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Manliness. Defense and Dominion. The Manliest City in America?. Pros Tools Monster Trucks Pro Sports Teams. Cons Furniture Stores Beauty Magazines Minivan Sales. The Manliest City in America?. Conflicting Views. Ancient Paganism Plato and Aristotle Evolutionary Humanism
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Manliness • Defense and Dominion
Pros Tools Monster Trucks Pro Sports Teams Cons Furniture Stores Beauty Magazines Minivan Sales The Manliest City in America?
Conflicting Views • Ancient Paganism • Plato and Aristotle • Evolutionary Humanism • Feminism & Androgyny • Biblical Theology and Christian Tradition
Christian Manhood Only Christianity provides a basis for the proper understanding of manhood. It defines a God-honoring way of life that exalts the visionary goal of performing the kingdom work of Christ on earth through nobility, duty, leadership, and virtue
Objectives • What does it mean to be a man? • Why is manhood important? • How do boys prepare to be men? • How does this development fit into the greater context of multi-generational vision?
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:26-27
God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Genesis 1:28
Then the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die. Genesis 2:15-17
The the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” . . . The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which had take from the man and brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Genesis 2:18, 22-23
You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with a weaker vessel, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered. 1 Peter 3:7
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her . . . So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies Ephesians 5:25, 28
God created men and women with very distinct roles and purposes within His created order. In God’s social system, men are the leaders, protecters, and visionaries. Men put women and children first. Men take dominion. This is what separates us from women.
The Two Foundational Duties of Manly Men DEFENSE of women and children DOMINION over all the earth
Duty and Courage Christian manhood is defined in terms of duties, both to God and others. We must perform our duty regardless of circumstances, with the faith that God holds the outcome. This is the true definition of courage; faith that overcomes fear.
Duty and Courage “Duty is ours; consequences are God’s.” “My religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed. God has fixed the time for my death. I do not concern myself with that, but to be always ready, no matter when it may overtake me. That is the way all men should live, and then all would be equally brave.” - General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson
Scripture on Manliness 1 Kings 2:2 - Be strong, therefore, and show yourself a man. Job 38:3 - Gird up your loins like a man. 1 Corinthians 16:13 - Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
The West’s Manly Heritage America and the West have a heritage of manly Christian men. Men who defended women and children and who dared to live the strenuous life. As recently as the early 20th century, the West was dominated by a culture fashioned by these men. In those days, the godly had dominion, and even the unbelievers shared the convictions they professed and lived.
Defense! The defense of women and children has been the defining characteristic of manliness for centuries. Men are to lay down their lives for women, following the example of Christ, that the strong die for the weak. This stands in opposition to all other philosophies, and once was the primary virtue that distinguished the West as a Christian civilization.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. - Declaration of Independence, 1776
The deeds of cruelty, massacre, violence, pillage, arson, imprisoning prelates, burning down monasteries, robbing and killing monks and nuns, and yet other outrages without number which he committed against our people, sparing neither age nor sex, religion nor rank, no one could describe nor fully imagine unless he had seen them with his own eyes...” - Declaration of Arbroath, 1320
Frances Wayne, The Denver Post “When men go down to the sea in ships, chivalry flowers like the rod of Aaron. There is a law of the sea, unwritten, and unelastic, which decrees that in times of peril, men must give way while women and children are passed to safety. It is a law which levels all social and race distinctions.
Frances Wayne, The Denver Post The acknowledgement of the law of the sea is the grandest exhibition that exists of the working of the code which protects the weaker in the face of certain death without taking note of their worthiness or fitness and the most striking illustration of modern thought as compared with the ancient idea of ‘save himself who can.’”
Frances Wayne, The Denver Post “The law of the sea is chiseled on the tablets of time and it cannot be changed, and its endurance depends to great extent on the continuance of genuine manliness, the perpetuation of pure courage, the inspiration of unselfishness. It effaces all values that are outside the man and his character, and makes for brotherhood far more than all the sermons that can be preached. “
The Law of the Sea • H.M.S. Birkenhead, February 26, 1852 • La Bourgogne, July 4, 1898 • R.M.S. Titanic, April 10, 1912
The Birkenhead Drill • Troop ship sank in 20 minutes • Men helped women and children onto lifeboats • Did not swim to the boats for fear of overturning them. • Drowned or were eaten by sharks, only a few survived.
Survival of the Fittest When the La Bourgogne sank, the men rushed the boats, threw children overboard, beat women with oars, and saved themselves while all the women and children died.
Survival of the Fittest “Those men aboard the La Bourgogne who cut lifelines to which women were clinging were products of another civilization than that which produced the heroes of the Titanic. They were products of a civilization that knows no Bible.” - The Lutheran Herald
Unsinkable Courage • J.J. Astor gave up his seat to a 3rd class washerwoman • Col. Archie Butt attacked a man who tried to steal a seat, and helped Marie Young on board.
Unsinkable Courage • Telegraph operators refused to leave until they received a reply. • Boiler room workers also refused to leave, keeping the lights on and saving dozens.
Unsinkable Courage • Sixty 16-year-old cabin boys went down with the ship. • Boys as young as 13 and 14 had the duty of sacrificing their lives for women and children.
Unsinkable Courage It was the supreme test, for if a man loses his life, he loses all. But had the grim alternative thought to mock the cowardice of the breed, it was doomed to disappointment. Silently these men stood aside. “Women first!”; the inexorable law of the sea, which one disobeys only to course everlasting ignominy. “Women first!”; the common law of humanity, born of chivalry and the nobler spirit of self-sacrifice is what prevailed. - J. Henry Mavery
Unsinkable Courage Certainly, it was not a case of survival of the fittest. There were men lost that the city and the country needed. They did not ask why, nor whether any helpless poor creature were worth saving. The maxims of commerce were forgotten. There was no question of buying cheap and selling dear. They sold themselves for naught; they gave their lives away. Such a sacrifice cannot be justified under any economic ground. But the Son of Man came into a world that was lost, and so the men of the Titanic sacrificed themselves for women and children. - Rev. Leighton Parks
The Death of Manhood,The Birth of Feminism J.J. Astor Margaret Sanger
Boats for Women,Votes for Women? True suffragettes would have preferred to have gone down to their deaths. I would a thousand times rather have gone down with the ship under similar circumstances. - Carrie Chapman
Boats for Women,Votes for Women? Votes for women was the cry / Reaching upward to the sky / Crashing glass and flashing eye / Votes for women was the cry / Boats for women was the cry / When the brave were come to die / When the end was drawing nigh / Boats for women was the cry. - New York Times
An Easy Victory From one angle, the attempt to create a gender-neutral society, never before recorded in all of human history, has been an amazing success. It has aroused virtually no opposition. There were segregationists to defend the Old South, but the universal order of patriarchy found no spokesmen, to set forth an ideology on its behalf, let alone defenders to mount a countermovement. There was no George Wallace, no Bull Conner, no massive resistance to oppose the women’s movement. No men of our time had the nerve to make fun of the feminist, as men did of the suffragettes a century ago. - Henry Mansfield
Why a Women’s Movement? Urbanization and industrialization were pulling men out of the home, disrupting centuries-old family structures and leaving women with little purpose. They soon began to see the new cities as holding job and education opportunities for them as well. Immigrant women especially were forced to get jobs to support themselves. As more women moved into the workforce, and achieved independence from their families, they began demanding the same rights and status as men.
Why a Women’s Movement? This attitude of independence began to express itself in more and more ways, especially with the advent of Margaret Sanger’s birth control methods. It accelerated even more after World War II when women joined the workforce in droves. Even though most returned home after the War, “Rosie the Riveter” changed the image of the American woman forever.
Why No Men’s Movement? “Its no wonder the country is going soft. It’s the loss of masculinity and virility that is troubling me. I would like to speak about it in the House to warn the country.” What did Churchill attribute as the cause of this? TELEVISION!
Why No Men’s Movement? As workers received higher wages and shorter hours, industry made luxury more affordable. Life was easier and the technological wonders of the 20th century offered convenience never before imaginable. The new middle-class lifestyle naturally lent itself to creating passivity in men, by providing entertainment and creating a comfortable status quo.
Why No Men’s Movement? Earlier suffragette/feminist movements had been quelled by independent, free men. Beginning in the ‘20s, and more so in the ‘60s, men were affected by decades of the enslavement mentality of industrialism and expanding government. This attitude of subservience has only strengthened, and is fundamentally fatal to an effective response.
When the Foundations are Destroyed... The social hierarchy that God established in Eden was the direct target of the feminist movement. By attacking the “weaker vessel” status of women, it completely undermined femininity, and even more so masculinity. Once the purpose for manliness was removed, manliness itself crumbled in the 20th century.
The Androgenization of America The result of the feminist movement has been not only to bring women up, but to bring men down, to achieve a “happy median.” Women assumed the roles of men, but at the same time, males were mocked and scorned for their historic place in the family and society.
Thus the Americans do not think that man and woman have either the duty or the right to perform the same offices, but they show an equal regard for both their respective parts; and though their lot is different, they consider both of them as beings of equal value. . . .
...They do not give to the courage of woman the same form or the same direction as to that of man, but they never doubt her courage; and if they hold that man and his partner ought not always to exercise their intellect and understanding in the same manner, they at least believe the understanding of the one to be as sound as that of the other, and her intellect to be as clear. . . .
...Thus, then, while they have allowed the social inferiority of woman to continue, they have done all they could to raise her morally and intellectually to the level of man; and in this respect they appear to me to have excellently understood the true principle of democratic improvement. . . .
...There are people in Europe who, confounding together the different characteristics of the sexes, would make man and woman into beings not only equal but alike. They could give to both the same functions, impose on both the same duties, and grant to both the same rights; they would mix them in all things — their occupations, their pleasures, their business. . . .
...It may readily be conceived that by thus attempting to make one sex equal to the other, both are degraded, and from so preposterous a medley of the works of nature nothing could ever result but weak men and disorderly women. . . .