The American Psychological Association recently said that traditional masculinity, is generally harmful to society. After all, guys like to shoot guns and drive trucks. What? They also indicate that being a real man is associated with sexual harassment and being a bully. Of course, most liberals agree, therefore they assume that all real men are unstable and therefore should not be allowed to be around sharp objects. Good grief! And think about it, that’s what they want for our little boys.
Now, I know there are some scumball males out there; brutes and bullies who use their strength and power to hurt others. These guys are not men, they are males with a problem, and God’s people, just like God Himself, will judge and confront such violence and abuse. But I miss the days when men wore pants. A few years back the pant maker Dockers published something they called a Man-ifesto. The advertisement read as follows:
Once upon a time, men wore the pants, and wore them well. Women rarely had to open doors, and little old ladies never crossed the street alone. Men took charge because that’s what they did. But somewhere along the way, the world decided it no longer needed men. Disco by disco, latte by foamy nonfat latte, men were stripped of their khakis and left stranded on the road between boyhood and androgyny. (half man-half woman)
The Man-ifesto continued,
But today, there are questions our genderless society has no answers for. The world sits idly by, and cities crumble, children misbehave, and those little old ladies remain on one side of the street. For the first time since bad guys, we need heroes. We need grown-ups. We need men to put down the plastic fork, step away from the salad bar, and untie the world from the tracks of complacency. It’s time to get your hands dirty. It’s time to answer the call of manhood. It’s time (Dockers said) to wear the pants.
Whether Dockers makes good pants or not, I don’t know. I also realize their main goal was to sell pants, not fix manhood. But they were right. Cities crumble without men living as men. Families fall apart without men living as men. We need heroes that don’t beat up those they swore to protect, and heroes who are willing to take off their cupid pajamas, put down their frothy drinks, and act more like John Wayne; the very thing our sexless society is trying to make us all feel guilty about.
Too often we swing from decrying chauvinism and abuse, to producing a society of plastic manicured males who don’t even like to identify as men. When our children look at men today, the kind in television shows, in many homes, and in many classrooms, what do they see? What will men be like tomorrow? I shudder to think!!
The Days of a Manicured
Male-hood Is Upon Us
I realize that many of my readers are younger and are immunized from seeing what I see, but I am shocked at how many men act like women. Men who use lispy sentences, light gestures, soft mannerisms, and then dress up in their knickers like a four-year-old. Then they proudly display their manicured nails and shaved legs in front of our children. No hiding it. No shame. No apologizing. This perversion of masculinity is sickening to me. This may be male-hood, but it is not man-hood.
Instead, our society celebrates what the Apostle Paul calls “soft men” (Greek malakoi), “effeminate”; a group that will not enter the kingdom of God (I Corinthians 6:9). Of course, the politically correct LGBTQ-XYZ community doesn’t like what the Bible has to say about it. They distress over this shall-not-inherit-the-kingdom version of manliness to the degree that they can change the Bible to make it more acceptable to Pastor Sissy Pants. But as much as they protest it as hate speech, those who actively embrace the effeminate lifestyle are not Scripturally cauterized as the children of God, and it is unloving not to say so.
While men who brutalize and manipulate represent one form of perversion, men who sit passive, complacent, spiritually and emotionally frail, represent another. So also do men who rebel against their sex by acting like women. And too many classrooms that celebrate this perversion act as a place to confuse the little boys (and girls) of today. Paul commands all men, “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit (act like) you like men, be strong.”
I Corinthians 16:13
Strong men are gentle. But they are not soft, fragile, weak, or effeminate. They do not faint in the day of adversity. They dress for war every day against forces of evil, because they know every day is a battle. These are men who charge against enemy gates, leading from the front, and refusing to take cover behind their wives and children like the Muslim cowards. They lead. They protect. They initiate. They love. They sacrifice. They work. They worship. They are men.
I Long for the Days When Men Killed the Dragons.
I long for the days when men didn’t sit back and wait for their wives to confront the enemy. Godly men have a sword, but use it against the dragon, not the princess in the castle. They are meek and mild to those God calls them to protect, but dangerous to the kingdom of darkness. They live for the glory of God. They mount their horse, gird up their loins, and march with courage: “And in thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness; and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things” (Psalm 45:4). And their great and powerful commander, instead of handing them sweet platitudes to hurl at the enemy, the Bible says:
“He teacheth my hands to war; so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms.” II Samuel 22:35
YES, I Long for the Days When Men Killed the Dragons.
These men are like Moses, not Pharaoh. They do not lord their power in hopes of cowardly self-preservation. They stand against an empire, but they stand with the Lord of all empires, calling for tyrants to heed the God of heaven and earth. They are assertive, and yet they comprise the meekest men on the planet. They make unpopular decisions, meet regularly with their God, and constantly seek for, “what saith the Lord.”
They are men like David, not Saul. They do not hide when duty calls. They gladly go into battle, when others will not. They kill tens of thousands of sins, and fight a more fearful enemy than Goliath ever was. They dress in armor provided by God Himself (Ephesians 6:13). They know much about warfare and yet can testify that it is God’s gentleness that makes them great “Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: and thy gentleness hath made me great (II Samuel 22:36).
These are battle-tested, hardened men, yet they may give themselves to things such as poetry. They can fight the enemy until blood covers their body; but they can come home and quietly play the harp. And should they ever shirk their duty and do wickedly, they repent before God and trust in His mercy and steadfast love to forgive and restore them. Such men are like Jesus. By that I mean the real Jesus, not the world’s smiley, flowy-haired, manicured, soft-serve Jesus. The Jesus of the Bible is the King of kings and the Lord of Lords, who will return with a sword in His mouth and heaven’s army in His wake. He is the thrice holy man of war, the great redeemer, the sinner’s friend, who calls all to repentance, faith, and obedience. Vengeance is His; He will repay, and that is a promise.
And yet, this same Jesus also calls little children to Himself. He washes the disciples’ feet. He speaks gracious words to the oppressed, champions the widow’s cause, and calls the contrite to come near. A bruised reed He does not break, and a faintly burning wick He does not snuff. Tough, yet tender.
Satan hates this kind of biblical masculinity. He pressures men like never before to apologize for being what God has made them to be. He hands him effeminacy, passivity, and pornography. He calls it for the good of society as he sends the Delilah of feminism to strip man of his passion, ambition, and strength. Satan laughs at men who ache inside, knowing something inside has died, but not knowing what, as they watch a movie like True Grit or Braveheart.
It is hard for the modern male to understand the words of William Wallace: “Every man dies, but not every man truly lives.” Lord, please, if I have to go into battle let me follow a man. A man like Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore (in the movie We Were Soldiers) who said:
“I can’t promise you that I will bring you all home alive. But this I swear, before you and before Almighty God, that when we go into battle, I will be the first to set foot on the field, and I will be the last to step off, and I will leave no one behind. Dead or alive, we will all come home together. So, help me, God.”
I am not endorsing movies, and I realize that some may have questionable content, I am just saying real men realize that something is dying in this manicured male-hood that exist today. Satan hates it that God made both male and female, because we are created different but equal, to do God’s specialized work while meeting the specialized needs of each other. Pink for the little girls, blue for the little boys, and mix them together you have the color of royalty.
Men, I am calling to all men of God, let’s show the world what a man is supposed to be: gentle yet strong, holy compassion and holy aggression. In a word, to be like Christ. And then let’s teach our sons to follow in our footsteps and to escape from the trap of a manicured male-hood—while teaching our daughters even as they are young, what to look for in a husband.
Oh, how I long for the days when men, real men, wore the pants and killed the dragons.
Dr. Worthington has been in the ministry for over forty years and serves as President of Pathway Ministries and Christian Bible College.