Dec 07 2006
Blame it on Barry Manilow
As one long involved in men’s ministries and as one who once delivered a sermon entitled “When Testosterone is No Longer Enough,” I knew I’d be interested in the front-page article by Jenny Jarvie and Stephanie Simon in today’s Los Angeles Times “Manliness is Next to Godliness.” Convinced that men are dodging church because it saps their masculinity, Brad Stine, an evangelical comedian, is invoking a tougher Jesus to get the rams back into the fold.
Others are following the trend. “He’s been domesticated,” says Roland Martinson, a professor of ministry at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., about Jesus of Nazareth. ”He’s portrayed now as gentle, loving, kind, rather than as a full-bodied person who kicked over tables in the temple, spent 40 days in the wilderness wrestling with his identity and with God, hung out with the guys in the street. The rough-hewn edges and courage … got lopped off.”
David Murrow, author of “Why Men Hate Going to Church” blames men’s lackluster attitude on the feminization of mainline churches: “Lace curtains. Quilted banners on the wall. Pink carpet. Fresh flowers at the podium.” As for the music, “Onward, Christian Soldiers” is long gone. Instead, there are ballads about Jesus’ eternal embrace. “Very Barry Manilow,” says Mike Smith, Stine’s manager.
I’m going to pass this on to my men’s ministries friends. And get me a Harley …
