W.W.J.D.
I tend to be more analytical than most. The why question is very important to me so I ask it a lot. Sometimes it can give me insight into who people really are. There is one thing people do that I find fascinates me the most ... arguing.
The things some people come up with to make their point or win an argument are sometimes as varied and difficult to understand as the Book of Revelation. Some people seem to think that the louder they talk the more important their point is. My experence has been that those who speak the loudest have the least to say.
I couldn't help but overhear one such argument the other day. Not that I wanted to, but by the sheer volume of their voices. The argument went like this, "If it wasn't for toxic masculinity this world would be a better place!"
Okay, first, isn't that like saying "jumbo shrimp" it is a contradiction in terms? Neither one exists, and if it did, would there not be toxic femininity as well? Just sayin'.
But it was the other person that really dropped the bomb. She said, "What would Jesus do?" She went on to try to explain that Jesus would get everyone together and talk everything out and keep everyone calm and fix things. Although that is one way, and well within the nature of love, what happens when it goes against truth, what about when people stop listening or caring?
Well, let's just see what Jesus would do!
In Matthew 23:33, Jesus refers to the religious leaders of the day as, "You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?" And what about Matthew 23:27 where Jesus says, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and fharisees, you hypocrites! You are like white washed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead, and everything unclean." Sound like anyone singing Kumbaya yet?
How about Matthew 21:13 when Jesus said, "It is written, my house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers." And didn't he fashion a whip? And remember that all these things were done in a spirit of love, Yeah, I said it, a spirit of love, or tough love as we now know it.
Let's go back in time a bit to see where our current problems might have come from, shall we? In the last three or more decades, masculinity has been demonized and painted as the cause of everything from high stress levels to the break up of the family unit. From what I can see it is the lack of real masculinity that has caused the lion's share of the problems.
Look at the T.V. commercials that make men look like they just came back from being neutered! A man and a woman standing beside a dishwasher that he just finished loading. She opens the door and taking out one item after another she says, "Nope, Not happening, Really, No, No, No!" And isn't there always a cute little 10-year-old girl that tells her father that he has no idea what he is talking about when it comes to technology? And PLEASE tell me it isn't true that without Burger King some men would starve!
This more than begs the question, what is real masculinity? If we look at the example that Jesus gives us in the Bible, it would be being both loving and stern, but with enough wisdom to know when to pull out the right tool for the right job. When that happens out of sync, I suppose one could call that toxic.
Wake Up Christian
