[freepertoo]

Oh this is so silly! There was no more manly or heroic man who ever lived on this planet than Jesus of Nazarath. Not one man today could ever be as masculine or as brave.

[frankiep]

Oh Kayyyyy

I read the first few paragraphs of this and immediately started to wonder how someone could write this stuff and believe it to be true.
I'm speechless.

[Lekker 1]

"Why won’t he let God change him?”

And here, in a nutshell, is the answer. The woman wants him to change.

[Mr. Jeeves]

It's a bit simpler than the author's thesis, but here's the real reason why men, even the rather debased and wimpified men of 2005, don't go to church:

"History does not record anywhere a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help."

-Lazarus Long, Time Enough for Love - Robert A. Heinlein

[day10]

Oh baloney! I am a man and I love my church and look forward to every Sunday School class and service. I got almost all the way through the first section before I decided this article was goofy.

[subterfuge]

"Ask him why he doesn’t go to church, and he’ll offer up words like boring, irrelevant, and hypocrite. But the real reason Cliff doesn’t go to church is that he’s already practicing another religion. That religion is masculinity. "

Psycho-babble. Liberal speak for "manly men are bad. Embrace tolerance, look to your feminine side" garbage. You should simply take what a man says at face value.

[TexasNative2000]

The author is welcome to come to Fort Worth, Texas and visit our congregation. Our 5000 member congregation hosts an annual Mens Retreat that has between 500 - 700 participants over Super Bowl weekend.

[HamiltonJay]

“I go to a small Pentecostal church. There are no single guys my age. This man at work was pursuing me, so I told him our first date would have to be church. He came, but I think it freaked him out. He never called again.”

Ya think??!?!? Don't get me wrong, but unless we already knew each other outside of the dating realm and both attended the same church to begin with I wouldn't want our "first date" to be church... and even if we did I doubt I would want my first date to be church..

Let me see, first date, I'm going to go into the center of her sphere of influence, meet and be judged by all her friends... while I sit there not knowning anyone and not able to get to know anyone out of respect for the services going on....

This is NOT a good first date.

As to no manly men going to church? I don't know where you get that from... perhaps it is just the church you attend? or perhaps the church you attend has moved so far away from the faith and so far into the gay right/social libertine movement that all men of principle and character want nothing to do with it?

[Always Right]

Let me say this in the strongest possible terms: the answer is not a maledominated church. I am not advocating the “submit to me, woman,” brand of Christianity in which men are kings and women are pawns. Not only is this model unbiblical; it doesn’t create spiritually mature men.

Women submitting to their husbands is very much Biblical, but not in such a way that men are king and women are pawns. Men must love and respect their wifes and not treat them as slaves.

[tfecw]

Sigh this is typical men are from mars women are from Venus BS.

Typically women or more specifically wives and mothers do things most men wouldn't bother with. Dishes, Ironing, ect. Men traditionally do the man jobs, mow grass, take out garbage ect.
I think men typically get away with more stuff for because of Apathy, we just don't care. When it comes down to it women usually do things based on what other people will think. The only reason my grandmother drags my grandfather to church is because she doesn't want the neighbors to talk. The same goes with dressing up. You can say it's a respect thing, but when it comes down to i always dressed up because my mother told me too; and then found myself looking down at those who where wearing jeans.

This is just another case of a woman over analyzing the male mind. We are pretty easy creatures to figure out. I assure you we don't go to church because we don't want to go, not because we are busy worshiping masculinity.

[Pondman88]

Kinda interesting. Church does appeal more to the whole "nurturing" side of life, which may turn men off.....

I, for one, can get bored silly at Church. And alot of women do seem to run the place....

[familyop]

I visited various Protestant (mostly Baptist) churches quite a few times after being reared with a Southern Baptist church (almost every Sunday while growing up). In my youth, the Southern Baptist church prayed to only one G-d. Now they have fully deified Jesus (praying to him only) and pray to many others. How long until goddess worship...?

The churches have changed drastically. All of the churches I visited either avoided the issue of adultery and divorce or continuously bashed men during such sermons. Every pastor who delivered sermons on the issue disseminated the usual series of statements that implied, "husbands beat their wives," "are drunks," "are lazy," "commit adultery," and so on.

Some of our churches avoid preaching on critical family issues. Others give the impression that only "males" sin and that women are innately perfect.

We now study the history of how the New Testament was written (so we'll know the origins of spiritualism and mysticism, which paganistic diseases 19th Century feminists and romanticists started to spread) the Tanakh in Hebrew and English. Our children won't attend the usual religious family breaking women's studies programs in the churches.

[hellinahandcart]

I think any man would feel silly singing some of the songs (can't call them hymns) that I've heard in church during the last year...these pop-tunes all sound like they were written by fourteen-year-old girls with crushes on Jesus. Imagine a grown man singing "reach out and touch Him, and tell Him we love Him" without rolling his eyes.

But I am told over and over again that dreadful, tuneless, unsingable and unmemorable music is what really packs 'em into the pews these days, so even though I see no evidence of pews being packed, I must be wrong...

[ikka]

The churches that are "back to the Bible" types have a lot of male participation.

[skeeter]

What crap. My church is loaded with civic & business leaders, the president of the local pro hockey team, even a well-known ex NFL linebacker attends.

[Steel Wolf]

I'm glad I read the entire article. I was in strong disagreement with the initial impression I got from it. After finishing it, I think he definitely has a point.

Why do men admire Jesus but not want to go to church? Well, lets break it down.

Why do men admire Jesus? Because Jesus was clearly a brave man , and brave in ways that most men fear to be. He faced physical and mortal danger in a way than men instinctively find admirable. More importantly, he faced injustice firmly and deliberately, and was not afraid to speak the truth.

Having seen men who can face death calmly, but can't muster the courage to be honest with their loved ones, it makes me wonder what's wrong with us.

Brave men often fail to be good, and good men often fail to be brave. Jesus was both, and that's why you can't help but like his style.

As for the second question, 'why don't men like going to church', it should be obvious. There's very little in any church I've ever been in that reminded me of what I like about Jesus. The 'church of masculinity' is a lifestyle that is taught and lived. But the example of Jesus's life isn't taught and lived. It's discussed and appreciated.

It's the difference between going to the Baseball Hall of Fame every weekend, versus playing baseball every weekend. A church is like a museum: a place to enshrine the past. Men can be taught to respect the past, but they'll never feel it like they do the now.

Find a church that teaches men to be strong like Jesus and challenges them to accomplish things both spiritual and physical, and men will likely be drawn to it.

[AZLiberty]

Visit the church during the week, and you’ll find most of the people working there are female. Drop in on a committee meeting, and you’ll find a majority of the volunteers are women—unless it’s that small bastion of male presence, the building committee. Look over the leadership roster: the pastor is likely to be a man, but at least two-thirds of the ministry leaders will be women. Examine the sign-up sheets for volunteer work, prayer, Sunday school, and nursery duty. You’ll be lucky to see more than a couple of men’s names on these lists. One pastor recently told me, “If it weren’t for the postman, every visitor to the church during the week would be a woman.”

Sounds like churches are a great place to hunt for babes.

[Spiff]

Forgive me if someone has alread posted this to the thread, but...A man is tallest when he's on his knees.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

" There is nothing in the Bible to suggest that women are more virtuous or less sinful than men " You can't tell Hitlery or the Feminist that.
Is it any wonder why they attack the Bible and the Church ?
That is their mantra , priding themselves into believing their own false propaganda that women are " MORALLY SUPERIOR THAN MEN ".
The " GENDER GAP " in church, can be attributed to the feminist infiltration of the Body of Christ.
Whether the Church wants to realize it or not, but, the Feminist have successfully infiltrated the Church, and their agenda is to dominate the men, and to " SUBVERT " and to bring down the Church.
Here is a link to a Speech from a well know Feminist/Socialist Barbara Ehrenreich at Barnard Collage last June.
The Speech is about 1/4 down the page.


http://hereticscorner.typepad.com/the_heretics_corner/2004/06/index.html

Here is a comment of her's that is of much interest to us here on FR.
" And we need a kind of woman who isn't trying to assimilate, but to infiltrate-and subvert the intuitions she goes into. "
" If you think equality is the goal, your standards are too low " ( Frightening ? isn't it ? )
In her comments in this speech last June, she also included her call for the feminist to infiltrate, and subvert Christian institutions , how ever, the feminist have been successful in doing that in the Church for the last 40 years.
One of the reasons why the Church is weak today is ? the Church has allowed the feminist to get a stronghold in the Church.
The Church is weak is because the Church has become like the world, worldly standards, worldly attitudes.

[BJClinton]

Nonsense. Church is freakin' boring.