PING!
Posted on 02/24/2007 3:59:53 PM PST by GMMAC
Men of the church
Barbara Kay, National Post
Published: Saturday, February 24, 2007
In the early days of feminism's ascendance, a certain joke made the rounds -- its theme remained constant, although the particulars varied -- that never failed to raise a knowing chuckle. In it, a man and a woman explain the secret to a happy marriage. The wife, feigning subservience, says: "My husband makes all the big decisions, and I make the small ones." The amiable schlemiel of a husband then adds (ba da boom), "Yes, I decide whether God exists and where the universe ends, while my wife decides where we live, who our friends are, and what schools our children attend?".
Get it? Fathers -- the butt of the joke -- think they are important because their minds are filled with stupid abstract notions like the Meaning of Life, but in fact they are irrelevant to their loved ones' happiness, which depends on practical domestic choices that women are more competent to make.
On its face the joke is reality-based. Because yes, as soon as children enter the picture, mothers exert disproportionate sway over the family's accretion of social and educational capital. But are habitat, schools and friendships the only significant factors in guiding children into their full human estate? Hardly. Children's spiritual and moral development -- the formation of bedrock cultural values --is equally important. And thereby hangs a tale.
A statistical report from Switzerland in 2000, "The Demographic Characteristics of the Linguistic and Religious Groups in Switzerland," reviewed the results of a 1994 survey of Swiss religious practice, and arrives at a fascinating conclusion about the impact of mothers' vs. fathers' church attendance on the future religious observance of their children.
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.
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.
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. The disparity is too stunningly wide to be culturally insignificant.
The logical response to such conclusive figures would have houses of worship scrambling to create an ambience conducive to men's psychological comfort. But as any regularly attending member of a non-Orthodox congregation can attest, Jewish and Christian houses of worship have become quite feminized. Feminist thought privileges the flexibility, sensitivity and inclusivity (gay rights-deferential) that has characterized liberal pulpits for a generation. The "soft" PC template of emasculated liturgy and the "writing-in" of postmodern sexual values, however, do not offer men the "hard" authenticity they typically seek in religious observance.
The result has been a drop-off in church attendance, which, we can now predict, will continue into the next generation. As Anglican Vicar Robbie Low noted in reaction to the Swiss survey, "A Church that is conspiring against the blessings of patriarchy? flies in the face of the sociological evidence! No father --no family --no faith. Winning and keeping men is essential to the community of faith and vital to the work of all mothers and the future salvation of our children."
As it turns out, then, those "big decisions" about God and the meaning of life that preoccupy fathers in the joke are nothing to laugh at after all. The Swiss survey's results can reasonably be interpreted to suggest that in moulding a child's sense of communal and ethical identity -- for civic purposes the most important consideration of all -- it would seem that more than simply significant, a father's role is crucial.
Bkay@videotron.ca
© National Post 2007
PING!
Yep, that's exactly the plan.
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.
Interesting.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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.
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.
My guess - offhand - is that families were the male regularly attends church are "more religious".
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
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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]
In other words, loyal practitioners of the Frank Barone Technique. LOL
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.
bump....
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.
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