Why men don't like to go to church

Dear all,

I won't be able to do this without getting copyright clearance when we go public but I've just been alerted to an interesting article through the Katholica list in America which I'm republishing here without the necessary permissions.

Regards, Tom Scott

Why men don't like to go to church

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0606160287jun16,1,3110034.story

By Kristen Campbell
Religion News Service
Published June 16, 2006

Churches wouldn't want pirates in the pews. But David Murrow, author of "Why Men Hate Going to Church," says a touch of swashbuckling spirit might not be the worst thing to happen on Sunday mornings.

"We don't have to have hand-to-hand combat during the worship service to get men there," Murrow said. "We just have to start speaking [their language], use the metaphors they understand and create an environment that feels masculine to them."

Today's churches, Murrow argued, just aren't cutting it.

"My background is in marketing and advertising, and one day I was sitting in church and all of a sudden it dawned on me that the target audience of almost everything about church culture was a 50- to 55-year-old woman," said Murrow, a Presbyterian elder who's now a member of a non-denominational congregation in Anchorage.

The gender gap isn't a distinctly American one, but it is a Christian one, according to Murrow. The theology and practices of Judaism, Buddhism and Islam offer "uniquely masculine" experiences for men, he said.

"Every Muslim man knows that he is locked in a great battle between good and evil, and although that was a prevalent teaching in Christianity until about 100 years ago, today it's primarily about having a relationship with a man who loves you unconditionally," Murrow said, referring to Christ.

"And if that's the punch line of the gospel, then you're going to have a lot more women than men taking you up on your offer because women are interested in a personal relationship with a man who loves you unconditionally. Men, generally, are not."

Concern about the perceived feminization of Christianity--and the subsequent backlash--is nothing new.

In the middle of the 19th Century, two-thirds of church members in New England were women, said Bret E. Carroll, professor of history at California State University, Stanislaus. Portrayals of Jesus around that time depicted a doe-eyed savior with long, flowing hair and white robes.

Then, around the 1870s and 1880s, came a growing emphasis on making religion attractive to men. The movement known as "muscular Christianity" extolled manliness and had its heyday from 1880 to 1920, according to Clifford Putney in "Muscular Christianity."

Around the same time, fraternal orders grew exponentially among the urban middle classes, according to an online article by Mark C. Carnes, author of "Secret Ritual and Manhood in Victorian America." Not only did the groups provide men with opportunities to cultivate business connections, Carnes wrote, but they also appealed to some who "found satisfaction in the exotic rituals, which provided a religious experience antithetical to liberal Protestantism and a masculine `family' vastly different from the one in which most members had been raised."

Fast forward to the late 20th Century, when Promise Keepers experienced enormous--if somewhat fleeting--popularity. Determining the lasting influence of this or any other movement in men's spiritual lives proves difficult.

But Rev. Chip Hale, pastor of Spanish Fort United Methodist Church in Spanish Fort, Ala., said he believes "real strides" have been made with Promise Keepers and other men's movements. Mission trips and hurricane relief work have also helped to make faith become real for some.

"These guys have really come out because it's something they can do," Hale said. "They feel like they've made a contribution. ... I think men like to do things that they feel comfortable doing."

Yet come Sunday morning, "we're going to sing love songs to Jesus and there's going to be fresh flowers on the altar and quilted banners on the walls," Murrow said.

Men aren't the only ones alienated by such an environment. Young people aren't that keen on it either, Murrow wrote. Both groups are challenge-oriented and appreciate risk, adventure, variety, pleasure and reward, Murrow wrote.

Tom Scott is the pen name of the editor of Catholica, Brian Coyne.

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