Sunday, June 12, 2005
Taming the Stallions
I've started reading Passed Thru Fire by Rick Bundschuh. What hit me so far is in the chapter "Geldings and Stallions" and how the churches are filled with geldings (eunuchs), where male are feminized or at least intellectually focused males.
Stallions are wild, dangerous male horses that cannot be tamed easily (unlike geldings). And boys have a lot of wildness in them. Our "modern" society tries to supress this wildness through mass education (peer pressure?) and even with drugs like retalin. Challenge for all dads is how to channel the wildness in a positive way rather than forcing them to turn to rebellion and even violence (aka gangs) as a way to express their wildness.
Unfortunately, the churches today are so sanitized that wild boys and wild men have no real place for them. In fact, not many "rough" men are visible at Sunday mornings. Nor do the church facilities allow such wild males to have worship let alone kinesthetic Bible studies (what that would be like, I cannot imagine since I'm not a kinesthetic learner).
I like the author's quote:
Stallions are wild, dangerous male horses that cannot be tamed easily (unlike geldings). And boys have a lot of wildness in them. Our "modern" society tries to supress this wildness through mass education (peer pressure?) and even with drugs like retalin. Challenge for all dads is how to channel the wildness in a positive way rather than forcing them to turn to rebellion and even violence (aka gangs) as a way to express their wildness.
Unfortunately, the churches today are so sanitized that wild boys and wild men have no real place for them. In fact, not many "rough" men are visible at Sunday mornings. Nor do the church facilities allow such wild males to have worship let alone kinesthetic Bible studies (what that would be like, I cannot imagine since I'm not a kinesthetic learner).
I like the author's quote:
Franky, the church doesn't have stallion because it doesn't want stallions. They damage our goods, threaten our leaders, intimidate our pliable gentle students, dismantle the current pecking order, scare parents (particularly of girls) and raise our insurance premiums. [...] As long as the typical church wants to play it safe, put church facilities and things above peple and protect the status quo from the savages swirling outside its gates, there will be no place for these wild and wonderful leaders of tomorrow.Ironically, Jesus Christ Himself was a carpenter and many of His followers were rough men, especially the well known fishermen. WWJD with these wild males?
