The term “toxic masculinity” is en vogue now, from college campuses to entertainment and pop culture. The term implies there’s a problem with masculinity. But teaching our boys and men that their innate wiring is wrong, stupid, and even toxic creates far worse problems. If anything, society doesn’t need less toxic masculinity, we need more men embracing their natural masculinity.
The latest in the manipulated denigrations of toxic masculinity is the University of Regina, a school in Canada. They’re hosting a program called “Man Up Against Violence,” which asks male students to sit in a Catholic-style confessional booth and confess their sin of “hypermasculinity.” Penance for the 'guilty' guy should include three hours of shopping, chatting with the girls, and sipping chai tea with his pinky finger extended. Extra points for wearing skinny jeans.
What’s that? You weren’t aware masculinity, hyper or otherwise, was a problem? Well, liberal universities (of which we have a heavy infestation), want guys to own it and apologize for it—not just inwardly, but outwardly too. These liberal bastions envision a world where today's man is yesterday's woman. Goodbye flannel shirts and the ability to fix most anything that's broken. Hello Guyliner; hello Guylashes.
Never mind that these academics are ignoring thousands of years of things like Christian virtues, knightly conduct and gentlemanly codes developed and used to channel boys’ natural aggression in positive ways as mentors show them how to be stand-up men living a gallant code. All that is outmoded now.
Actually, it’s worse than outmoded. That portion of human history is too loaded with things these academics want to wipe away—and, to some extent, they already have diminished, which is the actual reason colleges are dealing with boys who never learned to be gentleman. So, instead of taking an honest look at what makes men, some colleges have opted to condemn manliness.
And it's the same way in the church to some extent. Truer words were never spoken:
"The greatest want of the world is the want of men - men who will not be bought or sold; men who in their inmost souls are true and honest; men who do not fear to call sin by its right name; men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole; men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall" (Education, 57).
A loss of true masculinity in the church means a loss of discipline, a loss of leadership, and a loss of protection. The presence of true masculinity, filled with the Holy Spirit, means our churches are safer, stronger, and better equipped to address the challenges of our Advent mission. Let the world fall on their politically-correct swords, dear friends. We have a much higher calling.
"He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you? But to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8).