Muscular Christianity
Written Mar 19th, 2007 by Josh Rives | Email This
I watched Nightline on ABC the other day and paused on it to watch a segment titled “Muscular Christianity.” It was a segment about a conference called God Men that was held in Franklin, Tennessee. The men running the conference say that
60% of church-goers are women and there are manlier ways to be a Christian that what we were taught growing up
The whole premise of the conference is to prevent men from getting the idea that in order to be a Christian you have to take on passivity and weakness. They even go as far as to say “a meek and mild Jesus is eventually a bore.”
This is a growing trend in Christianity with men trying to focus on being a Christian, but also being a manly man. The lack of leadership in the Church from men seems to be a fairly common issue raised by various Christian leaders, so it appears that this movement could be addressing a need. Although the Power Team has been at it for years, the movement seems to have caught fire from John Eldredge’s book Wild at Heart, specifically the first chapter using William Wallace from Braveheart as an analogy to Christ. I only say this because the movie Braveheart is always mentioned at least once every time you hear talk about this movement.
The movement often takes on a more hyper-masculine tone. Many of the men interviewed on Nightline said they “couldn’t turn the other cheek anymore.” The most common Scripture accompanying the teaching is John 2:13-16 where Jesus cleanses the temple of money changers. Using profanity also seems to be a common theme related to manly Christians. A ticket to the God Men conference will offer you a chance to see a man bend a wrench in half with his bare hands. Whether or not that spurs you to fulfill the Great Commission has yet to be determined.
If conferences like these lead to men who take leadership in the Church then it is hard to bash, though we probably would be wise not to leave virtues like kindness and meekness behind. Like most movements, it probably errs on the side that is lacking (in this case the masculine side). If this movement takes off, then I’m sure a hyper-feminine one will follow and Sleepless in Seattle will be made into an allegory to the Gospel.
On a related note, I would like to humbly confess proudly boast that I did see the Power Team in person about a decade ago and yes they ripped a telephone book in half. Please leave judgmental and sarcastic comments as you feel appropriate.
Quote from above: “60% of church-goers are women and there are manlier ways to be a Christian that what we were taught growing up”
The majority of churches have been and continue to be run by men.
These manly men are shirking responsibility for a church climate created by male leadership and blaming it on women.
This is my second-favorite example of complementarian men failing to take responsibility for male actions.
Quote: “If this movement takes off, then I’m sure a hyper-feminine one will follow and Sleepless in Seattle will be made into an allegory to the Gospel.”
O.K. I don’t get it. Isn’t the idea of hyper-feminine and hyper-masculine “Christianity” the entire aim of complementarianism?
So if that’s your cup of tea, what are you complaining about?
I guess maybe I could have chosen a better term than “hyper-masculine.” I was referring to the idea that when a bunch of guys get together, the best form of entertainment for them is to watch a guy bend a wrench with his bare hands. Since that is not (hopefully) true masculinity, then maybe it is hyper-masculinity (cause it sure isn’t hyper-feminism).
And there was no complaining (I hope) nor support towards either complementarianism or egalitarianism. Just an observation of a current trend.
I’ll agree that men need to take responsibility for the state of the church. We are set up as the leaders, and it’s our responsibility if we have a problem with the current state. However, I will make a point that even though the Church is run my men in a very large margin, I think that the point could be made that the vast majority of Sunday school teachers are women. This moves and shifts along denominational lines, but in the formative younger years, I think it’s undoubtedly more feminine in nature. I can’t see my 1st grade Sunday school teacher, Ms. Patty, telling the story of Samson and really leaning into the part about… well, any part really. Guys embrace the story or not based on how the people in the story got along or followed instructions. The kids’ view of Christianinty is shaped in large part by the teacher’s desire to get a group of seven year-olds to behave or mind their parents. “God didn’t have to ask Daniel twice…” etc. This ‘Wild at Heart’ movement (if we can call it that) will hopefully inspire more men to get involved in the lives of younger men in the church so that the environment can change if it needs to. I think there needs to be more discipleship among men in the church than there is.
I think that bending a wrench with your bare hands could be an example of hyper-feminism… It’d have to be some kind of super-hyper-feminism, but I’m sure if you searched enough softball teams, you could find it.
funny, the only role alotted to women was with the children… “she is uniquiely designed to nurture children” is the saying commonly heard. so children have no role models of godly, Christlike men who are passionate about following Jesus.
F
I’ve created a web page about the Power Team. You might want to read it.