Be A Man: Part II

*Disclaimer follows.

Ok, so last week I talked about the fact that, like it or not, there are inherent gender roles that men and women are designed to fulfill, and in today's society those gender roles are being abolished in the name of "gender equality," which is resulting in a lot of problems. So today I am going to elaborate a little more on why I see this as a problem, and what I see happening as a result of the loss of gender roles in our society.

Once again, I'm going to be talking a lot about men. So, let's begin.

Men are designed to be fighters, protectors and defenders of our families and convictions. We are meant to fight for those we love, but this is being stripped, and rather than warriors, men are becoming watchers. We are becoming complacent and lazy, but that inherent need/desire to fight for something is still there. So what happens? Here are a few things that I see.

• Because men are no longer fighting or expected to fight for the ones they love, for the heart of the one they love, I believe is one of the reasons that we have so many marriages that are failing, so many men abandoning their families, children, and wives, so many men having affairs, etc... Here's why. When we fight for something and prevail, when we "win" something, we are proud of it. We parade it around and display it for all to see. It is precious to us because we put our blood, sweat, and tears into obtaining it, and we not only want to show the world the precious thing that we have, but we will continue to fight to protect it to keep it pristine. Sadly, for many men in today's society, we no longer fight for the woman we love, for our children. Now, it may seem sexist to say that women are prizes to be won, but think about it, what woman doesn't want to be treasured and prized? If you had the choice of being an invaluable, priceless, timeless, treasured prize to your husband or a ring from a cracker jack box, which would you prefer to be? What is sad, is that, for too many men today, their wives are not treasured prizes, they are are simply a passing fad, getting married was something to do, and even though they may have loved them in the moment, they did not and do not fight for them, so they are easy to leave in pursuit of something or someone else, that maybe they do have to fight for, or maybe is just another passing fad. So many women go after the "bad boy," the rebel, and I don't believe it is because they are "bad" or rebellious, but because they fight for what they believe, even if they are misguided in their belief, and they fight for the one they love. So the first problem I see is that, as men lose their gender roles they abandon their families because they go from something they treasure to something they simply have.
• As men lose this fight for their convictions and those they love, they don't lose the inherent role of a fighter and protector, so we see men acting on this role in violent, rather, than noble ways. This takes many forms. It can manifest in random acts of violence that we hear about on the news every day, but it can also manifest itself in abusive relationships in which men, instead of embracing the honorable, God given role of leader in their homes, stoop to abuse and control, whether physical, verbal, or emotional. Instead of leading in a Godly manner, they violently and abusively control the situation so that they can feel in charge.
• As more and more women move into the roles meant for men, often out of necessity because the men have abandoned these roles, this leaves a gap in the role of nurture and loving caretaker for our children. We can see this in far too many families. We see children who are lacking the necessary love and support that comes from their mothers and fathers. I think that we underestimate how important the role of nurturer is in society. We place so much importance on the more "glamorous" professional/political roles that we forget that "we all wanna be loved" and love is vitally important to development. Sadly, many of our kids are not receiving the love and care that they need because the ones designed to primarily fulfill this role are busy elsewhere.  

These are just a few of the problems that I see arising from the loss of gender roles in our society, and truly, I think that this loss is a root cause behind many more problems.

So men: stand up and Be A Man. Fight for the ones you love, fight for your convictions, fight for the poor, widows, and orphans, fight for God. Lead your families, don't make your wives fulfill your role because you have abandoned it.

*A lot of these statements are overarching generalizations. I realize that. I am in no way saying that all men are violent and abandon their families, that no woman should ever have a professional job, that no man can provide love to his children or cook a meal and do the laundry. We are all made in God's image, and as such we all, male and female, have amazing capabilities and capacity for love, devotion, fight. We see examples in the Bible of women who are strong, courageous, leaders who follow God and save many, and we see that not all men are burly fighters, there are poets, musicians, chefs, gentle fathers. However, there are roles that males and females are better fitted and designed for, and this is my point. We need to not focus so much on what is "politically correct" and focus more on fulfilling the roles that God established. He does, afterall, know best what works!