I recently came across the website of Anglican priest Fr. David Smith who is not only a minister in the Anglican tradition, but also a boxer and martial arts expert. It also seems that he has taken a bold role in speaking out in favor of Palestinian rights, especially for the Christians there. That takes a lot of guts too.
He has started a website called “Fighting Fathers” which is dedicated to fighting social ills and working for real change in the world.
He even runs a Christian fight club (physical fighting, not like the “fighting fathers”) and goes to great pains to assert that it is not a “gentle, touchy feely self-help group” but one that will actually train you to win competitions. They have their unique style of martial arts, but adhere to a general Christian philosophy of faith, fellowship, and fitness.
My thoughts on all of this? I love it. The Catholic Church and most mainline Christian denominations have become quite feminized. Don’t believe me? Look at the staffing at most Catholic parishes and schools. Sure, the priest is always a guy, but most of the support staff is inevitably women. Now, I don’t intend to demean women or the great work most of them do. In fact, it’s often because men do not step up to the plate that women do most of the day to day work, including education, activity planning, and liturgy design and implementation, in a parish. However, when their ideas and activities are too “touchy-feely” and alienate men this then leads to even fewer men willing to take on leadership roles. It’s a vicious cycle of male alienation and males, especially boys, lose out.
Some will say that Fr. Dave plays to male stereotypes. Perhaps; but most stereotypes have a bit of truth. And, from my teaching experiences, most guys love sports, especially contact ones. Most of them also think the martial arts are extremely cool. I agree myself. They don’t usually feel the same way about religion, since to them it’s mostly singing banal songs they would never listen to in their spare time, boring meditating or reflecting, or sitting still and being quiet for long periods of time. While religion does involve reflection, sitting still, and other not too “exciting” things, we need to show our boys and older men that religion and the Church can also include more masculine activities…like a Christian fight club run by a priest…and that these are legitimate.
Kudos to Fr. Dave. I just wish he were Catholic because we need guys like this.
You don’t mean to demean women, but I don’t see how this line of reasoning can help but sound demeaning. I wrote a very long comment on this but I’ve deleted it. I think there are genuine issues regarding lack of rigor in spiritual practice, but this cultural narrative of masculinity in decline sucks and I hate the idea of importing it into the church. And you know, I’m saying this and Fight Club is still one of my favorite films of all time.
I understand what you’re getting at, Jonathan. You’re right, except for the priest (and deacon if you have one), most of the staff at Catholic parishes are women. But, frankly, that’s the way it’s usually been. I mean, throughout Catholic history, women have been the backbone of the Church…the regular attenders, the ones who keep the pious practices going, the ones who do the cleaning of the church, staffing etc. The same can be said of most Orthodox parishes as well.
The “feminization” that I see and find dangerious is the one that de-genders the Godhead to the extent that Christian language borders on goddess worship. In fact, in some denominations (Lutheran and Episcopalian) there IS open worship of a goddess! I just don’t see how a big injection of worldly butchness is going to help that.
A priest running a fight club? Something about that just doesn’t sit right. While I am NO pacifist by any stretch of the word, clergy are supposed to be above that and offer a better way. In fact, several early councils forbade clergy to carry weapons or retaliate in any way. Don’t know…just seems odd to me.
Anastasia,
I definitely don’t want to make this a war of the sexes thing. I just think men need to feel invested in the Church and right or wrong many don’t because Church becomes “what women do” and sometimes the environment and activities back that up. For example, RCIA is often hell for people who dislike telling stories and touchy feely reflecting because the programs are often setup that way. This isn’t a male-female issue really since I know many women would hate this too. But, I think a lot of average guys, in large numbers, are really turned off by this stuff. If more activities were catered towards men, not the academic, intellectual ones who typically enjoy church, but the average guys who prefer Sunday football, I believe the Church would be better off. Although they may seem boorish at times, the Great Commission applies to them too and we have to try to reach them.
Nicene,
You make very valid points. And, I think some of the issues related to goddess worship and feminization of the Godhead stem from a lack of respect for masculinity. For example, God as Father has to be oppressive and patriarchal. I was certainly taught that in seminary where students could hold any number of heresies, but using male terms or pronouns for God received a talking to or worse. I am by no means advocating the elevation of machismo or even any type of macho behavior. But, masculinity, yes. For some reason in mainline Christianity (and to an extent Catholicism) neutral is good, feminine is good, but masculine is bad. Why?
Also, this priest emphasizes that his fight club is for sport, not self-defense, which seems to be a recognition of your objections. In Catholicism this would probably be better as a lay movement, but I guess I like to see a vigorous masculinity (once again, not machismo) at work in Christianity.
Jonathan,
After your explanation…I say I’d agree. ;)
Actually, I disagree that women “step up” to take over as a result of male inaction. I think the exact reverse is true: aggressive women take over and men give up, rather than push and slap their way back to authority.
Female leadership is, in my view, a universal disaster. It is one of the key causes of church decline. If you want a vicious, exclusionary, sexist to run your church into the ground, just ordain her.
Bish,
No one is advocating ordaining women here; the Church has spoken on that and, as far as this Catholic is concerned, that settles it. HOWEVER, there have ALWAYS been lay women who have been in leadership OR teaching roles in the Churches and often to the Church’s betterment, not hurt. For instance, the female Doctors of the Church (that is, universal teachers) and the great mitred abbesses of the Middle Ages.
I think what the discussion here is about…or meant to be…is that men need to start acting more like men and not become overly feminized and touchy feely. It isn’t about how women should have no say in the churches and must sit meekly and quietly.
A man’s man like Pat O’Brien or Spencer Tracy in the movies. I hear you. Good stuff!
Hi,
Have question. Found your article very interesting–I often wonder why there are so few males in Church.
I am female and teach CCD at my parish. I want to be able to make certain these boys are connecting to the Church in a way that is gender specific because I do think a lot of it is feminized. Do you have any suggestions to teach little boys that would connect them more to the masculine side of the Church? All of the teaching classes I take emphasize learning styles–but they don’t focus on gender differences.
CCD teacher,
As a religion teacher who struggles with the same issues, I understand where you are coming from and appreciate your interest in your male students. Awhile back, my school had a great guest speaker on boys and education. His name is Dr. Michael Thompson. His speech was great, but also challenging since our educational system really is stacked against males. Here is his website:
http://www.michaelthompson-phd.com/
I’m not sure how helpful the site is, but it may be able to point you to some of his resources.
Hi there may I quote some of the material found in this post if I link back to you?