Real Men for Jesus?

A while back, I posted on the topic of being a man in today's evangelical church. It was a long and winding post that didn't arrive at a conclusion as much as it did a sentiment. My feeling at the time is that the neo-machismo crowd (from John Eldredge the mild to Mark Driscoll the fire-breather) is right (in some ways) on diagnosis, but dead wrong on cure.

A far more eloquent and reasoned piece of writing, with a clear point of view, can be found in this feature article by Brandon O'Brien in the current issue of Christianity Today. The crux of his concern can be found in this paragraph:

"My point is this: If Adam and Eve illustrate the essential differences between men and women, Christ highlights their essential unity. All believers are called to imitate Christ by exhibiting the same qualities; Paul makes no distinction between masculine and feminine fruits of the Spirit. In fact, the evidence of the Spirit's work looks very different from the qualities the masculinity movement suggests typify a 'real' man. Instead of 'brash, offensive' (Stine), 'self-reliant, competitive' (Murrow), 'punch-you-in-the-nose dudes' (Driscoll), Paul says that those who are filled with the Holy Spirit will be loving, patient, peaceful, kind, and gentle."

Men and women might have different ways of expressing these Christ-like traits. However, to argue that certain negative traits such as passivity, insecurity, or gooey niceness are bad for the Church because they are feminine is to say without saying that the female personna (and by extension, female discipleship) is second-rate and even dangerous. O'Brien makes the case that such negative traits are not bad for men because they are feminine, but because they are so unlike Jesus.

The sloppy cultural critiques of some feminists does not warrant and equally sloppy and ungodly response on the part of evangelical believers and leaders. In the day that the Suffering Servant returns to judge the living and the dead, there will be no prototypical male or female by whose standard we will be measured. Jesus--the incarnation of humanness in all its forms and features--will look only to Himself. And when He does, He will see one who both rules and serves, who both judges and extends grace, who speaks truth but does so with tender mercy, and who is the only standard for every man, woman, boy, and girl who has ever lived.