TrueManhood Podcast – Episode 13 Fatherhood, Leadership, and Gender Roles

Dave discusses the topic of fatherhood, leadership, and the roles of men and women. If you’re a Catholic, a husband, or a father, this episode is for you.

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The TrueManhood Podcast Episode 3 – The Devil’s Top 5 Lies

The TrueManhood Podcast, brought to you by TrueManhood Men’s Ministry, in Episode 3, will examine what we believe are the Devil’s Top 5 Lies to win souls. Lie #1: Pornography. #2: Decay of Marriage/Okay of Divorce. #3: Abortion/Contraception. #4: Gender Agenda. #5: Atheism/Secular Humanism

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“Skirt Covering the Knees, Leg Warmers, Boots, a Half-Sleeved Shirt…”

These are words that have never come out of my mouth as to something I was wearing.  Other than the boots part.  Skirt?  Leg Warmers?  Geez.  I thought this story was a joke when I first saw it about two weeks ago, but apparently, it’s not.  This guy actually exists.  I looked up his “art”… very disturbing.  I don’t recommend it.  In fact, I suggest you don’t.  It’s a bit pornographic and very sacrilegious.  There are very clear and problematic issues with this male’s stance… it is the same problem that we see often in our culture; the oxymoron of feminine-men and masculine-women.  Put plainly, when men and women lose their gender roles and responsibilities, there is a disorder happening and things get all out of whack.  As I’ve written several times before, our Church and many of Her leaders (including Blessed John Paul II) emphatically teach “equal in dignity, difference in roles.”  It’s the only thing that makes sense.

I’m glad the Vatican stands up to this sort of behavior.  If an institution in America did this, they’d be sued, all over the lib-media and denounced as intolerant and judgmental.  The Vatican plays by different rules.  Thank goodness.  Here’s the story…

“Mumbai-based artist Julius Macwan has felt strongly about women’s causes for a long time — in solidarity of which he wears skirts, a statement that he feels underlines his connection with and sympathies for the fairer sex. But this very ‘rule breaking’ got him into a bit of a conundrum in Rome last week.

Julius, a Roman Catholic by birth, inspired by Italy’s greats Michelangelo and Bernini in his art, named after Roman emperor Julius Caesar was ironically stopped at the very gates he was longing to pass through for a very long time — he was forbidden from entering the Vatican because he was in a skirt.

“I was in a state of shock, my mind was numb,” Macwan, now back in Mumbai, recalled. “My most famous work is inspired by the Pieta, it is also called the Pieta/The Death of Magic. I wanted to see the Pieta in the Vatican, had dressed formally for the occasion — skirt covering the knees, leg warmers, boots, a half- sleeved shirt. You can say my outfit was inspired by Roman warriors of the past.”

It might be interesting to note that Macwan’s Pieta/The Death of Magic depicts a self portrait of Julius himself, in a skirt, holding the body of a woman in a bikini, representative of the magic of womanhood dying in a male-controlled world. Macwan’s Pieta is now part of Harsh Goenka’s collection.

The original Pieta, (which has four versions, the most famed being in the Vatican) sculpted by Italian genius Michelangelo depicts the Virgin Mary distraught as she holds the body of Christ.

Despite his knees being covered, Macwan was stopped at the gates and asked if he were Scottish (because his attire resembled the kilt).

“I didn’t know till I reached the Vatican that the dress code requires shoulders and knees to be covered. Mine were covered, though I was in a skirt, but when I said I wasn’t Scottish, the person at the gate wouldn’t let me through,” he said. The person seemed to be a priest – he was in a white buttoned smock. “I was thrilled to be at the Vatican, I’m Roman Catholic, named after the Roman Caesar, I was in his city, my work deals with the Pieta, I was wearing Roman-inspired clothing, thinking in this visit, destiny completes itself.” Clearly, it was not to be. The person at the gate pointed to his skirt, and said, ‘You cannot go in. If you argue, I’ll call the police.”

Macwan didn’t go in. He feels, however, that “more than racist, the episode was chauvinistic.” “I was stopped because I wore a skirt, not because I was showing my knees. There was another guy going in later, in what appeared to be swimming trunks, his knees were showing. But he was let in.”

Though he didn’t get to see the Pieta, Macwan says he feels ‘strangely empowered’ by the incident. “I was in a skirt, I was not allowed in – my work deals with this theme.” And he is not registering any complaints against what he calls the ‘fundamentalism’ of religion. “Though I was humiliated, I am not complaining.” Macwan will instead, channel his experience into another Roman inspired work of art – this time depicting the scene outside the Vatican!”

“Womanpriests”, “Pope Joan”… and a side of PC

Lately, I’ve come across several stories, websites, conversations, etc. about ‘womanpriests’.  [Some of the websites claim to be in communion with the Roman Catholic Church.  They aren’t.  No matter their claims, they aren’t.]  One story is about a movie that’s out, exclusively in Europe right now, about the legend of a female Pope that lived during the 9th century.  This claim is unsubstantiated and completely fabricated.  One story, which I saw posted on Facebook, spoke of a ‘womanpriest’ from the St. Louis area who is pregnant.  “The first female Roman Catholic priest to be pregnant in history.”  What is the obsession with women being priests?!?!

I think the obsession is the false understanding of freedom in our culture, mixed with a heavy dose of moral relativism, topped with a false sense of equality… served with a side of PC.  In our culture, fairness has been turned into a “if they get one, I deserve one too” system.  Society completely distorts the understanding of gender, gender roles, equality, fairness and the intention of God in regards to gender and sexuality.  The world has turned everything into a competition and some people believe that in order to be considered ‘equal’, they must have the same opportunities as everyone else.  Think about that – it doesn’t make sense.

Why is it, that as soon as a man is allowed (created) to do something, some women automatically insist that they should be allowed to do the same?  The insistance includes many such things that are outside the scope of a woman’s role.  See, when a man is ordained a priest in the Catholic Church, he becomes the spouse of Mother Church.  Plain and simple.  No apologies here… politically correct or not.

Being politically correct is not Catholic.  It’s not charitable, it’s not what Jesus did, it’s not what we should do.  Being politically correct asks us to waterdown our faith, to become “tolerant” of everything that’s going on around us – whether morally acceptable or not.  No thanks.

As always, I’m not diggin’ on women.  I’m not trying to deify men.  What I’m saying is that we were each created for something great, as a man or as a woman.  Those things can be (and most likely are) different.

Stand up for the dignity of each person.  Respect life.  Respect what God created you for.  Stand up for Truth.  Stand up against the notion of tolerance.  Ruffle feathers, if that’s what it takes.  Christ wasn’t a fairweather prophet… He didn’t take the position of “acceptance”… See, what Christ did (which is what we are supposed to model our lives after) is that He loved sinners too much to allow them to stay where they were.

TrueMan up!

Supposed To Do

I just returned from a weekend trip to a private midwestern university where I gave a talk on manliness and Christian brotherhood.  I mentioned the topic of Adam from the creation story in Genesis.  In the story, Adam disregards the command that God gave to him to “shamar” the garden.  From his neglect, sin entered the world.  This, naturally, led to discussion about gender roles.  During the Q&A session, a young man in the front row asked me “what do you mean when you say ‘what a man should do’ and ‘what a woman should do’?”  I think it’s a great question and deserves some explanation and distinction here on the site.

When I say one of those statements (‘what a man (or woman) should d0’), what I mean is that men and women have been called to a specific role in humanity.  (For instance, fatherhood, or motherhood.)  The young man wanted to know if I thought that women shouldn’t work, or be in leadership or do anything outside of mothering children, cleaning and cooking.  Obviously, I am not of that opinion.  I can understand the question though, because our society tells us constantly that it’s either one, but not both.

Being called to a specific role in humanity means that a male or a female is embracing their nature.  Men are naturally designed to protect, guard and care for.  We are more rugged.  Our bodies are made for laborious tasks.  Women are naturally more nurturing, motherly and tender.  These differences aren’t pointed out to say one is better than the other, only that they are different.  John Paul II said many times, “Men and women were created equal in dignity, but different in role.”  This is an important distinction.

For men to be TrueMen, we must embrace what is naturally placed on our hearts by God and follow the commands that God has given to us.

TrueMan up!