It is Sunday morning in America and that means that all across the fruited plains people will be heading to church, more so in the South, Midwest and mountain West than in New England or the Pacific coasts but even in Manhattan and San Francisco people will sit in pews, listening to sermons, perhaps taking communion, putting money in the offering plate.
As anyone who has attended church for any length of time will attest, in many and perhaps most churches the people sitting in the pew will be majority female. From Pew Research, I didn’t see a date on the article, but as you can see when it comes to faithful attenders there is an enormous gap between men and women. The “Chreasters”, or people who only go to church on Christmas and Easter, are more evenly divided and men hold a significant lead when it comes to the cohort that never goes to church.
The man I was named after fell into the seldom/never category. Growing up my family never went to church and so on Sunday mornings Art would drop off his wife for her “churching” and then come over to our place for a cup of coffee wearing his signature khaki work pants, a checkered shirt of some sort and a down vest. When the services were over he would go back to get his wife. His wife was a sweet older lady and Art was a man’s man, a veteran of World War II, owner of a very successful business, and a woodsman without peer. He could hunt, and fish, and fix stuff with the best of them. He had one suit, he called it his “marrying and burying” suit, but otherwise dressed like he was ready to go work at any moment. Who do you think was more appealing as a role model, that manly man or his sweet old lady wife?
He was far from alone. For most of my life, going to church was something that was dominated by women. Even though the vast majority of clergy are men, church life is overpowered by women. This is true even in ostensibly patriarchal denominations. If you want to see a Southern Baptist pastor squirm, ask him in a public setting about women submitting to their husbands (Colossians 3:18; Ephesians 5:22) or covering their head as a symbol of their husband’s authority (1 Corinthians 11:10).
This is a problem that has been a thorn in the side of Christians for as long as I can remember and it has gotten worse, much worse, in the five years since I walked away from Christianity and organized religion. The speed of the decline is accelerating at breakneck speed. The main problem, as an outside observer looking in, comes from the pulpit and the sort of men that stand there on Sunday mornings.
In 1943 Clive Staples Lewis, better known as by his initial C.S., wrote The Abolition Of Man. Broadly speaking it is a treatise on educating children but it is most famous for what he wrote about “men without chests”:
And all the time—such is the tragi-comedy of our situation—we continue to clamour for those very qualities we are rendering impossible. You can hardly open a periodical without coming across the statement that what our civilization needs is more ‘drive’, or dynamism, or self-sacrifice, or ‘creativity’. In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.
It isn’t what he was talking about but I am reminded of this idea of when I think of the average Protestant preacher in 2023.
For a long time, it was common for Roman Catholic families to have a son enter the priesthood and many of these men were understood to not be all that interested in marrying a young lady, if you get my drift. Before the widespread acceptance of homosexuality, the priesthood was a place for gay men from Catholic families to escape the endless questions about when they were going to get married. In later years it seems that the whole celibacy thing only applied to women, as gay priests came to dominate the seminary scene and were not especially concerned with celibacy when it came to sodomizing each other and little boys.
Protestant clergy are starting to take on some of that character. The pastoral class among Protestants, even the “conservative” types, are dominated by bookish, soft guys. Not all of them of course, so please don’t feel obligated to say “Well my pastor….” but I have been around long enough to see this over and over, again even in the most “conservative” denominations. Many pastors, especially in intellectually robust Reformed denominations and churches, humble-brag about spending 20, 30 or more hours per week in sermon preparation. When I think of the men I looked up to as a Christian, most of them were eggheads, intellectuals that seem to have never worked a real job in their life or it has been so long since they did that they have forgotten what real work is like.
A friend on Facebook posted this (same guy posted about visiting churches with his son who remarked that all of the pastors seemed faggy)…
This is a better picture of Scott Aniol, and he is someone that I hadn’t heard of prior to just recently…
Another guy, one who was an up and comer back in the “young, Reformed, restless” days is Kevin DeYoung, I have been to his church in Michigan.
They look like they could be brothers and they are also pretty prototypical Protestant clergy. I don’t know Scott but I used to read Kevin a fair amount and he is a smart guy but for the average dude that isn’t interested in esoteric theological squabbles, he looks like a weenie. Another post from social media…
“Many pastors seem feminine” and “Widespread among Christian males in general”
Yep.
It is a vicious circle. Regular working class guys are just not interested in sitting through a 45 minute lecture from some squinty guy that has never worked a real job, bookended by a bunch of feminine songs about Jesus with an offering taken up so that the squinty guy can keep spending his week buried in his books and notes preparing another forgettable 45 minute sermon.
When I was a pastor, I was considered “bi-vocational” because I worked a regular job as a bank manager during the week and did pastor stuff on Sunday and evenings. Among the clerical class it is seen as sub-optimal to have to work for a living, paying your own way instead of subsisting from the donations of old ladies. It was my goal to find a full time clerical gig so I could just spend my days reading books and preparing sermons. Looking back it is a little embarrassing to think about appeals for people to put money in the plate “for Jesus” when you know damn well that almost all of those funds stay right in that church to keep the lights on and the pastor paid.
That drive to keep the donations coming also means that many pastors, again not all, tend to be skittish about saying anything to upset the donor class which as we have seen is mostly female and older. Thus the messages, perhaps with the pastors not even being aware of it, are skewed toward the sensitivities of women. A significant advantage for me as a pastor was that I didn’t need the small payment I received from the church.
One of the main positives for the Christian church in America as I see it is that as cultural Christianity collapses and people stop attending just because they are supposed to, it will mean less money for clergy and that will lead to more church leaders who work real jobs for a living. While the church will be smaller, it ought to really be stronger. Instead of being led by men without chests, effeminate eggheads who spend their time reading and writing, it will be led by men who earn their living in the real world.
Feminine dudes tailoring talks to old women is not a recipe for men to attend church.
I could unfortunately, be anymore agreement with you. I can remember a different breed of Ministers. Two were White, and two were Black. One of the Black Ministers was a decorated veteran of Riverine Forces, (Brown Water Navy) in Vietnam. The other worked a regular job besides his Ministry. One of the White Ministers had a Farm also. The other was a full time Minister. They were more interested in doing real Godly work, than all the platitudes of most current Ministers.
Thomas Jefferson was against the corruptions of Christianity, but wholly believed in the teachings of Jesus. I also follow this thought.
The smaller the church, the more likely that the minister will actually be gainfully employed.
All organized religion is infiltrated and conquered as part of the Long March.
Albert Pike said that WWIII would be about a final solution to these religions.
Mega rockstar waiting for the rapture churches are worthless and any pastor who doesn’t inform you about being in hostile enemy territory has failed.
It is out in the open now, and a lot of people are seeing it
I think this was your best article yet Arthur. Really hit the nail on the head. Foppish pastors don’t hold interest of men, period. I belong to a small church in a remote area.Our pastor died on us a couple years ago, he was great. Sad to loose him, he had been a lifetime logger. He had in younger days broken knuckles in a bar fight or two. He had worked, and he had lived. He was a real man and had credibility. Not like the city pastors I grew up being bored to sleep by. Now we must conduct the services ourselves. One member does most of the sermons, but some of us step up and build one and deliver it. So having lost our pastor but stepping up our church is surprisingly strong. And like Jesus wasn’t a girly man, neither are we.
I wrote a lot about this back on my old blog, from the inside instead of the outside.
Sorry Sir, don’t know how to give you tips but thought this one might be of interest…
https://nypost.com/2023/06/07/granny-margaret-craig-chopped-up-with-chainsaw-body-parts-grilled-cops/
I quit going to church when I asked my phone “ok google, what is jesus’ real name”?, and it told me. internet says there are 34,000 denominations of 501c3 organized religion in amerika. Not a single one will profess that YHWH is Elohim, and Y’shua is Messiah. Makes me wonder who, from hell, organized religion…
Wow, those are some dead-eyed chicks. Yikes.
Men need something larger than themselves to believe in. That is what enables men to work and sacrifice to what is frequently their own detriment
God, (whether through formal religion or not), family, country, comrades all fit the bill. The men without chests as described by Lewis value none of those things.
Arthur, check out the shootings, stabbings and vehicle assaults at “Street gathering ” in Syracuse, New York. Lol. Looks like the chimps are at it again.
I can’t even keep up with them all, I need to hire a full time staff to scour the web for me!
I am 71. Met my wife in 1981 after being married to a nice woman who was a Catholic zealot who drive me nuts. We got married in 1986 and are still together. We have never been to any kind of church and it really has never crossed our minds. Her background is secular German Jew and me Catholic. I could never go back(left when I was 25) because I consider organized Religion to be a giant mind worm. Sunday morning for us usually consists of Bloody Mary’s and eggs.
I don’t miss sitting in church services, not in the least.
3 years ago, everyone in most of the world was given a test. Were they going to stand up for what they believed in or were they going to be state’s slaves
Almost every single one of the churches from top to bottom folded and said “we are not of God, we are of the state” While men are flawed beings and make mistakes, they were obviously more into not standing up and upsetting the apple cart than actually doing their damn jobs. Actions speak louder than words. Not one apology, not one I”m sorry, I was wrong, it must never happen again, we made the wrong choice. Nothing.
They were tested and found wanting. Why would I listen to these men and women of the state?
But adherents to The Faith did not bend.
Such things will sift out The Remnant.
A few didn’t like John MacArthur but he is so well established and cantankerous he could pull it off, but the rest? Mostly cowards.
“Men with chests” and their aptly titled flocks will still subordinate themselves to the tenets of a foreign, universalist religion and zealously bow down to a jew and jewish ‘morals’.
As in the past, they’ll exert all their efforts at fighting other white men and making converts of the mud class – all while gathering as much economic power as possible.
The church you see today is not a perversion of some great masterpiece; on the contrary, it’s heading full speed to it’s most logical conclusion!
Societal power, no matter how little for men so weak, will keep them going even if the money isn’t there. Or they will just turn to the women-folk as ‘pastors’ as so many have.
I need to come up with some joyful Nietzsche dance when I read sentences like your last!
Nah. The Irish especially- the homo thing wasn’t even an issue. Faggotry was generally a matter of degenerate and Bolshevik infiltration- not a reason for Irish sons to become priests.
After the middle of the 20th century and AA-1025 had been unleashed, what you refer to did become an issue.
It is that way in the Philippines now because of that.
Men of any Christian group who attend their group’s services tend to have families who carry on that tradition.
Much further in the past the “celibate” priests, cardinals and popes just had whores on the side.
https://www.cmohs.org/recipients/vincent-r-capodanno
I stopped attending church when the minister answered my question too slowly.
I asked ‘does God exist’; he took 20 minutes to answer, hedging his bets and never sure He exists.
If you dont know God exists then you are not and never will be a shephard to your flock.
There are a surprising number of professional clergy that don’t even believe, it is just a social justice shtick for them
100%, as someone plugged deep into Catholic Church politics via my wife this is most clergy AND adherents now. In 100 years it will be a much much smaller church once these monkeys move on to the next socially favorable thing – or more likely starve to death in the coming famine.
They have changed. Last time I went to a Methodist church (some years ago) the woman “minister” was complaining about men. Nope.
Little wonder that I read yesterday that the UMC has lost somewhere around 5000 member churches in just the last two years.
Well, Christianity is no longer a masculine religion. Contemporary churches are pharisaical communities, following ridiculous rituals. Women love rituals. Modern Protestant denominations only teach the “milk of the Word”. Love and grace, love and grace, love and grace, ad nauseam. It neglects teaching about the other attributes of the Creator, like justice, vengeance, and wisdom. The original Christian churches were supposed to be the “government” of the local community. Now, it is a processional hymn, readings from the Bible (usually with no understanding), another hymn, a sermon that has been lifted from 1001 Sermons for Every Day Use, with some bulletin about the pancake supper and the Women’s Auxiliary, and another hymn to top things off, then a meet and greet at the front door. In bigger churches, it’s even worse. You’ve got the Praise Leader who makes sure the kids are entertained with a pseudo rock concert so the kids can be “cool”, just like their non-Church attending delinquent friends. “Hey, we’ve got to be relevant for the kids!” So no teaching, just preaching. American Christians have abrogated their duty to maintain strong communities and enforce God’s Laws because they have reduced everything down to their “personal relationship to God” and forget about their duty to maintain order, righteous government, and punishing those that break the Law. No substance. Just standing on the corner saying, “Look at me! Aren’t I special!”
I started attending a Bible study a few months ago because my neighbor invited me and I couldn’t think of a good excuse fast enough. The participants were knowledgeable about some of their stuff, but pretty soon I realized that they were fixated on the Love and Grace dogma and false teachings like “The Rapture”, Dispensationalism, and the “jews” are Israel and Christians are the Church. The whole Darby/Scofield garbage. I would point out why such things were false and they would act like that was interesting, but they’d immediately start regurgitating the false doctrine. They also believed that all the races descended from Adam, so, basically, we’re all the same “on the inside”. No wisdom. They would “love” homos because God “loves everybody!” Which, of course, is not true. I quit going because these people are just programmed and not capable of independent thought. They have rules, not the Truth. And women are all about Rules. They are not interested in the Truth. They just want to know what the Rules are so they can tell everyone what to do.
Anyone using a Scofield Bible should be discounted as a serious person immediately, the Dispensationalism crap is so awful and moronic that it is laughable.
When I was much, I did not pay that much attention to the predominance of women in church. I so do now. It almost as if it is centered around them.
It is weird because so many men are pastors but church life outside of the sermon is run by women.
I have noticed over a long period of time It’s the organized religion churches that are referenced when the main stream media feeds us the line church attendance is down, which they desire. In that same period of time the independent churches are growing and flourishing. The one I have called my home church for 18 years now is exploding and having to expand the building to accommodate the children. The current minister, and the last, sermons were and are outstanding.
I have said a few times over the last several years. The only thing to save this world is Armageddon or a Christian revival. in my heart I believe the revival is happening based on my experiences over the last couple of years.
There is a church, and a pastor out there, for all of us seek and ye will find.
Now it’s AI without chests…
A few articles down… https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/metaphorical-tuesday-june-13-2023
From the post:
Human Events ran a story yesterday headlined “Protestant German Church Uses ChatGPT To Lead Service As Part Of Annual Theological Convention.” The article described an event from last Friday: Hundreds of people attended a legit Protestant church service in Germany that was almost entirely generated by a robot: Artificial Intelligence.
The sermon was presented to the congregation by AI chatbot ChatGPT, using four racially diverse digital preachers — two women and two men, for equity.
https://twitter.com/RMXnews/status/1668518987230072834
You could probably program the AI to give a pretty decent sermon for any flavor of Christianity out there. Who is going to write better stuff in 2023 than the great preachers and theologians from hundreds of years ago?
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