Putting Masculinity back in Church

I recently came across these three articles by Doug Giles about the lack of men in churches and its affect on society.

Christianity with Cojones, Part 1
Christianity with Cojones, Part 2: Rebels With A Cause
Christianity with Cojones, Part 3

I have to admit that I liked the author's choice of words for the titles. But more importantly are the very strong arguments that the author makes for the need to bring men and real masculinity back into our churches. I have highlighted below some of the main points from each article:

The current lack of strong men within the Church, both in the numeric and leadership sense, has crippled our churches and has helped devastate our nation. 

The masculine spirit being absent from the pulpit, the pew and subsequently the public square has not only slowed down the forward progress of the Church, it has also weakened our nation’s morality and security, increased our country’s secularity, and has assisted [owing to our absence] the lascivious Left’s re-definition of life, sex, marriage and law.  That’s all.

Get it right, folks: It wasn’t the church’s belief that Jesus is God, or their love of covered dish dinners, or their Christian rock music that got them the ax; it was their holy defiance to the demonic edicts that Caesar attempted to slap them with. Rome didn’t give a rat’s backside whom or what they believed in just as long as that belief didn’t rock the boat of the Roman state. And that’s exactly what first-century Christianity did: It adhered to God’s laws versus Rome’s. The Church believed that Christ was Lord and therefore, respectfully of course, Caesar could kiss their fish sticker. Indeed, following the teachings of Jesus, the initial Ichthus crowd was rowdy when it came to an oppressive state.
 
I’m sure the church tried to be nice about their obstinacy toward Rome’s odious laws, but when push came to legislative shove and it became clear that punk Caesar was requiring them to walk his way versus God’s, the first-century church defied the state instead of denying their God.

Hey, Christian PC police, these Holy Spirit inspired men of the Bible were godly figures of great antagonism who insisted on battling bogus belief systems and telling the truth (frequently at the expense of a person’s person). And get this: It was God who egged His vessels on to give offense. Give it—it’s a gift. 

If … if … we truly desire to “save our nation” and its righteous roots then get ready for some prophetic plain dealing. Yep, when the prophets poked the pompous, when they mocked the haughty and religiously arrogant, when they wreaked havoc on stale religious and political symbolism, they weren’t just being cute. They were clearing the ground for fresh, godly growth.

The author, Doug Giles, is pretty blunt and pulls no punches in his message: the only way we can rebuild our Church and our society is if real men have the guts to take a stand. Our church was built on the blood of martyrs, great heroes who gave their lives for God. Yet the men of today have gotten complacent and rather be politically correct and go with popular opinion while denying their God. It's pretty obvious what that course of action (or inaction) has done to our Church and our nation.

I also want to share with you a related article:

When Masculine Virtues go out of Fashion

The author, Tom Hoffman, makes the valid argument that masculine virtues have been nearly eradicated in our society all for the sake of political correctness.

The baby boom generation was the last to be taught the values of rugged individualism, risk-taking, courage, bravery, loyalty, and reverence for tradition. John Wayne epitomized the rugged individual who was committed to fighting “the bad guy,” but he was only one of a whole host of competing figures cut out of the same cloth. What happened? Today, the Boy Scouts are fighting the last battle in a lost cause. Any man who stands up to the “women’s movement” is completely marginalized as a sexist and homophobe. These names have become just as stigmatizing as “racist” used to be.

Hoffman also compares the fall of the Roman Empire to the decay of our nation, and how both are due to complacency and the loss of these virtues. He bluntly called it the feminization of men. I couldn't agree more. The message here is as clear as the message of the first three articles: We need real men to wake up and restore those virtues or our nation will continue to decay. I will end with a final quote from Hoffman's article:

We now have... a vast bureaucracy dedicated to rooting out all reference to God and a higher calling while making sure that any reference to manly virtue, rugged individualism, and decency is stigmatized as “hate speech.” No nation has ever demonized manhood to its own reward.