CONFESSION FROM A MAN RAISED BIBLICALLY AND MACHO

CONFESSION FROM A MAN RAISED BIBLICALLY AND MACHO

May 14, 2006

This week as I anticipated Mother’s Day and thought about the female of the species in general, I kept thinking about the tremendous differences between men and women.

Now, I do think that it’s a big mistake to stereotype men and women.  For example, haven’t we all heard people say things like “well, you know, women are more emotional than men.”  And haven’t we heard others say things like“it’s a fact, women can take better care of children than men can.”

I think it’s a real mistake to stereotype men and women.  Having said this, don’t we have to admit that there are some radical differences between us that go far beyond the physical.

Well, this morning I’m going to attempt something.  I’m going to attempt to stand up here as a representative of men, and make some confessions, not only to you women who are here, but rhetorically to all women.

And the first confession I want to make is this   “we don’t know what to do with you.”

Oh intellectually we believe that God made you just like God made us, but as we look at the Bible – although there definite exceptions,-men dominate.  Women play more ‘behind the scenes’ roles.  They’re more ‘supportive’.  They follow.  And more and more, you women seem to feel that you can lead as well as us men. And this breaks the Biblical model.  And maybe this is reason a lot of us men don’t quite “know what to do with you”.

And maybe another reason is because of the way a lot of us men were raised.  From the time we could walk, we saw you women heavily in one or two ways______.

First, we saw the older boys chasing you, and even we weren’t sure why, you were objects to be chased.  Of course when we got a little older, we began to understand why the older boys chased you.  You were like prey.  You were to be used.

Secondly, we saw you women as mothers.  And most of us men loved you in your mother role.  You took care of us.  You protected us.  You held us close.  You kissed our ‘boo-boos’.  You acted as buffers between us and our fathers.

‘Mothering’ gift which you women have is one of the most beautiful gifts in creation, but I would hasten to say this – the mother instinct isn’t limited to biological mothers.  Some of the most gifted mothers I know have no biological children.

And one more thought – don’t think that women alone have a corner on the ‘mothering’ instinct – there are men whose depth of love, and quality of nurturing is as material as anything that exists among women.

Well, back to my point – so many of us ‘macho’ men were conditioned to see you as sexual objects or mothers.  Now in these last decades, you’ve gone and ‘messed around’ with all of our conditioning.  Oh, you’ve said to us..you have a sexual part..and you have said to us yes, we are mothers.  But you’ve said more.  You’ve gotten in our faces and said: “For God’s sake men wake up and smell the coffee.  We’re equal to you.  In fact some of us are more than equal.  Oh, you might run a little faster than we can, and you might be able to jump a little higher.  But outside of these purely physical kinds of things – we can do a lot of things better.

You women have challenged our OT and NT chauvinism.  You have refused to be limited to the roles which our “Lord of the Manor’ culture has hemmed in to us.  You’ve challenged our ‘macho’, ‘top gun’ mentality.  You’ve rejected our attempts to keep you forever as ‘mothers’.

And thank God you have.

Isn’t it amazing how, for millenniums, our cultures have taught that women are inferior – only partial persons.  And we bought it for millenniums.  Male and female – we bought it.

I thank God that the ‘times, they are a changin!’

Well, I’d like to say this in conclusion as the representative of the male species

Forgive us.  We’re not all bad, but there is a part of us which is pretty stupid.  We sort of miss the old Biblical idea of ‘male superiority’.

We sort of miss having women walk 10 paces behind us.  And we have a hard time imagining a female pope, or a female president of GM, or a female pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church, or a female chairperson of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  We sort of miss the great old John Wayne days.

So be patient with us.

And if we can’t move fast enough for you – just push us out of the way, and let us be content with our memories of the good old days.

Now let us pray -