Posted on 01/28/2005 6:41:49 PM PST by Lorianne
LOS ANGELES - Movies like "Braveheart" and "Legends of the Fall" are on the viewing list for men in a growing Christian movement that calls for them to throw off their "nice guy" personas and emulate warriors.
The book which inspired the movement, John Eldredge's "Wild at Heart," has already sold 1.5 million copies in English and been translated into 16 languages, most recently Korean.
Eldredge believes many Christian men have become bored, "really nice guys" and invites them to rediscover passion by viewing their life's mission as having a battle to fight, an adventure to live and a beauty to rescue.
"The modern era has brought up immense conveniences but at what price. The human heart is desperate for something more than a quicker serving of popcorn," Eldredge said in a recent interview.
Eldredge calls on men to be prepared to take risks and rediscover their dreams but does not provide a specific route to find, for example, an adventure to live. Career, marriage and family become heroic quests rather than chains which bind.
He focuses on how men can become less passive and "engage" those around them, particularly their wives and children.
"The guy who sits in front of the television is unengaged. That man is a bad man. They (children) need engagement whether it is playing on the floor with your 1-year-old or tougher games when they are 15 (years old)," he said.
Eldredge said he has been astounded by the response to his book with momentum gathering steadily since the book was published in 2001 by Christian publisher Thomas Nelson.
Men have been flocking to retreats and forming small groups to study it. Some are organized by Eldredge and his team, but many are just informally arranged by readers of the book. These groups have sprung up as far away Kazakhstan and even among tribes along the Amazon River in South America.
"It has become something of a grass-roots wildfire," Eldredge said.
Jim Chase, an advertising copywriter from La Crescenta, California, has had a replica of the sword actor Mel Gibson used when he played legendary Scottish warrior William Wallace in "Braveheart" hanging above his desk since attending a Wild at Heart retreat with 350 other men last year.
"It is just a reminder that we are in a battle every day. It can be just facing boredom and routine, but it is a battle," Chase said.
"Life isn't just about going to work and sitting in front of a computer and bringing in as much money as you can. We all have a story. God has written a story and we are meant to find out what the story is and live it," Chase said.
He said, for example, that the book inspired him to teach his 15-year-old son to ride a motorcycle.
Eldredge, who is a trained counselor and worked for 13 years for Christian organization Focus on the Family, said we are currently living in a "fatherless age" with many men having abandoned their children if not physically then emotionally.
His own father was an alcoholic who after some good years when Eldredge was young became increasingly distant. Chase had lost his father, who he described as "very cold," just a few months before he attended the retreat.
"A lot of what it brings out is how much you are impacted by your own father. What role model he set for you and how God relates to us as the big father," Chase said.
Eldredge said he used characters such as Mel Gibson's warrior Wallace in "Braveheart" because the characters often embody men who are engaging their passions by fighting noble battles, rescuing women and finding adventure.
CHRISTIAN CRITICS
The movement has stirred controversy, attracting criticism from some Christian leaders who fear he may just be reinforcing stereotypes.
While some women have welcomed suddenly receiving flowers and more attention from their husbands, in the long-term there are concerns about the impact on marriages.
"The basic premise that men need a princess to rescue has set back male female relationship in the church by 30 years. He sanctifies a mythological view of 1950s malehood," said Chapman Clark, associate professor of youth, family, and culture at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, California.
"It is destructive (to marriages) in the long-term," Clark said, adding that treating women as a figurine rather that the personal image of God will hurt relationships over time.
Clark said Eldredge had tapped into an angst among middle-aged white men who are dissatisfied with their lives and for whom depression had become a very serious problem.
Eldredge acknowledged the movement would be judged based on the impact it has on family life.
"The real test of this ("Wild at Heart") is does it make life better for women? Does it make life better for children? We have received letters from women who are immensely grateful. Marriages have been restored," Eldredge said.
- REUTERS
Sounds like St. Ignatius' Society of Jesus, aka the Jesuits.
It sounds as though it is long overdue.
Best regards,
Read the Bible. The whole thing... Old Testament and all.
I did for the first time after 40 years as a Christian. Made me realize that the 'nice guy' theology I had been taught was a crock.
-- Joe
Wild at Heart was the most incoherent book I've ever read.
This article explains what the Etheridge may have been trying to communicate--it certainly isn't what he wrote.
Tedious, tedious reading.
I think this guy is engaging in his own psychobabble. What's not to like? Nothing's ever going to please the handwringers.
However....being a warrior today is different, in at least one sense. Some all-powerful 'judge', given the impramatur of society and with the force of (cough) 'law', can pauperize an innocent man with the stroke of a pen.
Whatcha gonna do? Whip out your braveheart sword? (You'll have to go get it 'cause it was confiscated at the metal detector).
In at least that sense, the courts have gone a long way toward emasculating warrior wanna-be's.
Maybe you shouldn't have smoked crack before you read it. It was pretty obvious to me and my wife what the point of the book was - be a real man not a wimpy, bleeding heart, metrosexual.
And Rosa Parks dared to sit in the wrong section of the bus......
Yup. Being a Christian is not primarily about being nice, though it is nice to be nice because it's nicer than not being nice...
Ever since 9-11 I've considered myself to be a Spiritual Warrior engaged in mortal combat with the enemy. Some things are worth dying for.
Claptrap!
Women NEED to respect their man. They don't respect one who won't fight for the family. No one says he has to be the one who always wears the championship ring, but he does have to be the one who willing to get down in the trenches, win or lose.
What happens to a man who senses he's not respected by his woman?
Now THAT'S depression!
My experience couldn't have been more different. An extremely inciteful and timely call to arms for the spiritual battle in which we all engage, knowingly or otherwise.
I'm watching a tv program on this now. It's a little bit gay, I'm afraid.
I guess your inner warrior caused you to accuse me of taking drugs before reading this book.
How very Christian of you.
A ponderous tome, this one.
The "Promise Keepers"? Don't they beat their wives?
PRince, I could never label this book as insightful. It lost me numerous times.
The author belabored his points. His examples were poorly developed.
It reminded me of Don Quixote looking for a windmill to fight. A reason for being, if you will.
Be conformed to the image of Christ. That's a man sized task for the best of us.
There, I said it in two sentences.
While this is needed, society bashes men who are men and not wimps, so without support this movement will not fly.
Promise Keepers dont beat their wives, silly. They are compromisers in doctrine, so they dont pass the Bible test, but I like their movement about men and women.
None I'm aware of.
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