In response to a friend pastor, I wrote a monthly one page flyer for a couple of years about the nature, character and activity of Christian men. It was used in a number of church bulletins across the country, and I received responses from persons who read the sheet and communicated with me. To prepare for the assignment I gathered a significant file on men, oriented in both secular and religious contexts. No matter what approach or cultural context the matters of responsibility, character, involvement in family life, and value system in men appeared to be in need of serious improvement. It seems clear at this writing that some men are in retreat in a number of areas. Traditional male roles are being filled by women, filled by pressure from the advancement of gender movements and/or abandonment by men. More women than men are going to college, even to some seminaries; more women are emerging news reporters, and being reported on, than formerly; more women are being elected to public office – and so the story goes. This is seen as appropriate in the perception of the rights of women to catch up on matters of perceived equality, but if it represents a decline in the performance of males in the society there is a problem. The human male seems to be in some retreat from what God wants to make of him. In nature the male is sometimes seen only as a figure to assure continuance of the species through copulation, or to fight predators to his domain. To apply pattern in human beings on the humanistic level reduces both genders to a kind of competition instead of cooperation. The arrogance of many persons in the new pattern is appalling, seen commonly in the public reporting of the Hollywood Set; in the repeated personal failings of elected officials; in the criminal shenanigans of Wall Streeters; even in the increased number of moral failures among religious workers; and, the like. Sports seem less sportsmanlike. (Perhaps they were never as sportsmanlike as we believed.) One is not always sure if there is so significant decline in all these areas, or if discovery and reporting decline have improved in efficiency. The genders, made for each other in a cooperative context, are currently presented in competitive attitudes. It was not meant so to be.
Of one thing we can be sure, Scripture calls for better things from men than God and society are getting. Men are supposed to have righteousness in their lives, families and governments. They are to be courageous against enemies (physical, social, economic, or spiritual); to be strong in the expectations that are proper for them; and, to be loving of persons in relationships that carry the force of fidelity, truth, and emotional well-being. There are other factors, pointed out in many Scripture texts and verified in the testimonials about men who have lived within faith contexts. Such a person chooses Jesus Christ as his model, a model that becomes his mentor through Scripture and the work of the Holy Spirit. He in turn seeks to replicate that belief and conduct to his own family and society. In all that, male and female are equal but not the same. There is an underlying feeling that the generator of life (male) and the bearing of that life (female) are together making a society that, when all is in order, gains the approval of Deity.
Is this a difficult pattern of life and influence? It is and it isn’t. (This is another of those paradoxes in life.) Relying upon ourselves we are too lazy; too preoccupied with lesser things; too competitive for personal advantage; and, too resistant to responsibility. Once convinced that God is asking for performance and pleased to help achieve it; and, that our families and others will appreciate the selfless love that drives our personal life engines, we can serve well. Our goal is loving cooperation, not status competition, and virtue applied to all of life. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020