Posted on 06/13/2006 6:25:48 AM PDT by hiho hiho
"We don't have to have hand-to-hand combat during the worship service to get men there," Murrow said. "We just have to start speaking [their language], use the metaphors they understand and create an environment that feels masculine to them."
"My background is in marketing and advertising, and one day I was sitting in church, and all of a sudden it dawned on me that the target audience of almost everything about church culture was a 50- to 55-year-old woman," said Murrow, a Presbyterian elder who's now a member of a nondenominational congregation in Anchorage.
The gender gap is not a distinctly American one but it is a Christian one, according to Murrow. The theology and practices of Judaism, Buddhism and Islam offer "uniquely masculine" experiences for men, he said.
Concern about the perceived femininization of Christianity-- and the subsequent backlash-- is nothing new.
"These guys have really come out because it's something they can do," Hale said. "They feel like they've made a contribution. . . . I think men like to do things that they feel comfortable doing."
Yet come Sunday morning, "we're going to sing love songs to Jesus and there's going to be fresh flowers on the altar and quilted banners on the walls," Murrow said.
Men aren't the only ones alienated by such an environment. According to Murrow, young people aren't that keen on it either. Both groups are challenge-oriented and appreciate risk, adventure, variety, pleasure and reward-- values some churches "ignore or vilify," according to Murrow.
Churches have to help men and women use their gifts, not just fit them into old religious molds, Murrow said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Women run the homes, decide the children's schools, and usually pick the church that the husband has to go to.
Why then would there be a surprise that women also run the churches?
That's true. One has to have near equal expertise in each language, and the dexterity of mind to find equivalents. People of different cultures and backgrounds come to many of the same conclusions about life, etc., and finding the same turn of mind, as expressed in each language is the way translations work the best.
Prayers for good health, Corin, and righteous leadership. God put the right man in the job. 8~)
St. Paul did not speak idly when he bade women be silent in church.
The feminization of the Catholic sanctuary has contributed significantly to the decline of priestly vocations and the homosexualization of the priesthood.
A Novus Ordo presbyter usually just sits there for much of the Mass like a brooding, henpecked husband while the ladies fuss around the kitchen table, as opposed to the pre-conciliar priest, who leads the people before the altar of God.
Try convincing boys at most conciliar parishes that the priestly vocation is worthy or manly. What they see every week at Mass tells them otherwise.
Funny, but I don't believe it for one second. 8~)
A sad surprise that will continue to facilitate the deconstruction of the church and society.
"Funny, but I don't believe it for one second."
I didn't want to believe it either, but K said I'd better!
"And I will pray the Father, and he [s]hal[l] gi[v]e you another Co[m]forter, that he may abide with you for e[v]er." - John xiv.16, Geneva Bible
If it rains on your picnic, do you blame the Romanists for it?
Really, your tendency to point the finger at Rome for everything is tiresome and a pitifully bad Christian witness.
I would say the same thing about a Catholic who blamed everything bad on the Protestants, except that I've never met one.
Devilish Jesuits ... they're everywhere, I tell you ... !!
Nope. But I blame them for the bugs. 8~)
Actually, I would call that a paranoid personality disorder.
Which is exactly the point of this thread.
Read "The Cult of the Virgin Mary: Psychological Origins" by Michael P. Carroll.
Boy are you way off here. Not only do you not know Catholic doctrine, which you should at least attempt to do before making sweeping statements about it, it is the Traditional Roman Catholic chapels, (where traditional Roman Catholic doctrine is preached, believed and practiced,) that are overflowing with men. The Catholic parishes that have become feminized are the ones that reject traditional Catholic doctrine.
Our Blessed Mother is the antithesis to feminism, and it is through the rejection of true devotion to her that feminism flourishes.
To be fair to the Catholics, at least one Catholic author has touched this issue, in a way. Only he thinks that it wasn't expediency but the inevitable result of a feminized priesthood that relates more to their mothers than their fathers, and therefore more to Mary than to a masculine leader (Father, Son). Read the book I linked above or google "Leon Podles" and read some of his net posted articles on this topic.
Hey! How are you? =D
Amen...my church has about a 50/50 congregation...
We had a meeting about the building of a new church. The building committee and most of the audience participants were men. Ome woman had some good points. The other just whined.
Ditto for Protestants. The more Bible-centered they are, the more men show up. But the "love song" worship needs to be changed to something with gravitas -- ancient chants, classic 19th century hymns, heavy metal, rap -- ANYTHING but the "Jesus baby baby" stuff we have now.
BTW an analysis of the Aramaic new testament reveals that a lot of Jesus' speeches and teachings rhymed in the original. Was he in fact a rapper?
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