Sometimes They Parody Themselves

Via Andrew Sullivan... it's time for "macho Christianity":

There is a new trend in religion: macho Christianity — a movement started by men who say traditional church services are just too feminine and sissy.

Who are these manly men who will save Christianity from the ladies? These men are GodMen:

Men need movements like GodMen because Christians have been taught about a Jesus who's too nice to be real, said life coach and Christian radio show host Paul Coughlin. The leaders of GodMen contend that church, as most men know it, has gotten too sissy.

"A meek and mild Jesus… eventually is a bore," he said.

All right, first thing: your job title is "life coach." That's macho?

According to the article, the GodMen are, in part, a response to interior decorating issues:

"What we're saying is that… we've been taught the loving guy, the beautiful guy… When we walk into a church, we see ferns. We're not used to that. We want something that shows the masculine side as well," [founder Brad] Stine said.

Presumably macho Christians prefer macho plants. Something in a ficus, maybe. A butch ficus.

We're told that the GodMen are inspired by the story of Jesus storming the temple to kick moneychanging ass. Christian rightists seem to refer to this story a lot. It's the one thing in the New Testament that helps validate their dangerously high anger levels.

I'm not religious myself, but it always seemed to me that one of the greatest things about Jesus, as with Gandhi and Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., was his guts. Really, the most incredible kind of courage is the kind that would steel a person to face injustice armed only with truth and the fragility of the human body. Maybe the "life coach" thinks it's a "bore," but give me a nonviolent revolutionary over a fernophobic armchair warrior any day.

Though, in all fairness, nonviolence never sold boxer shorts.

Labels: Andrew Sullivan, fundamentalists, GodMen

  ¶ Posted by Paul Curtis 11:56 AM