His Bride

"Hallelujah!For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure"-- for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. Revelation 19:6-8.

When I attend a wedding, I am often reminded of the passage above and how Christ is preparing His bride, the church, for that glorious day to come. Leon Podles writes that one of the causes that has lead to the feminization of the Western church is the rise of radical individualism and the loss of a high view of the church.

"The transfer of the role of bride from the community to the soul has helped bring about the pious individualism that has dissolved ecclesiastical community in the West. The Church is the bride and the object of the bridegroom's love, and individuals are the objects of that love insofar as they are members or potential members of the society of the redeemed. The Church should yearn for the presence of her bridegroom, who consoles her and makes her fruitful in good works and in new children. This imagery was natural to the Fathers, but has been lost. Instead the individual is felt to be the center of God's affections. . .the juridical structure itself largely disappears into voluntary denominationalsim, and the only real concern of Christianity is 'Jesus and me.'" Podles, Leon J., The Church Impotent -- The Feminization of Christianity, 1999, p. 118.

Accordingly, we should not be surprised that the majority of the regular church attenders are female in both the protestant and Catholic church. Podles goes on to say, "For men the consequences have been disastrous. Bridal language used to describe a Christian's relationship with God has homosexual overtones to many men, unless they engage in mental gymnastics and try to think of themselves as women. . .What is lacking in the West is a language of intimacy that expresses the closeness that men feel with men." Id. at 119.

One of the results has been men walking out the back door of the church and finding more masculine places to worship such as the local football stadium.

"Because sports provide an initiation into masculinity, they can easily become a religion. Sports are often the way the boy puts away the soft, sheltering world of the mother and her femininity and enters the world of challenge and danger that makes him a man. . .In modern America, the coach is the mentor who brings boys into manhood." Id. at 168.

Despite good intentions, the author writes that most modern attempts to bring men back to church have failed and cites Promise Keepers as a prime example.

"Promise Keepers, a movement that is trying to bring men back into church life, has inherited this language [Bridal Mysticism]. Its founder, Bill McCartney, claims that 'we were created to be in a love affair with Jesus' and 'Scripture tells us the only way to please God is to be passionately in love with Jesus Christ." Id. at 117.

YUCK! Perhaps that is why it often takes me a few moments to figure out whether I am listening to a "Christian" radio station or a secular station because the same romantic language is employed toward Christ as toward one's lover.

Note: For anyone who is raising young boys to become men, I think Podles book is a must read. Although the author does a good job defining the problem and documenting historically how the church has been feminized, one of the short comings of his book, I felt, was the lack of a viable solution. Perhaps what we need is a new reformation, which might bring us closer to the church of the apostles. Podles writes, "[m]ost scholars recognize the rejection of the religious feminine by the Reformation: 'The Reformation substantially purged Christianity of its feminine elements, leaving men and women alike faced with a starkly masculine religion." Id. at 152.

You Must Be Perfect!

I rented Friday Night Lights last weekend. If you have not seen the movie, it is about a small West Texas high school football team struggling to win the state championship and the immense pressures placed on these young men by their community. Although I did not play football in high school, I found the community's attitudes in the movie strikingly similar to those in the small Georgia town where I grew up. At one point, the team's coach, played by Billy Bob Thornton, asks his players, "can you be perfect?" The players end up adopting the coach's challenge as their slogan -- "be perfect." As a Christian, the same demand is put on us by God -- " Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Matthew 5:48 (NIV). Of course, we end up fumbling the ball most of the time. Unlike simply losing a football game, the consequences are much more dire. "Doing our best" or "trying hard" just will not be sufficient to appease a righteous and holy God. We have to play a perfect game. For each sin we store up more wrath against ourselves. However, Christ's perfect obedience has secured a place for his elect. Otherwise, there would be no hope. "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Hebrews 12:2 (NIV). Thanks be to God!

Kingdom Confusion

Feminization of the Church

Here is an interesting post from Gene Veith entitled Why Men Hate Church.