Why Men Hate Going to Church." It has had a profound effect on me when pondering the minimal effectiveness of Christ's Church today, here in America. He explains most men believe they must check their masculinity at the door when attending most church services. Burrow contends that when Christ was on this earth, He lived a manly life, demonstrating much masculinity. He blames the modern church today for emasculating men and becoming feminized. This caused me to ponder the question, did Jesus teach and command passivity as emphasized by most churches today? When we read of Jesus' teaching in Luke 6 about turning the other cheek, loving your enemies and giving a bully your suit jacket when he takes your coat, it would appear so. It has much with the way you interpret being passive. Some would say Jesus was teaching that we should not have a retaliatory spirit, that we should sit back and just take it. This way of thinking leads one to believe being passive means to avoid acting on injustice or brutality. But upon further review and study on the matter, I have come to realize that Jesus is not teaching an inactive form of passiveness, but an active form. One that would require great restraint from our natural tendencies as men. In fact, I believe it requires greater strength to restrain ourselves then to act in a retaliatory matter. I am a football coach and we teach our players to walk away when an opposing teams player starts trash talking. We show them on film how silly it makes the trash talker look when he is talking at the back of our player's helmet. Does that make our player look weak or meek? To the contrary, I think a demonstration of restraint shows great strength and maturity...attributes I think are consistent with a manly type of man. But here's the thing, Jesus wasn't saying we should just back away and do nothing when we are a party to injustice, cruelty or brutality. He was saying we need to muster courage and strength to act in away that would confound the aggressor. The secret, is to show him love. Now, I will be the first to admit, this does not seem to be a manly thing to do, but a man can and should show love in a masculine way and that is to show restraint from retaliation, show compassion on the aggressor's ignorance of knowing God's ways and to act on the offense in a positive way as Christ would. For example, when an aggressor shows me cruelty I am to show him kindness. If he shows be harshness, I am to respond with gentleness. I am to return hate with love. One of Newton's Laws of Thermodynamics states that where there is an action there is an equal and opposite reaction. We are to react, but not an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth, but in an equal and opposite way. I don't know about you but I am going to need some help acting in this manner. Fortunately, by the grace of God, He has provided us with that help through the person of the Holy Spirit, from which we receive the attributes of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. We can only receive this "fruit of the Spirit" by recognizing and submitting to a Higher Power; our Creater; our Redeemer; our Rock and our Fortress. Now this is something I can respect as a man.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Does Jesus Command Passivity?
I am reading the second time through David Murrow's book entitled "
Why Men Hate Going to Church." It has had a profound effect on me when pondering the minimal effectiveness of Christ's Church today, here in America. He explains most men believe they must check their masculinity at the door when attending most church services. Burrow contends that when Christ was on this earth, He lived a manly life, demonstrating much masculinity. He blames the modern church today for emasculating men and becoming feminized. This caused me to ponder the question, did Jesus teach and command passivity as emphasized by most churches today? When we read of Jesus' teaching in Luke 6 about turning the other cheek, loving your enemies and giving a bully your suit jacket when he takes your coat, it would appear so. It has much with the way you interpret being passive. Some would say Jesus was teaching that we should not have a retaliatory spirit, that we should sit back and just take it. This way of thinking leads one to believe being passive means to avoid acting on injustice or brutality. But upon further review and study on the matter, I have come to realize that Jesus is not teaching an inactive form of passiveness, but an active form. One that would require great restraint from our natural tendencies as men. In fact, I believe it requires greater strength to restrain ourselves then to act in a retaliatory matter. I am a football coach and we teach our players to walk away when an opposing teams player starts trash talking. We show them on film how silly it makes the trash talker look when he is talking at the back of our player's helmet. Does that make our player look weak or meek? To the contrary, I think a demonstration of restraint shows great strength and maturity...attributes I think are consistent with a manly type of man. But here's the thing, Jesus wasn't saying we should just back away and do nothing when we are a party to injustice, cruelty or brutality. He was saying we need to muster courage and strength to act in away that would confound the aggressor. The secret, is to show him love. Now, I will be the first to admit, this does not seem to be a manly thing to do, but a man can and should show love in a masculine way and that is to show restraint from retaliation, show compassion on the aggressor's ignorance of knowing God's ways and to act on the offense in a positive way as Christ would. For example, when an aggressor shows me cruelty I am to show him kindness. If he shows be harshness, I am to respond with gentleness. I am to return hate with love. One of Newton's Laws of Thermodynamics states that where there is an action there is an equal and opposite reaction. We are to react, but not an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth, but in an equal and opposite way. I don't know about you but I am going to need some help acting in this manner. Fortunately, by the grace of God, He has provided us with that help through the person of the Holy Spirit, from which we receive the attributes of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. We can only receive this "fruit of the Spirit" by recognizing and submitting to a Higher Power; our Creater; our Redeemer; our Rock and our Fortress. Now this is something I can respect as a man.
Why Men Hate Going to Church." It has had a profound effect on me when pondering the minimal effectiveness of Christ's Church today, here in America. He explains most men believe they must check their masculinity at the door when attending most church services. Burrow contends that when Christ was on this earth, He lived a manly life, demonstrating much masculinity. He blames the modern church today for emasculating men and becoming feminized. This caused me to ponder the question, did Jesus teach and command passivity as emphasized by most churches today? When we read of Jesus' teaching in Luke 6 about turning the other cheek, loving your enemies and giving a bully your suit jacket when he takes your coat, it would appear so. It has much with the way you interpret being passive. Some would say Jesus was teaching that we should not have a retaliatory spirit, that we should sit back and just take it. This way of thinking leads one to believe being passive means to avoid acting on injustice or brutality. But upon further review and study on the matter, I have come to realize that Jesus is not teaching an inactive form of passiveness, but an active form. One that would require great restraint from our natural tendencies as men. In fact, I believe it requires greater strength to restrain ourselves then to act in a retaliatory matter. I am a football coach and we teach our players to walk away when an opposing teams player starts trash talking. We show them on film how silly it makes the trash talker look when he is talking at the back of our player's helmet. Does that make our player look weak or meek? To the contrary, I think a demonstration of restraint shows great strength and maturity...attributes I think are consistent with a manly type of man. But here's the thing, Jesus wasn't saying we should just back away and do nothing when we are a party to injustice, cruelty or brutality. He was saying we need to muster courage and strength to act in away that would confound the aggressor. The secret, is to show him love. Now, I will be the first to admit, this does not seem to be a manly thing to do, but a man can and should show love in a masculine way and that is to show restraint from retaliation, show compassion on the aggressor's ignorance of knowing God's ways and to act on the offense in a positive way as Christ would. For example, when an aggressor shows me cruelty I am to show him kindness. If he shows be harshness, I am to respond with gentleness. I am to return hate with love. One of Newton's Laws of Thermodynamics states that where there is an action there is an equal and opposite reaction. We are to react, but not an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth, but in an equal and opposite way. I don't know about you but I am going to need some help acting in this manner. Fortunately, by the grace of God, He has provided us with that help through the person of the Holy Spirit, from which we receive the attributes of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. We can only receive this "fruit of the Spirit" by recognizing and submitting to a Higher Power; our Creater; our Redeemer; our Rock and our Fortress. Now this is something I can respect as a man.
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