seeing in a mirror dimly

Ok, well thanks for the good comments people – appreciated your thoughts: have been using them in my preparation, and will most likely use them next Sunday. It’s been fascinating to read different people’s thoughts on gender and the masculinity issue. Guys like Steve Biddulph and Hugh Mackay have been particularly interesting. Here’s sociologist Hugh Mackay’s summary on the present state of gender understand in his great book, Advance Australia Where?*

“Vive la diffference! was never about superiority and inferiority; it was always about complementarity… For men, the goal is authentic masculinity.  The New Bloke believes it’s perfectly all right to be a ‘bloke’ – to acknowledge the legitmacy of masculine urges, masculine images and masculine culture – as long as you understand the real point about the gender revolution: men and women, for all their obvious differences, are equal. Thirty years after it began, the gender revolution has brought new life, new richness to the word ‘person’.”

Here’s what God has to say about the past, present and future state of gender understanding in his great book, The Bible**:

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.“ Genesis 1:27  and Adam’s reaction to the sight of his beautiful Eve: ”This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Genesis 2:23 

There is equality (mankind created with equal worth in the image of God – this equality is so deep, that it touches the bone and flesh), and complementarity (they’re different but work together.  Now, what does that look like…?).  No wonder Adam was pretty stoked with her!

So, thanks for your help – I’m writing the sermon tomorrow, and I’ll let you know how it goes!

* PS – this book is fantastic by the way.  Read it!

** PPS – this book is even better.  Read it first!

I’m preaching on masculinity in a couple of weeks time at church, and have been thinking through a whole bunch of things. Especially off the fact that Mark Driscoll really provoked a good deal of thought about this lately, it’s something which I’m keen to reinforce in our hearts and minds.

So, with that in mind – I’m keen to do a bit of a survey. I’d love it if you could simply reply with a few thoughts on the following:

1) Are you male/female?

2) What do you think are the biggest blindspots for men today in their being masculine? (Ie, what are the big challenges you’d put to men today?)

3) What things in our current culture fight against what being masculine is? (Ie, what cultural things are causing men to drop the ball?)

Much appreciated!
Mark