Over the weekend Dalrock sent me a link posted to his comments by seventiesjason about about yet one more program to train Christian men to be Christian men:
Theology Professor Launches ‘Christian Man Academy’ to Combat Destruction of Biblical Masculinity
You can read it if you like. The short version is it’s another self-improvement scam perpetrated by the would-be teachers not only upon other men, but upon themselves. From the Christian Man Academy’s Welcome page:
Which brings me to the question: “Why should you listen to me? What are my qualifications for teaching on this subject?” First, I’m a man, have been for 52 years. Second, I’m a Christian man. I’ve been a Christian for thirty years. I’ve been a husband for 28 years, I’ve been a father for 22 years with five kids ranging from 22 to five years old (including three sons aged 22, 21, and 5). I’ve been a pastor for 23 years. I’ve been involved in training young men for the ministry for 16 years. I’ve taught leadership courses for 11 years. I’ve counseled hundreds of young men and I teach a Sunday School class made up of junior and senior High School kids.
Look: If you’re a Christian man then you’re a Christian man. Army Basic Training produces soldiers and baseball camp produces baseball players. You don’t need specialized training in how to be a man because you already are. Congratulations, you’ve arrived. You can skip the man camps and academies. In fact you should. Application of reason (you’re already a Christian man) and Dalrock’s Law of Feminism: (Feminism is the assertion that men are evil and naturally want to harm women, followed by pleas to men to solve all of women’s problems.) reveals these training courses will only form more useful idiots for the Feminists. And you would also enable the false projections of these men, and they have enough problems without our encouragement.
Things that We have Heard and Known 
You are speaking about a generation that doesn’t know what manhood means, because they have been conditioned by feminists.
There are no rights of passage in our society.
I think there is room for some form of ministry to step in and define it. But don’t trust ministries that ask you for $$$
It is really striking how different conservative Christian culture is from the examples and teaching of the NT in this regard. The irony is every man who jumps on a pedestal and beats his chest proclaiming he is a real man who will teach the clueless bastards how to be Christian men is making it obvious that he has no idea what he is talking about. Being a Christian man isn’t about puffing yourself up. The truly tragic thing is that this is so common that large numbers of young Christian men are taken in by these programs. This is what they think will cause other Christian men to finally show them honor.
Also 1 Corinthians 4
And Titus 2
Older men who puff themselves up to show young men how to be real men are doing it all wrong.
Cane, I aspire to your level of discernment. Lest anyone think your judgement hasty, I poked around on the linked website and found the owner approvingly quoting another author:
To make a bad thing worse, these courses almost universally provide instruction in how to be more like a woman to be more like a man.
@ LP
That’s the standard in modern “Christian” marriage advice.
No problem is ever the wife’s fault.
Every problem is the husband’s fault.
The solution to every problem is for the husband to behave more like a woman.
@Lexet
I don’t agree. If our generation doesn’t know what manhood means, then how is it that Feminists and SJWs come to be on our case with such regularity? How does Gillette know we grill? How does “Organizing for Action” know to put forth Pajama Boy in support of Obamacare? The guy who played Pajama Boy (Ethan Krupp) knew he was playing himself against type–his type being Man. He did it to send the message. It’s not ignorance our generation is up against. It’s rejection. More specifically: It’s a rejection of God’s plan that women should obey their men.
@Zadok
Thanks. I admit that I saw that bit before I wrote my post (Dalrock sent that along also), but I knew it or something like that was there because that is the only way Man-Up teachings can make any sense to a potential subscriber or follower.
There’s something paramilitary about it, these Christian man’s camp for the laity. And we all know that “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”
And no, I don’t think that Masons, fraternal organisations, lineage societies, or the like are particularly helpful. Tempting, maybe, but ultimately too corruptible. The clergy and (advanced) religious orders should be the only spaces that need rules about being exclusive. Other places probably tend to be exclusively manly out of sheer natural competitiveness, therefore no need for stilted and corrupting “traditions of men” like making such a rule would do.
A.J.P.
From the time I was a kid I heard that girls just naturally become women but boys have to work at being men.
I’m beginning to think that is all horseshit. At the best, it was an encouragement to virtues we should all have anyway, at worst it was used as a tool of control.
I understand the impulse towards rites of passage, but I’m also deeply skeptical of a lot. Keep the mission the mission as they say. What exactly are we trying to achieve with men and why? If it’s vague, odds on it’s a lie.
Knowing nothing and embodying nothing of genuine masculinity. They only further effeminacy and a farce of that imitation of manhood.
As well as a chivalric distortion of what is meant to be.
Neither the Gravitas, Courage, Strength and Honor that is present in real masculinity.
Pingback: A real life example of the power of a Christian wife. | Dalrock
What about boy-to-men “rites of passage” throughout history? Pretty much every historical culture had some form of “rite of passage” that boys have to go through to become men. Sure, there’s no Scripture backing for any of this, but the point is that that the whole world is incredibly consistent with the practice of this “rite of passage”. Until modern times, that is. Perhaps there is some universal truth reflected in this practice? Surely to become a “Christian Man”, one who fights for His kingdom, for victory against the principalities and powers of this World, etc etc… and also one who leads his family and his community, and the only gender allowed to teach and lead in the church, surely there has to be some form of “rite of passage” we are to go through as well before we can be “Christian Men”? Even today you don’t get to become say, a Marine or an officer without first going through the entire course.
I don’t necessarily agree with the above premise, just presenting the argument which I think is an interesting one.
@White
In this case Christian leaders are trying to invent a custom that exists neither in Scripture nor in our culture. Surely the problem with this is obvious. Note that the pastor quoted in the OP says he’s been a man for 53 years, which I assume means he was born a man. He was a man while he was an infant!
Beyond that, there is the problem of withholding honor instead of giving it (contrary to Scripture). The implication is that Christian men can jump through a specific set of flaming hoops and finally be seen as respectable. Marriage and fatherhood wasn’t enough, and neither will the latest manhood academy, Resolution for Men, etc. It isn’t just a fake custom, the implied payoff is a lie.
Lastly, you can’t teach how to be a Christian man in a bootcamp model. There is no shortcut to teaching patience. You can’t scream love and kindness into a man. You won’t teach courage by taking the easy path. And you won’t teach that love does not boast by declaring yourself the only real man in the room.
@Lexet
“You are speaking about a generation that doesn’t know what manhood means, because they have been conditioned by feminists.
There are no rights of passage in our society.”
The problem isnt because of a single generation not being raised properly. The rot has been eating its way through society for well over a century.
Well, at least he’s fighting “toxic” masculinity. http://myfaithradio.com/program_podcast/combating-toxic-masculinity-crises-syria-haiti/
For years I waited for some leader to tell me that I had become a man. Then the “Real Men don’t use Porn” slogan was discussed somewhere in these parts of the manosphere. Someone asked, “If real men don’t use porn, then why are we even talking about it?” And it clicked for me. I am a man whether anyone else recognizes it or not.
So many of us Christian men have been drawn to leaders who use the stick because we see the use of the stick as evidence that he will eventually use the carrot. That was certainly my expectation with Mark Driscoll.
Discipline is good. But it must come from love for the person being disciplined. So often what looks like discipline is just TORMINTR building himself up by tearing other men down, as Dalrock has shown.
I recall the Promise Keepers of the mid 90s and how nauseating they were. Bunch of sickos. <Let’s all get together is huge stadium and cry and promise to treat our wives better.>