Manly Christianity

There's an interesting story wending its course on my brother Dave's blog, concerning 'men and church'. One commenter (behaving slightly nebbishly) is laying the blame squarely at churchgoing men having a high level of education. Be warned! According to him if you went to church as a child or teen and/or went to university that means you're probably a pooftah or you act like one.

But on a serious note, there is something interesting in the original 'research' that Dave linked to. Men apparently don't like 'wet' churchianity. It's one of those surveys where you see the findings and think 'well, duh!' But then there is a lot of slightly-offputting-to-men stuff going on in churches.

Stuff like the music. There seems to a be a trend in modern hymnody towards 'love songs to Jesus'. The one I find a bit disturbing is one that includes a line "By your side I would lie", which always strikes me as homoerotic. I tried to find it online to reproduce the lyrics here, but couldn't. Instead I found one just as bad:

Closer than my thoughts
Closer than a kiss
How could it be
More intimate than this?

More honest words than these I'll never find.
With all my heart, my strength, my soul, my mind.

I love You, I love You, I'm Yours and You are mine.
I love You, I love You, I love You Jesus Christ.

Let me hear Your voice
Whisper Heaven's song
Deeper into You
Is where I belong

Now here's the thing. I recognise Jesus Christ as my saviour and Lord. I have chosen to follow him. Does that mean I love him? Well, yes, of course. I love Jesus. But - and here's the line that some of these songs seem to cross - I'm not gay for him. But if I'm made to sing that song by an overly sentimental worship leader, it sounds like I am.

And that's one reason why men don't like going to church.