Christianity has grown too ‘feminine,’ pushing men away from worship
It was conventional wisdom, in the Middle Ages, that women were more pious than men, and that women went to Confession and took Communion during great Orthodox Christianity and other churches in the East. Podles said Western church leaders — Catholic and Protestant — urgently need to back research into why this is the case.
During his lecture on the history of this issue, Podles kept returning to two themes. First, in the Christian West, faith increasingly focused on emotions, as opposed to action, service and sacrifice. Then this approach soaked into worship and sacred art.
“My theory is: Men distance themselves from church because they think church, and maybe Christianity in general, is feminine, and they want to be masculine and don’t want to be feminine,” he said.
Throughout history, men have been willing to make great sacrifices to defend the faith and spread the faith. The list of laymen recognized as martyrs and saints was long, Podles explained — until the late Middle Ages.
What men have never been willing to do, he noted, in a follow-up interview, is meekly follow leaders they do not believe are strong and inspiring.
“The idea got around” in the medieval church, he said, “that women were supposed to be docile and obedient and willing to do whatever they were told to do by priests. Then the idea got around that being a good Christian — period — meant that you needed to be docile and obedient. … Then these two ideas became intertwined.”
This eventually affected hymns, theology, art and literature. The bottom line: It’s hard for priests to tell young men — take lacrosse players at Catholic schools, for example — that they must become “brides of Christ” to find salvation.
“Only if men become like women can they become Christian. That is the message that was long given to men,” Podles said. Meanwhile, “masculinity values risk-taking; religion is for those seeking security. Masculinity is tough-minded; religion is for those seeking comfort. Masculinity accepts reality; religion is a fantasy. Masculinity is independent; religion demands obedience.”
These mixed theological signals have made many men uncomfortable.
Next week: Congregations’ strategies to appeal to men. Terry Mattingly is the editor of GetReligion.org and Senior Fellow for Media and Religion at The King’s College in New York City. He lives in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.