Mentoring Our Boys –

            We can build a powerful historical case for the Supreme Court’s declaration that “This is a Christian nation” and “We are a Christian people.” (1811, 1892, 1931, 1952)  Yet today, the evidence has dwindled to a mere pittance.

So how’d we get into this mess?  Why have the cultural norms turned away from our Christian heritage?  Who’s to blame?

            To start off, I point my finger at Adam.  It is a well-documented idea that, while Eve was deceived into eating the forbidden fruit, Adam was credited for the original sin by his passive response to the whole scene.  And it’s that passive nature that has repeatedly crept into the general character of the population of men.  While our Founding Fathers were men of action, today’s Christian men are tending toward anemic behavior in the families, communities, churches and nation.

            So again, how’d we get into this mess?  According to Joe Ehrmann, “All these problems I’ve been trying to deal with [poverty, racism, drugs, crime, illiteracy, family disintegration], they’re not just problems, they’re also symptoms, … They’re symptoms of the single biggest failure of our society.  We simply don’t do a good enough job of teaching boys how to be men.” (From Season of Life, Jeffrey Marx.  Also see Building Men for Others at www.buildingmen.org)

Posted on November 15th, 2007 by Jeff Purkiss
Filed under: Cultural Issues