is jesus too wimpy? [myspace]
So I was reading this article -
Coughlin contends that the Christian man in America has become passive, straitjacketed by a church culture that insists he emulate a version of Christ who is mild to an extreme, almost “wimpy” in some eyes. This Jesus avoids confrontation, is overly patient and is devoted — to a fault — to the dictum “turn the other cheek.”
Coughlin can be blunt; in his book, he calls this version of Jesus the “Bearded Lady.”
“The fact is,” he told the gathering, “a meek and mild Jesus eventually is a bore. He doesn’t inspire us.” The same applies, he argued, to a meek and mild man. “Those men end up divorced,” Coughlin said. “Their wives find them boring. They have no — I call it the ‘jalapeno factor’ — in them. There’s no inner heat that causes them to actively, assertively go out and do what needs to be done as a man.”
… it’s weird, this sounds like more of a problem with our culture’s concept of gender stereotypes then a problem with how jesus is represented in modern church. Do we really need something like GodMen where “men can be fully men … when faith gets dangerous”? I guess I would kind of see it as a question of whether you adapt the religion to the culture, or the culture to the religion, where the former would result in a more accessible yet possible less faithful rendition, and the latter would be a lot more challenging but ultimately truer to the original. I don’t know.
… and I’m not even going to point out the obvious male chauvanism in the remarks about what women want from men. Oh wait I just did.