I really need to have a new category I call, Give Me a Break. The story behind this post would qualify as a GMaB. But first let me tell a story.
About ten years ago, Al Roxburgh (pastoring in Vancouver at the time) was visiting us in Toronto. We'd been talking about worship songs and I told him I had a great new one for his church. I grabbed the remote and played this song - by the Eagles - Get Over It. Co-writer Don Henley calls it an "anti-politically correct song". It describes our "It's All About Me" culture to a "T". "All this whinin' and cryin' and pitchin' a fit
Get over it, get over it ."
It's the song that came to mind when I read Glen Lucke's post on A New Kind of Worship: Cowboy Up.
Glenn Lucke responds to the Newsweek Story, "GodMen: PromiseKeepers With An Edge." Glen comments:
Read the intensely self-conscious casting about for how to act as "a man". These guys do the self-conscious thing one better: they're not just gazing at themselves, they're gazing at their hormones. (Count the references to testosterone.)
I read the article and watched the videos - and my head is still shaking (about 8 hours later). This is the polar opposite to the J-I-M-B dreck from my previous post - although "Christian Comedian Brad Stine" sounded an awful lot like the pastor from DCC mentioned in that post.
Last Saturday morning, 200 Christian men gathered in a downtown warehouse in Nashville for a day-long spiritual extravaganza. Inside, strobe lights flashed, and tracks by the Killers thumped from speakers stacked on either side of a stage. Four large video screens showed clips of karate fights, car chases and Jackass-style stunts. Then the music lowered and Christian comedian Brad Stine appeared. With his rat-a-tat delivery and aggressive style, Stine quickly whipped the crowd into a chorus of “Amens!” “A lot of guys out there wouldn’t have the balls to be here,” he shouted. “Are you ready to be a man? Are you ready to kick ass? Are you ready to grab your sword and say, ‘OK family, I’m going to lead you?’ Buckle up. This is GodMen!”
I think Glenn has a better handle on it when he says, "it sounds like Beavis and Butthead having a few friends over." (Perhaps they need shirts that say, Jesus was a Man, Dammit, AND SO AM I!!) And Erin needs a loud "Amen" for her comment on Glenn's post:
I don't think they can become real men until they realize that love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are not exclusively feminine traits, and that a church that teaches the need for these virtues has not been "feminized".
GodMen® is just another marketing ploy to gullible people who think they have things bad. Newsweek writer, Eileen Finan got to watch Brad Stine "and his friend and manager Mike Smith" market test their concept - before they roll it out to a larger audience of whiners.
We have the luxury of endless introspection in our leisure oriented society. And we've turned navel gazing into an art form. I think Henley sings the cure, "Get over it! Get over it!"
UPDATE: Read the Pineapple Pundit's take on this story.
Technorati Tags: Brad Stine, Glenn Lucke, GodMen
