Are The Suburbs Killing Your Manhood?

Men, this is a great article: Are The Suburbs Killing Your Manhood?

An excerpt:

The problem comes when our environment begins dictating our behavior and thereby stripping men of the very things that feed our manishness...

But maybe the truest calling of man lies in the wilderness of life; in learning to thrive in the environments where complete control is not possible.

Think about every man you looked up to as a kid. Chances are they continually faced environments outside their complete control. Environments in which there was no guarantee of safety or success. Where one can only hope to influence rather than rule. Firefighters dueling with fire, soldiers battling the fog and friction of war, explorers traversing foreign territories, pilot’s pushing the boundaries of flight, or even the missionary working in inner-city New York. Each learning to thrive without being in control.

HT: McCoy/Subtext

Comments

"McCoy" - Thanks for the link. :)

[Norm]

Man, I loved the entire article when I read it. Good stuff and very encouraging.

[Jeff]

I find all articles and books like these silly. There is such a movement lately in reformed Christian circles (in reaction agains the feminst movement) to promote this type of hyper-masculinity, men-are-wild, Jesus-had-a-beard kind of talk. I think it is unhelpful for the male who is not sporty, wild or ruggered. I guess it is the problem with most reactionary movements. It is also sad that it limits the creations of a God who loves diversity!

[Justin Buzzard]

Jeff,
Thanks for your comment.

Actually, the article isn't from a Christian website, so it's not an article that's attempting to promote a certain view of Christian manhood or of Jesus.

In my reading of the article I didn't get the sense that it was calling men to be more sporty or wild. Some of the suggestions given in the article were that men consider using their time to serve the needy, etc.

I did click over to your blog for a second and I noticed your blog post about Jesus being portrayed as asexual in the Gospels. If you're coming from that perspective (which is ridiculous and I don't think anyone can intelligently defend, the Gospels clearly present Jesus as a male), then I better understand why this manhood talk is "silly" to you.