[hiho hiho]

This had to be trimmed too much, to to the link to read the complete story

[hiho hiho]

I have always been disturbed by the "quilts" on the walls.

[InvisibleChurch]

i read Murrow's book, "Why Men Hate Going To Church". It made a lot of sense. Though men are the church leaders, women are the 'velvet hammers' who get things done.... the way they want to mainly because they are the ones who spend the bulk of time at church... an interesting item in the book suggests that entire families tend to go to service when the father is involved while only about half a family will attend service if only the mother is involved ....

[Mr. Jeeves]

"And if that's the punch line of the Gospel, then you're going to have a lot more women than men taking you up on your offer because women are interested in a personal relationship with a man who loves you unconditionally. Men, generally, are not."

LOL! Well, a certain type of man is...which probably explains the sudden popularity of the gay marriage issue among Protestant denominations. ;)

[mgc1122]

Plenty of men can be found at churches who subscribe to the Gospel, and not culturally sensitive watered down versions of it.

[blue-duncan]

What say you?

[Antoninus]

There are no shortage of Catholic men in church, despite the best efforts of some of the "lavender" clergy to expunge us.

[Mrs. Darla Ruth Schwerin]

The fact that more women than men attend church is telling a spiritual truth. Men ARE to be the spiritual leaders in the household, but God has been abondoned for power, money, cars, affairs, and more and more materialism. In other words, IDOLATRY...

[Unam Sanctam]

When they tossed out sin and any challenge to struggle to be holy and virtuous and replaced it with saccharine "God loves you no matter what" all the time in the liturgy, then naturally men will respond less well. Men don't want to go to optional Oprah sessions of a Sunday morning.

[Markdb]

I'm glad this article was posted. This is a very real issue that needs to be confronted. I believe that man need to be challenged to be leaders. Thats what we are designed to do. Not selfish domineering leaders, but self sacrificing men of honor. I don't think you need to shy away from the softer side of the gospel as long as it's taught in conjunction with the leadership aspect. A man who understands his role as a leader doesn't shy away from a prayerful worship service.

[BlackVeil]

Interesting points.

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.

This is true, but can be overstated. As noted by some on this thread, the Eastern Orthodox Churches do not really have this feminisation problem - this might be because they have a fixed and unchanging liturgy - can't be altered to the middle-aged lady's sensibility, as noted in the article.

I saw an interesting article about Reform Jewish congregations, who have recently restated the practice of male only prayers - they had to, because they were becoming an all-girl show. Orthodox Jews, it is true, never have that problem.

Also, a note on the reference to Buddhism. I read accounts by some Jesuit priests about taking an interest in Zen Buddhism, and even going through extensive and ardous training in order to become a "sensei" (or whatever it is). I noticed with this, that it seemed to confirm them in a masculine role - I wondered if that was not part of the attraction.