Men of the church

National Post - Canada ^ | Saturday, February 24, 2007 | Barbara Kay

[GMMAC]

PING!

[polymuser]

No father --no family --no faith.

Yep, that's exactly the plan.

[SamuraiScot]

Fascinating, and thanks for posting.

As a faithful Catholic, I have been gagging on altar girls, lectresses and Eucharistic minstrels for years. Not to mention sappy music. Permission for all of these innovations was demanded of the Vatican virtually at gunpoint by American bishops, for reasons that escape me. Perhaps because many vocal bishops, without necessarily understanding what they're doing, hate and fear families headed by men.

Parishes that emphasize these feminized practices tend to be very lightly attended by teenage boys, I notice. If you lose the men, you lose the culture.

[Condor 63]

The disparity is too stunningly wide to be culturally insignificant.

Interesting.

[AndyTheBear]

Even when the father was an irregular attender and the mother non-practising, a full 25% of their children became regular attenders, while if a mother was a regular attender and the father irregular, only three per cent of the children became regular attenders.

Seems to imply that a devout mother ought to pretend to be nonpracticing if the father is irregular; to a tune of 3% vs 25%...that doesn't seem very likely.

[AndyTheBear]

In short, if a father does not attend church, it won't matter how dedicated the mother is in her observance, only one child in 50 will become a regular attender. But if a father is even somewhat observant, then regardless of the mother's practice, at least one child in three will become a regular church-goer.

OK, so this contradicts the paragraph that was written before it. Seems like this is more likely, so I presume the other was in error.

[MHGinTN]

"In the early days of feminism's ascendance, a certain joke made the rounds ..." And basis of the feminist joke was, not surprisingly, an open disdain for the founding principles which ought dominate family ... feminism is anti-god-led family, to be replaced with 'I am goddess, stay away from my goddesshood, Creator' and the corollary 'there is no god but me'. Sadly, feminism is now drenched in the blood of slaughtered innocent unborn children sacrificed in the rites of feminist mystique.

[Emmett McCarthy]

This encourages me. I have 2 kids and 2 ex-wives. Neither Mom has ever gone to church much, but I have always taken my kids to church since they were babies. They're teenagers now and not around Dad's house for whole weekends any more so they don't go with me like they used to, but I have tried to lay the groundwork.

[MHGinTN]

A Church is similar to a household in many respects. My first father-in-law was not a great man in the world's eyes, but he was a family man, a sober man, a leader of his household while remaining the servant of his family. All of the great men I've known personally in my 60 plus years have been just that kind of great. Such men build character in the children around them and make a shelter for flourishing of the women they love and cherish. When such men show with their actions of worship that they revere and fear their Creator, children learn the way that they should go.

[luckystarmom]

Oh, this one is hard for me to swallow. I'm the regular attender, and my husband is not.

I pray that my children will keep their faith as they get older.

[M. Dodge Thomas]

My guess - offhand - is that families were the male regularly attends church are "more religious".

[GMMAC]

"As a faithful Catholic, I have been gagging on altar girls, lectresses ..."

As one of your - hopefully faithful - co-religionists, I don't have a problem with Altar girls or women reading the lessons but agree completely with you otherwise.

I'd add, I have a real 'thing' with Cantors or either gender:
The better they are, the more they usurp the proper role of the laity &, the worse they are, .... they're just that much more awful!

[GourmetDan]

"The detailed survey indicated that if the father attended church regularly, and the mother was non-practising, then 44% of their children became regular church-goers. But if the mother attended regularly, and the father was non-practising, then only two per cent of their children became regular church attenders."

2 Corinthians 6:14 - "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?"

Since man has confirmed what the Bible says, we can believe the Bible now.

But just on this point. Not the rest. /sarc

[Tares]

.

[Huber]

Thanks to Condor 63 for the ping.

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[While this article is not in any way specific to Anglicanism, it seems an important topic for our consideration. On a personal note, one of the reasons that my old Episcopal church attracted me away from the Roman Catholicism of my childhood was the behavior of so many of the Catholic men during that era - standing silently at the back of the church, never singing, ducking out during communion to get the car and beat the rush. At the time seemed that many of the Dads were only there for the women and out of habit. This did not seem to be the case in the Episcopal churches that I attended in the 80's and 90's where the men were every bit as involved as the women. --Huber]

[Condor 63]

one of the reasons that my old Episcopal church attracted me away from the Roman Catholicism of my childhood was the behavior of so many of the Catholic men during that era - standing silently at the back of the church, never singing, ducking out during communion to get the car and beat the rush.

In other words, loyal practitioners of the Frank Barone Technique. LOL

[Honorary Serb]

A big problem with the new ELCA "Evangelical Lutheran Worship" is that it prescribes a sissified liturgy, sissified paslms, and sissified hymns!!!!

Not only does ELW feature feminazi-inspired deletions of "he" and "Father", but also "peacenik" deletion of "military language" for God and the saints. We can't even call the saints "faithful warriors" when we sing "For All the Saints"!!!!

This leaves us with a hymnal that appeals only to feminazis of both sexes, "gays", lesbians, and those who don't know any better. (I expect the latter group to become dissatisfied and drop out over time.) Heterosexual men and the women who love them are left out in the cold. And as this article shows, so are children.

[gobucks]

bump....

[Huber]

This risk is always there with innovative worship forms. Even in the case of fervent bible-based groups, the urge to introduce contemporary music is often done without orthodox oversight. The result is sometimes well intentioned praise music with sloppy theology.