On this past Sunday, our men gathered for a series called Collision Course, which seeks to allow men to sharpen one another to practice Biblical masculinity. Specifically, we engaged with this Doug Wilson video entitled Two Departures from Masculinity:
Here’s a transcript:
Scott Anderson of Desiring God: Doug, talk to us about what it means to depart from masculinity? What are the options if we fall off that horse?
Doug Wilson: I’m fond of telling our people at our congregation at Christ Church that there’s always a ditch on both sides of the road. There are two ways to run your car off the road. And if you want to stay on the road of Biblical, godly masculinity, one way to veer off the road is simply to abdicate, to collapse in a heap, to fail to fulfill your obligations because you twisted your ankle, just sort of an effeminate collapsing. Then, the other way to veer away from masculinity is through bravado or machismo or sort of a swagger that is all hat no cattle. You know all the trappings of masculinity are adopted: sports fanaticism, smoking cigars, loud music, your pickup truck is jacked up so you can go hunting bear. You’ve got all the trappings, but you’re not taking responsibility for your wife or for your family. So, one is a counterfeit machismo and the other is an effeminate collapsing.
Benjamin Oard led our men in a discussion on what are the ditches to avoid, how are they created and how we keep in the center, walking the path of Biblical masculinity God intended. We had lots of rich discussion and prayer at our tables following this and ended our night. It was a great time of fellowship and encouragement for the guys.