Category: Brother Al (Page 28 of 68)

New research from George Barna shows, “a broad, deep gap in American political beliefs and behavior, rooted not in ideology or partisanship, but in fundamental differences in the worldview of voting-age adults being fueled by a national cultural shift away from the biblical worldview.” Barna believes, based on his research that, “The 2020 election is not about personalities, parties, or even politics. It is an election to determine the dominant worldview in America.

Barna payed particular attention to those he calls “integrated disciples.”  These are persons with a consistent biblical worldview.  The survey indicated that only 6% of those who identified as Christian had a biblical worldview.  These believers tended to hold conservative political views in greater number than adults without a biblical worldview.  

For example, they believe in the definition of marriage as one man and one woman, 95% vs. 34%, and are more deeply committed to practicing their religious faith, 98% to 57%.  These folks are two and a half times more likely to be conservative on social issues 91% vs. 34%.

What I find interesting is Barna’s contention that politics is no longer about party platforms but competing worldviews.  “Over the past 40 years Americans have gradually but consistently abandoned a range of foundational, biblical beliefs in favor of a human-centric, consensual, emotion-driven understanding of and response to the world.  That transition has been highly visible in relation to morality and political preferences.” 

Men, this reminds me of Paul’s warning to Timothy about those with “itching  ears.”  “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear” ( II Tim 4:3).  

The “seismic sixties” as Os Guinness calls it, was the decade when the radical ideas first broke through into mainstream American thinking and life.  Guinness notes, “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 they became dangerous.”

In the 1973, as a young pastor I read Os Guinness book “The Dust of Death” several times over.  It cemented my thinking to be a “Jesus person” and a pastor of “the Book.”  I never doubted my stance as I lived through those years.  As a feeling, intuitive man, I clung to my testimony of Jesus, wanting to be  credible witness for him with the Lutheran church.  But I needed help thinking my way through the changing times.  I wanted the Bible to form my worldview.

Today, having lived through the 60’s, being ordained in 1970, I am part of that 6% that Barna discovered in his research.  I survived due to the following commitments I made regarding the Word of God. 

First, Scripture is God’s inspired Word and it has the final say when it comes to faith and practice.  I had to settle that in my mind.  Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away” (Matt 24:34).   

Second,  I gladly submit my thinking to the authority of God’s Word.  If something is not clearly found in scripture I will raise a big question mark.  

Thirdly, I continue to  need guidance as I journey with Jesus through the changes and chaos that is coming.  “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” (Ps. 119:108).   

Fourthly, I need help to be an integrated follower of Jesus (in word and deed).  Scripture does that for me if I obey, “But don’t just listen to God’s word.  You must do what it says.” ( James 1:23).   

“The tonic of masculinity” caught my attention while reading an article by Bill Donaghy about  men.   “If we have been steeped in the lies of porn, if we’ve let ourselves be defined by the hashtag “toxic masculinity”, then we have work to do,” declares Donaghy.  He exhorts us to, “go back to the beginning to discover that primordial call to the tonic of masculinity ! (my emphasis) 

The intention of toxic masculinity is to deny and do away with what is the natural strength of men, which is, of course, expressed differently in each man.  While it is true that men need to live in the awareness of how their natural male strength has done great of harm to women since the fall, our task today, as never before is to  walk humbly with our Lord, asking Him for the grace and mercy to rightly exercise our place in the social order as God intended it.  We must not deny who we are.

As C. S. Lewis so famously said, “In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function.  We make men without chest and expect of them virtue and enterprise….we castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.” The challenge becomes that of knowing how our strength and passion as men, can be used of God, rather then being misdirected into harmful, and even destructive patterns of behavior.  We have to do this work, without the help of the dominant culture.

To meet this challenge in the gender wars of our time, men need to be able to receive by faith the gift of their God given masculinity ( being a man).  After God made both in his image we read, “God saw all that He had made, and it was very good” (Gen 1:31).  Because of the contemporary narrative, which is highly critical of maleness, men will need help in being affirmed in their masculine roles as being “very good.” 

Pope Benedict XVI gave this wise pastoral advise for men.  “Man comes to the profoundest sense to himself not through what he does but through what he accepts.  He must wait for the gift of love, and love can only be received as a gift……One must wait for it, let it be given to one.  And one cannot become wholly man in any other way than by being loved, by letting oneself be loved….”

These are words of gold, offering tonic for many men living in shame and disillusionment.  Let me brake this statement down.   May these words sink into your soul and help you rise up with new tonic for your masculine soul.

First,  spiritual tonic cannot be applied to the crisis in masculinity by relying on our effort.  Men simply cannot fix their problem. The culture also cries out to men, “fix your problem.”  We can’t do it.  We are part of Adam’s fallen race.  Let this sink in – men need to learn to receive.  It is by the grace of God that we are given to capacity to change.

Second, even more difficult is the necessity of waiting.  God is able to mold and make us into the men we are intended to be.  Let this sink in – it is a process.  I personally know.  God has been reshaping me for over many years.    

Thirdly, always remember that you are his “beloved.”  Let this sink in – it about receiving love.  Like the Pope said, “one cannot become wholly man in any other way than be being loved, by letting oneself be loved….”  There is nothing we can do expect to receive the gift.   

I spend time daily on the internet, reading news sources and Christian blog sites to make some sense out of our world.  I also am on the look out for articles regarding masculinity, to help me better articulate a healthy male perspective for men and their walk with Jesus.

Every once in a while, I find a new source to help me to write helpful blog for men.  A recent find has been Alastair Roberts, who blog at Alastair’s Adversaria.  He is worth following.  In one of his blog he reflected on the no win situation men find themselves with the feminist view of patriarchy. 

For the feminist, the problem for men is toxic masculinity and  the dismantling of patriarchy.  “Feminists believe,” maintains Roberts, “if men could deal with their weakness, shame, and vulnerability….we could do away with patriarchy.”  They believe men are shaped by damaging messages for their past. 

But for many men the feminist demands are emasculating.  Men many express openness about their weaknesses and vulnerabilities, and yet face hostility for  “developing genuine strength.”  Male strength can be a threat.  “Male cultures that celebrate and accentuate male strength are a direct threat to women’s advancement.”   

Men are realizing that focusing  on their faults and weaknesses, “comes at the cost of both alienation from and pathologizing of their own manly strength of agency.”  Men can  easily develop a poor image of themselves as a man.  

Women are portrayed as passive victims of patriarchy.  “This enables them to hold men accountable,” notes Roberts, “to lay blame for problems at their door, and to expect then to turn everything around.”  The responsibility for men can seem negative, since men are the ones that assume blame and are expected to bring about a new paradigm of relationships between men and women 

I appreciate the argument Roberts makes for men having to assume both guilt and responsibility for the unhealthy patriarch of the past.  The following in my opinion is very insightful: “Responsibility always comes attached to blame, as a law that sets up it recipient for condemnation and failure.  The result is a shame and guilt-inflected vision of masculinity, one in which men are always being held capable,  yet have relatively little ways in which they can enjoy the dignity of a positive responsibility.” 

I have three comments regarding shame and responsibility.  First, I am committed to helping men to walk comfortably with the Lord, in the midst of our contemporary “gender wars.”  I am simply a voice crying in the wilderness,  for men to come in  from the darkness of shame and self-loathing, to bask in the light of our Heavenly Father saying to men, “You are my beloved.”  Be affirmed in your god-given masculine self, period.  Receive this as your inheritance in the Lord.  He will help you stand with other brothers.

Secondly, Robert’s word are convicting to me.  I repent and ask for forgiveness if I have in any way shamed a man into making attempts to be anything other than who God has created him to be.  You are unique and have your assignment from the Lord.  Don’t let me or anyone else tell you how you are to celebrate your god-given masculinity.

Thirdly, this is a cry to men to stand tall in their unique masculinity and be responsible.  We get our marching order from the Lord himself, and not from the feminist agenda for men.  We are to give it all up for Jesus.  “Those who love their life in this world will lose it.  Those who despise their life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (John 12:25). 

I recently read an article by David Mills revealing insights into the marriage of Tolkien, who was married 55 years to Edith.  By all accounts the marriage was successful but not necessarily happy.  Near the end of his life, after Edith had died, Tolkien shared some reflections on his marriage with his son Christopher.

After three of his insights I would like to add my testimony.  At this stage in my marriage, God has wonderfully drawn me closer to my bride (55 years).  I am very grateful and humbled at the work of God in my heart.  I give him  glory and continue to cry out for his mercy. 

First, Tolkien warns that a  romantic view of men and women, can take “the young man’s eye off women as they are.”  Tolkien describes them as “companions in shipwreck not guiding stars.” Not seeing the woman realistically makes young men “forget their [women’s ] desires, needs and temptations.  It inculcates exaggerated notions of ‘true love,’ as a fire from without, a permanent exaltation, unrelated to age, childbearing, and plain life, unrelated to will and purpose. 

Men, your bride needs to know she is “the total package” as you both age.  “Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you.  Rejoice in the wife of your youth” (Prov 4:18).  Take this advise from brother Al.  Express your delight and fascination with her as being “your bone” (Gen 2:23).  It will breathe new life and spiritual refreshment into your marriage.  

Secondly, Tolkien refers to marriage as a “great mortification.” In a fallen world, “the best cannot be attained by free enjoyment, or what is called ‘self-realization’ (usually a nice name for self-indulgence, wholly inimical to the realization of other selves); but by denial, by suffering.”    

The early monks thought of marriage as martyrdom (death to self).  “Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged” (I Cor 13:5-6).  I am more sensitive to my failures, especially in my self-pitying attitude.  I humble myself,  rationalize less and ask for forgiveness, knowing I still have a long ways to go.  

Thirdly,  Tolkien speaks of  “self-denial.”  “No man, however truly he loved his betrothed and bride as a young man,” insists Tolkien, “has  lived faithful to her as a wife in mind and body without deliberate conscious of the will, without self-denial.”  In his view, “nearly all marriages, even happy ones, are mistakes.”  But he insist “the ‘real soul-mate’ is the one you are actually married to.”  His advice, “in this fallen world, we have as our only guides, prudence, wisdom, a clean heart, and fidelity of will.” 

The Lord is helping me to put  the needs of my “soul mate” forefront in our daily life.  “Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance” (I Cor 13:7).  In our relationship I am more like a yo-yo.  Judy is consistent.  I am becoming more honest with my emotional state, admitting my downward cycles, and asking her to pray for me. 

It is hard to admit my childish ways.  “But when I grew up, I put away childish things.   Now we see things  imperfectly as in a poor mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.  All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely,  just as God knows me now” (I Cor. 13:11-12).  One day I will understand, but in the mean time I ask for grace to mature in my marriage.  God help me to be your MAN for Judy.    

Self-censorship is on the rise according to a new Cato Institute survey that reports nearly two-thirds of Americans are afraid to share their political views.  “31% of liberals, 30% of moderates and 34% of conservatives are worried their political views could get them fired or harm their careers,” the Cato survey stated.  “There has been shifts across the board, where more people among all political groups feel they are walking on eggshells,” the survey found, adding, “majorities of Democrats (52%), independents (59%) and Republicans (72%) who all agree they have political opinions they are afraid to share.”

In the midst of this self-censoring, white conservative Robert George and liberal African American Cornel West have issued a joint appeal to their fellow Americans, “to unite the country, we need honesty and courage.”   This ideological odd couple because of their own long friendship, believe, “honesty and courage alone can save our wounded, disunited country now.”   

They believe, “We need the honesty and courage to speak the truth – including painful truths that unsettle not only our foes but also our friends and, most especially, ourselves.”  This statement is sure convicting to me.  Even more so are these words, “We need the honesty and courage to recognize the faults, flaws and failings of even the greatest of our heroes – and to acknowledge our own faults, flaws and failings.”  

Here is more of what they had to say, “We need the honesty and courage not to compromise our beliefs or go silent on them out of desire to be accepted, or  our of fear of being ostracized, excluded, or canceled.”

“We need the honesty and courage to consider with an open mind and heart points of view that challenge our beliefs – even our deepest, most cherished identity-forming beliefs.  We need the intellectual humility to recognize our own fallibility – and that, too, requires honesty and courage.”

These two men are putting before us a real challenge.  Their cry: “We need the honesty and courage to speak the truth.”  But how do we go about speaking the truth of the gospel, while doing it with honesty and courage in the culture that is so divided. 

I thought of the words of Jesus in Mark 13:11 when He tells his disciples  they will have difficulty. “When they bring you, betrayed, into court, don’t worry about what you’ll say.  When the time comes, say what’s on your heart – the Holy Spirit will make his witness in and through you” (Mark 13:11 MGS).  

These words should give us hope of staying in the battle.  We need  to remember that it is about Jesus not our agenda.  The Message puts it this way – “I identified myself completely with him.  Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ.  My ego is no longer central.  It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven  to impress God” ( Gal 2:20 MSG).   

 Jesus is the truth  (John 8:32). That  is settled,  Our aim should be to give witness to His reign in the earth  of which we are a part.  This should give us confidence to be honest and have courage.  Jesus promised help.  “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.  He will not be presenting his own ideas, he will be telling you what he has heard” (John 16:13).   

Lord, help us to stay in the battle for you. Remember – “Make the most of every opportunity.  Be gracious in your speech.  The goal is to bring out the best in others in a conversation, not put them down, not cut them out” (Col 4:5-6 MSG).   

The lack of healthy male relationships is a subject not easily discussed in our culture. If you were to google “loneliness” you would find loneliness among men, especially today, to be a public health crisis. Men tend to live in isolation, while women overall more readily connect with other women. This leaves men alone to suffer in their shame, not knowing how to deal with whatever inner pain there may be.

One counselor who works with men gave the following five reasons why loneliness among men is a worsening epidemic that is “literally killing” men: 1) Men fear appearing weak, 2) Men don’t talk about their feelings, 3) Many aren’t comfortable being vulnerable, 4) Hypermasculine assertiveness, and 5) Few bonding opportunities. I want to address this last point.

In the church, men get mixed messages about what a man is supposed to be. Jesus can be portrayed along a continuum from being super-sensitive and caring to being like the warrior portrayed in Revelation 19. In the age of “toxic masculinity,” men in the church have learned to hide behind their protective emotional shields, afraid to express whatever confusion, sadness, anger, or loneliness there may be. Men have been emotionally wounded by the gender wars and don’t know how to process their pain. The festering wounds spill over into dysfunctional relationships with those who are closest to them, especially within the family.

Some “churched” men have “forfeited their souls” to the feminist rant for a new masculine. They have been shamed into being emasculated men, unable to express any genuine masculine strength – often for fear of being called a bigot. Men are caught in the double bind of being shamed for being a man, while being told they have not been responsible in addressing male patriarchy.

Men need intergenerational male communities of brothers and fathers where soul talk among men is normal conversation. Here, men can be heard as they risk telling their stories of navigating life through the good, the bad, and the ugly. “Celebrate Recovery” (look it up on Google) gives good guidance: “Realize I’m not God; I admit that I am powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing and my life is unmanageable.”

Men can learn to “fight for each other’s hearts.” A good watchword would be Proverbs 4:23: “Above all else guard your heart, for it affects everything you do.” Alastair Roberts makes this observation regarding gatherings of men: “Male groups tend to broad and shallow: larger numbers of persons, but typically less intimate and closely bonded… Male groups have a greater tendency to socialize and bond around agency, ritual, action and competition… We principally bond through sharing ideas, activities, arguments, and obsessions, not through sharing feelings, personal narrative or secrets.”

While the church needs to provide opportunities for men to grow spiritually through activities together, there is a real need to provide space for men to process their journey with other men. It will take time and practice to move beyond “agency, ritual, action, and competition.” In the days to come, men will need to find and have brothers who stay with them in the battle.

If you are a man who is caught in the dark web of loneliness, you may feel like a lost sheep. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, knows your need. Tell him your honest need and ask him to direct you to a group. The big step is to reach out and make yourself available to a group of men. He knows your need and will provide the opportunity. But you will need to be vulnerable.

The title of this blog might surprise you.  It is the title of an article by Robert P George,  professor of law at Princeton.  He points out that secular liberals or “progressives” are making little effort to maintain “the pretense of  neutrality.”  “Having gained the advantage” notes George,  “on battle front after battle front in the modern culture war, and having achieved hegemony  in elite sectors of the culture….there is no longer any need to pretend.”

Steven Smith in his book “Pagans and Christians in the City” names this aggressive liberalism as “paganism.”  What he [Smith] perceives,  notes George, “is that contemporary  social liberalism reflects certain core ideas and  beliefs …… that partially defined the traditions of paganism that were dominant in the ancient Mediterranean world……..until the point at which they were defeated….by the Jewish sect  that came to be known as Christianity.”  Christians were like “resident aliens” in the world,  following a God who was transcendent, whereas pagans located the sacred within the world. 

These two worldviews clashed with the spread of the gospel in the first centuries of the church.  No where was the clash greater than in sexuality.  “The Christian view of sexuality was not only radically alien,” notes Smith, “it was close to incomprehensible.”  There was a fear that Christians would “turn the lights out on the party.”  In the West, the Christian sexual ethic prevailed until the present time.   

But now in our day the lights have been turned on once again and the party is going again.  It is “live and let live” when it comes to sexual morality.  The old Christian ethic is “no longer operative.”  We are entering into what George calls a “new Diocletian age,”  similar to the last and most severe persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. 

“The culture war is over; they lost,  we won…..Taking a hard line is better than trying to accommodate the losers who are defending positions that liberals regard as having no normative pull at all” declares Mark Tushnet.  The neo-pagans are not willing to accommodate Christians in the public square, when they dissent from progressive orthodoxy.  

There are people “who want to ensure that we never again get near the light switch and that we are properly punished for having switched off the lights to the party in the first place.”  So what are believers with a biblical worldview to do in the coming days. 

George give three options.  First that of capitulation and acquiescence.  There are whole denominations that practice a visible evidence of faith but have  no moral substance.  George believes they have made themselves “useful idiots” of neo-paganism. 

The two other options are between “flight or fight.”  Rod Dreher has a strategic retreat in his promotion of the “Benedict Option.”  Christian are to build arks in order to endure the coming flood.  Believers would still be involved in the affairs of the world, while attending to intentional community for the sake of maintaining to faith.   

The third option is that of staying in the public square and fighting.  George opts for fight, saying “the cost of discipleship is a heavy cost……the days of comfortable Christianity are over.”  We are, in his opinion, “back in the position of our forebears in imperial Rome.”  

So men we are at a crossroads.  Accommodation is not an option.  Will it be flight or fight?  I personally lean toward flight ( building an ark through my church) rather than fight.  But I know that I will need to take a stand among the pagans.  God give me grace to stand for Jesus 

I am a product of the Jesus Movement.  I was a seminary student and a young pastor when the Jesus movement began in California in the late 60’s and early 70’s and than spread throughout the rest of North America and even into Europe.  Like today,  those days were marked by political strife, racial tension, government instability and economic volatility.  I remember embracing the title “Jesus Freak.” 

The movement was also a predecessor of the  charismatic movement, which moved through the mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic churches.  I attended large gatherings of believers throughout the 70’s and early 80’s.  God was awakening the whole church to the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, who had had become “the forgotten member” of the Trinity. 

The movement left its impact on the church.  I witnessed this first hand as a young Lutheran pastor.   There was tension as God was pouring new wine into old wine skins.  Many Jesus people left and formed other churches, while some of us stayed, wanting to be a leaven with the traditional denominations.  I am forever grateful for what God taught my wife and I during those years.  We still treasure “the Scripture Songs” we learned as a family.

I bring up the Jesus Movement because some observers wonder if we are about to experience another Jesus Movement.  Don Whitney notes, “Perhaps no year in modern history so parallels the turmoil of 2020 than 1968……But in retrospect, it’s encouraging to realize that rumbling beneath it all, the Jesus Movement was gathering  momentum as a work of God’s power that would flourish across the country in the years immediately following.”  

Now there was folks reporting on a “beach revival” talking place in Southern California.  Worship leader Sean Faucht, leader of worship during the beach revival believes the church is in a time similar to the late 60’s and 70’s.  “What we’re seeing how  is a return to a gritty, raw Gospel, Jesus people movement foundation,” observes Faucht.  “What it’s doing is stripping off the sheen and the polished nature of what we’ve built in America and it’s allowing us to return to the simplicity of the power of the raw Gospel.”

Wow!  I read of other revivals taking place in other parts of the country, even at the place where George Floyd was murdered.  Could it be that in the midst of all the chaos, conflicting politics and anger, God  is sending awakening.  Could this be “times of refreshing ” from the Lord (Acts 3:19). 

As I write this blog I have several gut responses to the reports of revival.  First and foremost, there is an excitement in my spirit, of another move of God like the 70’s.  It was glorious time to be a “Jesus Freak.”

But secondly, I am reluctant to admit fear and hesitancy getting involved in a move of God’s Spirit that will surely confront the powers of darkness that war against our nation.  Lord, forgive me for my lack of trust in your sovereign power to protect me and my bride during the coming battle for the soul of our nation.   

Thirdly,  I am convicted that I have not prayed in Faith, with my face and hands raised to heaven, crying out, “God has mercy on us.”  Daniel helps me with his prayer, “We do not make requests  of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy.  O Lord, listen!  O Lord, forgive!  O Lord hear and act!  For your sake, O my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your name” (Dan 9:18-19)

The term “cancel culture” was not part of our national consciousness only a few years ago.  But very quickly free speech and open debate are being called into question.  Biblical views of marriage,  sex and abortion are being met with intolerance.  We are living in a post-Christian culture. Jesus warned us: “Stay alert.  This is hazardous work I’m assigning you.  You’re going to be like sheep running through a wolf pack, so don’t call attention to yourselves.  Be as cunning as a snake, inoffensive as a dove” (Matt 10:18 mgs).

 Concerned about the growing intolerance, 150 high-profile writers of liberal persuasion signed a letter, entitled, “A letter on Justice and Open Debate” published recently in Harper’s Magazine. The letter expressed  a collective concern over a cancel culture.  They warned of “an intolerance of opposing views” that was leading to “a vogue for public shaming and ostracism,” along with the “tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty.”  

The letter asks for the following to be honored: “The way to defeat bad ideas is by exposure, argument, and persuasion, not by trying to silence or wish them away.  We refuse any false choice between justice and freedom, which cannot exist without each other.  As writers we need a culture that leaves us room for experimentation, risk taking, and even mistakes.  We need to preserve the possibility of good-faith disagreement without dire professional consequences.”

The reaction from the left was rather shift and nasty.  As one observer put it, “the reaction to the letter denouncing cancel-culture demonstrated why a letter  denouncing cancel-culture was necessary in the first place.”  The signatories  were  called “totalitarians in the waiting.”  

I bring up this letter to show conclusively how times have changed.  It is now those who are opposed to a biblical worldview who are intolerant.  In the past it was only the Christians who were accused of being closed minded.

I must confess that after following Jesus for over 60 years, I have mellowed.  As a young Christian  I was more of a fundamentalist in my outlook.  I had my convictions, but out of my insecurity as a person of faith, I was closed to other opinions and perspectives.  As a pastor in a fairly liberal denomination (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) I had to learn to think clearly and articulate a minority view point.

Early on in my ministry I lived with a lot of insincerity about my Christian worldview.  With my  personality, I knew in my heart what I believed, but I had difficulty giving verbal expression to my convictions.  After many years of simply hard work, I was able to combine my head with my heart.  I became a more integrated man, who know what he believed, because it fit with head and heart

Men, it is vital that we live as integrated men,  with our head integrated with our heart.  The truth will need to lived out, in thought and deed.   But it is “hazard work.”  Here is my advise from  my journey.

First,  stand firm on the truth of Scripture.  It is our foundation.  The bible give us an objective view of reality.   Secondly,  learn to integrate your head with your heart.  For me it was getting my head in line with my heart.  For you it might be the other way around.  But get integrated.  Thirdly, you will be shoot at and wounded.   But you need to stay in the fight. Fourthly, listen carefully to others even when it hurts.   Fourthly, when you speak aim at the wounded soul of the other. 

If you want to get a fresh, objective, and unbiased perspective on Western society, it is helpful to see it through the eyes of an informed spiritual leader from the developing nations.  Such a person is Robert Cardinal Sarah from Guinea, West Africa, who was made a archbishop by Pope John Paul II and a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI.  In his book “The Day is Now Far Spent” he has a revealing chapter entitled, “Hatred of Man.”

He takes us back to the origin of the hatred of modern man and his very nature.  “At the root,” maintains Sarah “is a mysterious process of fear.”  “Our contemporaries have been convinced that in order to be free, it is necessary for them not to depend on anyone.”  “The modern mistrust of all dependence,” explains Sarah, “explains many ills.”

Other people (including God), become potential enemies.  “Filiation,” the dependence on a father and mother, therefore becomes a hindrance to full freedom.  “This first experience is unbearable for contemporary man, who wishes to be the sole cause of everything that happens to him and of all that he is.”  Receiving is contrary to his dignity.  Sarah thinks it is time to “liberate man from this hatred of all that he has received.”

Sarah sees this as the “death of the father.”  It is an ancient, destructive desire to receive nothing from anyone so as not to owe anyone anything.  Sarah asks, “If a man were deprived of a receiving nature, what meaning would his freedom have?”  At the heart of the hatred of man is the refusal to accept oneself as a creature, who has been created by a loving Creator.

Sarah wonders, “How can we make a lifelong commitment if we suspect the other a priori of not wanting our good?”  The suspicion of a loving God as Creator has “spread throughout human society like a slow, paralyzing poison.”  Our culture is going through a “lethal crisis.”  It has reached the limits of self-destructive hatred.  “The barbarians,” believes Sarah, “are no longer at the city gates… they are in position of influence and in government… Never will I be complicit by my silence in this new ideology of hatred for man and for human nature.”  I agree! 

Men, we see this hatred being expressed in the many riots and mass shootings that are now commonplace.  So many of the young men, both black and white, are expressing their freedom, with no idea of who they really are.  They do not know that they are created and loved by God.  We are, notes Sarah, “in danger of becoming ‘perpetual orphans.’”

Let us celebrate “the Good News” of the Father’s delight in us as men, created in his image to uniquely express our God-given masculinity.  “For we are God’s masterpiece.  He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago” (Eph. 2:10).  There simply cannot be a sense of being and well-being in the soul of man outside of his receiving and knowing this truth in the depths of his soul: “I have a Father in heaven who delights in me.”  

It has taken me a lifetime of trying to walk with the Lord to start grasping the importance of being able to simply receive.  It is a posture of humility and dependence on the Lord.  “I’ve kept my feet on the ground, I’ve cultivated a quiet heart.  Like a baby content in its mother’s arms,  my soul is a baby content” (Ps. 131:2 MSG).