Be a Man

I am very concerned with the state of the world today, particularly with the plight of the world's poorest people who have no voice and no opportunity to do anything about their situation. But who is responsible for the plight of the world, and whose responsibility is it to do something about it?

I'm pretty sure that the answer is men.

I have a daughter who is almost two years old and a beautiful wife who I have been married to for 6 and a half years. They mean just about everything to me and I love them both a lot. They are my family. I am convinced that God requires me to take responsibility for my family and to be the leader of it. I am the husband and the father and my responsibility is to be the head of the household. Part of that means that I need to ensure that my family is looked after, part of it is to provide material needs for my family, part of it is to bring my daughter up in the way she should go and part of it is to take responsibility for decisions made and actions taken.

As a Christian man in this world, though, I think that my responsibilities go further than my immediate family, because I am part of a very large family which is the body of Christ. In this family all of the women are my sisters and all of the children are my little brothers and sisters. Those who are not part of the family are people who I want to be in the family so I need to look after them as well. Luckily, though, this burden is not mine alone, it is shared amongst all the men in the kingdom.

I am beginning to think that inaction has long been the default of the Christian man and that it is not appropriate. In fact, I think that it is sinful. I think that at times we are too concerned with whether or not we should intervene and err on the side of not getting our hands dirty.

As a father to my daughter, I am to actively seek her good. If a man or woman tries to take her away from me, I will stop them. If I need to I will hurt them. I don't feel bad about this, nor do I think that God would hold it against me. My daughter's purity and safety are my responsibility and I need to ensure that she is kept from danger.

I think that, to a lesser extent, the same responsibility applies to women and children of the church. I quite like Mark Driscoll, and I like the way that he leads his church. His idea is that it is up to the man to deal with his family, but when the man is in error, it is up to the other men in the church to make sure that he is corrected. So when he finds out about wives being assaulted by their husbands, for example, he will, apart from the wife, confront the man about it and tell him that it needs to stop or the church will take action against him. This is God's people working together to keep each other accountable. When men do wrong, they stop them.

Too often this isn't the case. Too often the church does not intervene, but rather lets the abuse continue, claiming that it is a legal issue that isn't the responsibility of the church.

I think that as Christian men in this world we are called to more than inaction and passivity.

A few weeks ago I saw an episode of 4 Corners which highlighted the sue of child rape in South Africa. It is a very real problem there that over half of the girls will be sexually asaulted, particularly those who are black South African. The assaults will be carried out by people that the girls know, be they fathers, uncles, or other members of their communities.

My biggest problem is not tat there are men willing to do this. We already know that the depths of the depravity of man has no bounds and that there are many who care only to satisfy their dinful desires. My problem is that there are not enough men rising up to stop it. I was heartbroken to hear of a father who had killed a young man in his community because the young man was threatening to rape his daughter. He had done it before and was publically proclaiming his intention to do so again. The father went to the police to ask for help, but they offered none so he took matters into his own hands. He now faces murder charges.

The church has enough people in it to effect social change in this world and I believe that it has to start with the men of this world manning up and taking seriously their responsibility to protect women and children.

It is not vengeance, it is protection and we are called to do it. If it means violence at times, then as long as it is considered and done appropriately, then so be it. I know that this is often abused and used inappropriately, but that is not reason enough to see the women and children of this world suffer at the hands of evil.

"Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love."
1 Corinthians 16:13-14.

I'm very interested to hear people's thoughts on this.