|
|
|
|
by Paul Sumner
In his book The Church Impotent: The Feminization of Christianity [Dallas, Tex.: Spence Publishing, 1999], Leon J. Podles asks some insightful questions:
Why is the Church filled mostly with women?
What is it about the faith that attracts far more females than males?
Podles, a Roman Catholic historian, explores reasons why the Christian Faith began to be feminized in the post-New Testament era then discusses the consequences of a religion that alienates men.
Podles argues that the medieval emphasis on the "heart," on virginity as the highest spiritual goal, on bridal mysticism (marriage to Jesus), adoration of the Virgin Mary, and rejection of everything masculine distorted the original biblical revelation and led to trivialization and a dangerous weakening of the Church.
He suggests it also contributes to the rampant homosexuality among priests, as he witnessed himself as a boy in Catholic schools.
Podles gives extensive discussion to what is "masculine" versus what is merely "male." God in the Bible is masculine, not male, and he sets up a patriarchal system among Jews in order to exemplify his character "in which fathers care for their families and find their emotional centers in their offspring."
The danger for the church is that when males are feminized, they tend toward nihilism, promiscuity, and alienation from their children. This undermines and will ultimately, if not reversed, destroy the Church. The safe, feminine world is attractive to many men. But it diverts them from accepting "the task of being masculine. Males must be trained to struggle, suffer, and die so that the life of the community can go on. This self-sacrifice is a form self-cendence."
All of this is in contrast to biblical Hebraic Faith (biblical Judaism), in which strong and caring patriarchs led the people of God.
Podles sees feminizing patterns not only in the Catholic Church but also among conservative Protestants. He points to Revivalism and Fundamentalism as powerful movements that continue to drive men away from Christianity.
[Top]
Leon Podles's insights, I believe, can be extended to other contemporary Protestant and Jewish settings, where feminizing forces are evident as well.
These are some of my observations:
- Visit a Bible book store and note its marketing techniques, its top ten best-seller list, its ambient fragrances and background music, and its array of "Jesus Junk." It's nearly all aimed at women and adolescent girls.
- In other public venues, note how often music performances, with bands, are the big draw at church services and evangelistic outreaches — not the preaching of Scripture. These events emphasize emotionally-stirring music sometimes accompanied by sensually-dressed singers and dancers.
- Attend services at some churches, where the worship program consists of fanned emotions and submissiveness to an alpha-leader (male or female) who dispenses Spiritual power invading the attendees. Passivity (emotional and bodily feeling) and uncritical thinking are the norm. Such a yielding feminine mindset is central to the religion Spiritanity.
- On the other hand, some observers describe an aggressive, manipulative feminine spirit in the church as "the Jezebel Spirit." This spirit seeks domination and control of weak-willed men, as did the biblical Jezebel in ancient Israel (1 Kings 18-21).
[Top]
Similarly, liberal mainline Protestants tend to extol feminine virtues and disdain masculine ones.
- They typically praise peace-making overtures with demogogues and tyrants—including anti-Semitic mass-murderers such as Hamas or Hezbollah. But they denounce strength, courage and self-sacrifice in war — unless the "war" is for the advancement of feminine or select, progressive, pro-Marxist causes.
[Review the insightful book by Kathleen Parker entitled Save the Males at Amazon.]
- They promote non-gendered sexual values acceptable to radical feminist and trans/non/her-him ideologies. But they inconsistently repudiate the male gender. While they ignore lifting up demeaned, identity-robbed minority men — as men — they aggrandize minority women as oppressed women needing liberation from males.
- They affirm an effeminate, politically-Left Jesus and an emasculated, maternal Godhead. (It's heresy in some churches and seminaries to say "God the Father.") The Blessed Virgin Mary is becoming an object of special interest, if not devotion, in some non-Catholic groups.
In contrast, women in the Bible aren't passive, emotional push-overs who submit to anything or everyone because they can't think or are emotionally handicapped. Of course, women throughout history who lived outside the sphere of Biblical Faith have often been overly "feminized" and exploited as objects by tyrannical men — contrary, I believe, to the Creator's intent and the teachings of both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament.
The same phenomenon is occurring in liberal Jewish circles. And Jewish men are fleeing Feminized Judaism. A recent study notes that:
"Women have been taking an increasingly more dominant role in Jewish rites. As a result, the phenomenon of 'Ima on the bima' (mom on the podium) has become the rule rather than the exception in liberal Jewish settings.
"Boys and men as a group are not attracted to feminized Jewish activities and environments.... In contrast, Orthodox Judaism, which has not integrated women into traditionally male roles such as rabbinical ordination and leading prayers, has managed to maintain the masculine connection to religious devotion."
[From: "Non-Orthodox men less connected than women"; reprinted from The Jerusalem Post.]
Conclusion
Leon Podles's book on feminization is a bracing stimulus for analyzing the evolution of and present spiritual climate within branches of Christianity and Judaism. It helps explain why men in droves don't participate in it.
Podles concludes with a warning that alienated men and suppressed (though God-given) masculinity will drive more and more men away from the biblical God into various forms of destructive nihilism, making them (in my words) enemies of — instead of spiritual warriors for — the Messianic Kingdom.
• Paul Sumner
[Top]
|
|
|
|
