Disbanded Brothers – Has a ‘Feminised’ Church Alienated Men in the UK?

“The work of God among men today – and so, the work of the Church – is not to feminize
our masculinity, but to redeem it… Certainly authentic masculinity includes such ‘feminine’
components as tenderness and nurturing care. But a man cannot duly embrace his ‘feminine
side’ without first being grounded firmly in his masculine foundation.”
Gordon Dalbey, Healing the Masculine Soul (1988, 180)
“Men today must begin to dare regenerate a trust in the masculine… by surrendering to
Father God and moving together in the fellowship of his Spirit at church.”
Gordon Dalbey, Sons of the Father (1996, 64)
“I propose in all seriousness that a man’s patient discontent with life as it is mirrors the
discontent of God… In religious terms, men are afflicted with hope… This impatient goaldrivenness
is masculinity… This is a hunger of the soul.”
James Dittes, Driven by Hope – Men and Meaning (1996, x, 4, 8)
“Subtract the relationship to transcendence and you lose the essence of man.”
Sam Keen, Fire in the Belly – On Being a Man (1991, 101)
“In the present crisis in masculinity we do not need, as some feminists are saying, less
masculine power. We need more. But we need more of the mature masculinity… The four
major forms of the mature masculine energies that we have identified are the King, the
Warrior, the Magician, and the Lover. They all overlap and, ideally, enrich one another.”
Robert Moore & Douglas Gillette, King, Warrior, Magician, Lover (1991, xviii, 43-44)
“I see in Jesus a compelling picture of male sexual wholeness, of creative masculinity, and
of the redemption of manhood from both oppressiveness and superficiality.”
James Nelson, The Intimate Connection (1992, 108)
“At the heart of mature masculinity is a sense of benevolent responsibility to lead, provide for
and protect women in ways appropriate to a man’s differing relationships.”
John Piper, What’s the Difference? (1990, 22)
“The masculine is spirit, mind, logos. The feminine is earth, body, pleasure. Both have half
the truth… Masculine spirituality is an art of separation… the masculine journey is always
about power, redeeming the name of power, the meaning of power, naming it correctly.
Uniting it with love.”
Richard Rohr, Quest for the Grail (1994, 66, 89, 178)
“For starters, a masculine spirituality would emphasize movement over stillness, action over
theory, service to the world over religious discussions, speaking the truth over social niceties
and doing justice instead of any self-serving ‘charity.’ Without a complementary masculine,
spirituality becomes overly feminine… and is characterized by too much inwardness,
preoccupation with relationships, a morass of unclarified feeling and religion itself as a
security blanket.”
Richard Rohr & Joseph Martos, From Wild Man to Wise Man (2005, 10)
“Despite the extensive work on feminist spirituality recently, a major barrier to the
development of a genuine men’s spirituality is the still widespread unawareness in religious
as well as cultural circles that one’s gender is important in spiritual matters.”
Dom Violi and Marie Joyce, ‘Searching for Masculine Identity’, The Way 38:4 (1998, 359)
“Men provide as a Servant-King, Protect as a Tender Warrior, Teach as a Wise Mentor,
Connect as a Faithful Friend… The fact that these masculine qualities cut across the grain of
history, race, tradition, and culture shouldn’t surprise us at all. They are like fingerprints, the
telltale market of the Artist on the wet clay of the original.”
Stu Weber, Four Pillars of a Man’s Heart (1997, 49)
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