Author contends churches neglect men

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This book, Why Men Hate Going to Church , proposes that churches are too female orientated.

Do you think it has any relevance to the Catholic Church, although we don’t have female pastors we do have an increasing number of women involved in the liturgy as well as reportedly ,a notable number of homosexual men in the priesthood.
 
Interesting topic.

The Protestants have an even bigger problem with lack of men then Catholics, especially black Protestant Churches. I know this from personal experience.

Someone who is knowledgeable could go on for hours about the heroic courage and suffering of Christ. I would love to see something like that.
 
Well, I can see some of that to a much smaller degree than in protestant churches. Us women do have a bit of a tendancy to take over at times - running the household kind of thing I suppose. And many men have a tendancy to let the women folk do so. I can tell you that our dd and I do not perform such functions and I insist that my boys DO. As long as “someone else” does a job - others will not step forward. I think this applies just as much to men in the Church as anywhere.

Anyhow. On a lighter note, my dh (who isn’t Catholic, but does go to Mass with us) says that’s not why men don’t like going to church at all. He says men are creatures of action and are simply a bit bored. There needs to be bullet-point power point presentations and get the show on the road!
Priest:
- confess!
- repent!
- you’re forgiven!
- Jesus loves you!
- watch for the basket coming around!
- God bless you!
- The end, get out!
Oh. And he says the music could be more upbeat too. Something along the lines of Rock Me Amadeus Jesus style would be nice.
Oh, and 1 more thing. He says a virtual parish would be interesting too.
All said rather tongue in cheek.
Now I know what he’s really thinking on when we’re all kneeling and “praying”… Well, at least I know he’s paying attention and not sleeping!:rotfl:
 
My family has only been attending mass for less then a year. So, it is still new to us. My 13 year old son commented that going to a Catholic mass was like excersize, all the sitting, standing and kneeling.🙂

I wonder if men have changed through the centuries. For most of history men-sorry ladies-made the world’s art, philosophy, science and literature. Yes, there were some notable examples of women but they weren’t in the majority. Now tv gives us the message that men never think unless it is about scatalogical jokes and naked women, and that all deeper thoughts come from females. I wonder if this attitude plays into why there aren’t more men in church. Maybe modern men sell themselves short and are begining to believe some of the modern views about them.
 
Get rid of the smug feminist at the pulpit for the daily readings and give me Father John Corapi and I’d find a way to make it to mass daily.
 
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deb1:
My family has only been attending mass for less then a year. So, it is still new to us. My 13 year old son commented that going to a Catholic mass was like excersize, all the sitting, standing and kneeling.🙂

:yup: I’ve never understood how anyone could fall asleep during a Catholic Mass for just those very reasons.

I wonder if men have changed through the centuries. For most of history men-sorry ladies-made the world’s art, philosophy, science and literature. Yes, there were some notable examples of women but they weren’t in the majority.

Ahhh, but that begs the questions: Were the women not doing those things? Not given credit for them? Not allowed to do it? Or were they simply less talented/educated in those areas back then?
I don’t think this issue is a question of ability, but of willingness to serve, being made to feel welcome in doing so, and/or feeling a general need for such services.
Now tv gives us the message that men never think unless it is about scatalogical jokes and naked women, and that all deeper thoughts come from females. I wonder if this attitude plays into why there aren’t more men in church. Maybe modern men sell themselves short and are begining to believe some of the modern views about them.

Yes, I would agree that is how many women these days treat/view men and some men have grown up sadly believing it must be true and then living up to such lowly expectations.
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:yup: I’ve never understood how anyone could fall asleep during a Catholic Mass for just those very reasons.
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In the traditional mass, it was easier to nod off. The priests said the mass in the traditional rapid-fire , hypnotic Latin. No vocal responses were expected from the faithful. During the winter, the people were in their soft parkas, sitting close to other folks in their parkas.

Most of the faithful stayed in the pews even during communion.

Between the priest quietly praying and the old women murmuring their rosaries, sometimes its hard to believe how many folks stayed awake on cold Sunday mornings.
 
Church neglects men? Pretty hard to do much for them if all they show up for is one hour for Sunday Mass. On the other hand if one looks at the Knights of Columbus as a part of the Church, which I truly believe is so, men do a lot for the Church and the Church responds in kind.
 
I don’t think men are neglected, but I do think that the all-male priesthood allows many if not most people to overlook just how feminine and female-dominated the Catholic experience can be. For instance, these cases are not without exceptions, but…

who (most often, continued for all) teaches children their prayers?
who teaches Sunday school (including most sacramental prep?
who teaches in Catholic schools?
which sex is the predominate one in Mass attendance?

Other than my own father and the parish priest, almost every single Catholic educator (be it school or religious ed.) I ever had was a female. My mother was in charge of helping me memorize my prayers and saying them with me at night. So basically my entire Catholic formation until college came at the hands of women.

Now, I think all any man needs is really just one good “Catholic man” role model, so that’s not necessarily a flawed system. But I suspect that men have abdicated their responsibilities as spiritual heads of family, which leaves a system with an institutional bias toward femininity (apparent in its make-up of primarily women) without the necessary balance for its male charges. It also leaves the priests, who will probably be one of the only male influences, without their own models of Catholic manhood to teach them how to be Fathers.

I know these observations are just from my own Catholic life, but I’ve met enough other people with similar experiences to feel that such experiences are at least common if not the norm.
 
The fact is that the majority of men have learned by experience and male role models that to be interested in religion is not a manly virtue. Even the Knights are stronger at performing manly work for the Church than in teaching or studying their Faith. To be very religous, pius or whatever is to be sort of a wimp, an anomaly.
Despite the large number of women in the work force, it is still the man who is cast as the primary bread winner for most intact families. Culture changes very slowly.Society still subtley teaches that real man earn big bucks or work construction, drink beer, talk dirty and enjoy porno, and chase skirts. A priest is somewhat effeminate because he doesn’t share those traits. That is my opinion which may not be worth much.
 
Ahhh, but that begs the questions: Were the women not doing those things? Not given credit for them? Not allowed to do it? Or were they simply less talented/educated in those areas back then?

I don’t think this issue is a question of ability, but of willingness to serve, being made to feel welcome in doing so, and/or feeling a general need for such services.

Oh, I don’t think that the women were less talented, just not allowed to follow their inclinations in certain areas. I didn’t mean to suggest that women of long ago weren’t capable of deep thought. I was merely pointing out that society has sort of given some men the impression that anything involving culture, art, even religion etc is feminine. Men of long ago didn’t think this.

It wasn’t fair that women were kept out of certain arenas in past eras, but it is equally unfair that some men feel that areas such as art and history belong to effeminate men. And that all a modern real man should do is sit in a recliner and burp.😃 (I am exagerating a bit)
 
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rwoehmke:
Church neglects men? Pretty hard to do much for them if all they show up for is one hour for Sunday Mass. On the other hand if one looks at the Knights of Columbus as a part of the Church, which I truly believe is so, men do a lot for the Church and the Church responds in kind.
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The Knights of Columbus are quite visible at my parish, and they are involved in spiritual things as well as the annual pig roast.
 
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Kielbasi:
In the traditional mass, it was easier to nod off. The priests said the mass in the traditional rapid-fire , hypnotic Latin.
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I go to the Latin Mass and I think there is MORE standing/sitting/kneeling
Also the High Mass- it’s loud, with singing/Gregorian chant
Anf=d, if any one is in danger of nodding off, there are plenty of babies/small children to wake them up! They all go to Mass with thewhole family
 
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