek for “opportune” or “critical”) for our divided nation. 

Jonathan Cahn, the organizer of “The Return,” described  the spiritual condition of our nation when he said, “We drove God out of our hearts, out of our government, out of our ways, out of laws, out of the education of our children, out of the public squares…out of our businesses, out of our media, out of our culture, out of our lives.  And as we drove Him out, we opened up a vacuum into which came a flood of other gods.”

What are we to do?  His answer :”Repent and return.”  This theme is what moved me as I took part in front of my computer.  Again and again participants from around the country kept crying out to God for mercy, repenting of their sins, while asking God to send His Holy Spirit to heal our land.  

At the same time Franklin Graham was leading a Prayer March starting at The Lincoln Memorial and going down the entire 1.8 mile long National Mall.  Before the prayer march began he said, “I’m asking people to join me and let’s exalt the name of Jesus Christ.  Let’s call upon the name of Almighty God, repent of our sins and ask God to heal our land… that he would work in the hearts of our politicians.”

There were many thousands of believers, focusing on the same purpose: bringing America back to its first love and repenting before a holy God.  Here are some things that impressed me with the many thousands who were there.  By the way, none of the media gave it any attention, except for a few of the Christian outlets.  This again shows the bias of the dominant, secular media.

The behavior of such a large crowd?   No reports of mayhem.  No looting.  No vandalism.  No calls to “burn it down.”  The speakers did not call for violence and destruction.  Rather one could see families and groups huddled in earnest prayer for America.

The earnestness of prayer.  “We’re in a real Nineveh moment,” declared one leader.  “We have 40 days and all we know could be over.  And so we need God to hear the cries of the righteous remnant.”

It was a Sacred, Solemn Assembly.  “This is not a presentation, a concert or a glorified prayer meeting. This is a sacred, solemn assembly- where we come, the church comes, and we bow before a holy God in reverent fear” noted an organizer.

It was challenging.  Many spoke about a return to God, calling us to repentance.  The focus was on believers, rather than placing blame or complaining how bad things have.  “We deserve your judgment, Father, but we ask for Your grace.  We ask for Your mercy,” prayed a participant.

Finally, the universality of prayer.  “The Return” simulcast went out to 150 nations across six continents in 90 languages.  Can you imagine such a large prayer meeting.  This is, in my opinion, an event unique in the history of the church.  It is the book of Acts all over again.  Praise God!!

 “Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord.  Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy (Hab. 3:2).  Men, at my age I can still “rise up” and pray.  Open your heart to the Lord and cry out to him in these days.   

I read Glenn Stanton’s recent article in The Daily Citizen (Focus on the Family) entitled “Atlantic Magazine Science Writer: Men Don’t Have to Menstruate.”  It got my attention.  The article was “about how suffering through the end of their monthly cycle might now be a thing of the past for women.”  But the shocker was, “that men need no longer to have their period either.”  Stanton calls this confusion “a significant cultural indicator.”  

The article demonstrated how an influential magazine like the Atlantic has in Stanton’s words bowed, “low to the new gender theory orthodoxy that yes, both men and women do indeed have periods and no one should think otherwise.”  

The article  highlights how menstruation is becoming an elective bodily process. One expert believes, “We now have the technology to make periods optional.”  While reporting on a personal health issue for women, Stanton points out “the astonishing editorial choices” used in writing the article.  “Her” is avoided, with the use of the gender-neutral “their.”

In order maintain that menses are not solely a female issue, phrases such as “people who have periods” is used,  along with “people who have periods spend an average of 2,300 days of their lives menstruating.”   Then their is this curious statement, “The cost of so-called feminine products can add up to thousand of dollars over a person’s lifetime.”  Why not just say women or female.   Because as Stanton point out the Atlantic, “is following a……wholly novel theory that a man can be as legitimately a woman as any other woman merely by declaring himself one.”

Stanton wonders why “the otherwise fine Atlantic piece didn’t specify whether ‘men’ were included in their analysis.  He replies “it had to do with the difference between doing actual science and pushing a wholly creative ideology that is directly at odds with one of the most fundamental realities of what it means to be a human.”

You know there is confusion when Facebook has listed over 50 gender options to choose from when filling out a personal profile.  This is sure proof that “gender” has become untethered from reality.  The remedy is to go back to the original design, at the beginning, found in the book of Genesis. 

Jesus was definite in telling us, “at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female'” (Matt. 19:4), going on the say that the two in marriage cannot be separated.  The Pharisees questioned Jesus  stand on marriage, saying Moses allowed for divorce.  Jesus was saying in effect, “this is not the way God created it to be.  Something has gone terribly wrong. This was not the way in was in the beginning.” 

Christopher West uses the analogue of  people driving with a flat tire as being normal when it comes to our sexuality.  But Jesus is telling the pharisees that “in the beginning, they had air in their tires.”  We need to go back to the beginning to see how distorted of view of sexuality has become.

Jesus came into the world not to condemn those with flat tires, but rather to re-inflate their flat tires.  West observes, “We cannot actually return to the state of innocence; we’ve left that behind.  But by following Christ we can receive God’s original plan for our sexuality and live it with Christ’s help.” 

I love the analogue of “flat tires.”  Men, turn to Jesus in humble dependence, asking him to fill the deep caverns of your soul, so that you might be affirmed in your fully alive masculine soul.  Jesus can inflate your tires, giving you all the passion and energy you need to be “one” with your bride.  

Recently I read an article in Mere Orthodoxy with the captivating title of “American Evangelicalism isn’t patriarchal or feminized. It’s matrilineal.” The article has got me pondering the criticism of the church being feminized. I have often written about the feminization of the church.

Matrilineal is a verb referring to behavior or characteristics that are based on kinship with the mother or the female.   Anthony Bradley maintains that the Evangelical church is neither patriarchal, nor feminized, nor do they emasculate men in order to appeal to women’s sensibilities or desires.  Evangelical churches are matrilineal.

“Matrilineal societies” notes Bradley, “are centuries old systems that organize community life so that the day-to-day activities of women are placed at the center of social thriving for successive generations.”  In these societies “the outward-facing office does not determine which gender is socially dominant…..Men may hold an office, but women control the operations of community life….women are outward-facing representatives of the community.”

As a pastor, I often said without the organization of the women and their contribution, church life would suffering greatly.  So Yes, I can definitely see where life in the church can be matrilineal.   

Not only were the women the life-givers, but they were also the life sustainers.  Mothers were revered in the community.  Look at the emphasis on mother’s day in our churches and society.  Without the mothers, much of family and youth activities would not happen. “Without women and mothers, life does not happen, ” observes Bradley. 

“In reality” Bradley maintains, “many churches are simply a complemenatrian facade living a matrilineal reality.”  That is why the “felt needs” in the church often reflect the feminine life in the church.  He might be making a valid point. 

The following observation from Bradley certainly holds true from my experience. “Matrilineal societies can exist while men are placed in outward-facing leadership roles (pastor or elder), but the community’s internal life would implode without women’s authority as mothers.  Matrilineal societies are about who does what to sustain life rather than merely looking at who hold which outward facing title or role.  Without women sustaining life, the community dies no matter who has what title in a matrilineal society.”

So what does this mean for the church?  Here is Bradley’s challenge.  [We] may want to make adjustments by reframing who does what to make life work at home, church, and school so that women are freed from the burden of sustaining the family and men move from being passive to becoming actively involved in the spaces that nurture children.”

This article does not do away with the criticism of the church as being feminized, but it does help to visualize why there is such a feminine emphasis?  I would contend one word could nicely address the questions raised by the matrilineal influence in the church.  

It is the word “nurture.”  In the amplified we read in Eph. 6:4, “Fathers, do not provoke our children to anger [do not exasperate them to the point of resentment with demands that are trivial or unreasonable or humiliating or abusive; not by showing favoritism or indifference to them], but bring them up [tenderly, with lovingkindness] in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”

This passage challenges men to be nurturers. It is all about how men relate.  Larry Crabb calls out our “relational poverty.”  Men, it more than doing, thinking and organizing.  It’s about getting down to the level of our children and relating to them from the heart.  It is sharing our hearts with our wives.  May God give men the courage and grace to release what is deep in them, to bring life to others.