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GregoryPalamas
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Satan, the liar, works hard to trick all people into staying out of the Kingdom. Satan tricked you through radical feminism.
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JimR-OCDS
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The issue of why there are more women attending Church than men, is a lot deeper than merely the speculations made here.
The bottom line is that men lack faith. Religion makes no sense to a person who has no faith.
Whenever a person begins to think about God, whether they are a man or a woman, the first reaction is that they must look inside themselves at which point, they then begin to evaluate their relationship with God, as far as how they perceive God. For Catholics, this usually brings up a level of guilt that is driven by the awareness of their own sinfulness. This is a scary venture for humans and it takes courage to go further. It places them in the same position of being naked before God, as Adam and Eve, where nothing be kept hidden from God. Most rather just turn away and rationalize away, either the existence of God and religion. They’ll latch on to anything that justifies their rejection of God and religion, i.e. hypocrites, the sex scandal among priest, the Church is just wants your money, etc.
For others, who decide to face there relationship with God head on, they go deeper inside themselves and face their sins,
which are laid out plain as day. They feel the guilt and pain of their sin deep within their being, so much so that they scream internally for relief, some one to save them. Some people are even brought to tears and trembling. At this point, they have no choice but to turn to God and plead for help. Then out of God’s mercy, Jesus comes to them and forgives them. He washes away their sins along with the guilt and they have what is called, “a born again experience.” They have a feeling of love for God, joy and compassion like nothing they have ever felt before. No one has to explain to them what the term “born again” means, for they have experienced it.
If you have the chance, get a copy of Daniel Defoe’s book, Robinson Crusoe. This book has more to do with Defoe’s own conversion experience than survival on a lost island.
A line that comes from that book, where Crusoe suddenly has this spiritual experience with Christ which says some of what I’m talking about. “In all of the suffering I’ve gone through in my life, there was no relief so rewarding as the forgiveness of my sins.” Many who read the book back in grade school, didn’t realize that it was a story about spiritual conversion and faith, but that’s exactly what the book was about. I know I could relate to it when I read it.
Anyway, with the issue of men, with regards to the topic of this thread, I think it’s harder for men to turn inside and to die to themselves, than it is for women. For a man to give up control of his life and hand it over to something he doesn’t understand, is often too difficult. They’d rather reject the notions of religion and keep what they perceive as feedom.
I think this plays a larger role in the lack of numbers of men not being in religion, than anything else.
Jim
The bottom line is that men lack faith. Religion makes no sense to a person who has no faith.
Whenever a person begins to think about God, whether they are a man or a woman, the first reaction is that they must look inside themselves at which point, they then begin to evaluate their relationship with God, as far as how they perceive God. For Catholics, this usually brings up a level of guilt that is driven by the awareness of their own sinfulness. This is a scary venture for humans and it takes courage to go further. It places them in the same position of being naked before God, as Adam and Eve, where nothing be kept hidden from God. Most rather just turn away and rationalize away, either the existence of God and religion. They’ll latch on to anything that justifies their rejection of God and religion, i.e. hypocrites, the sex scandal among priest, the Church is just wants your money, etc.
For others, who decide to face there relationship with God head on, they go deeper inside themselves and face their sins,
which are laid out plain as day. They feel the guilt and pain of their sin deep within their being, so much so that they scream internally for relief, some one to save them. Some people are even brought to tears and trembling. At this point, they have no choice but to turn to God and plead for help. Then out of God’s mercy, Jesus comes to them and forgives them. He washes away their sins along with the guilt and they have what is called, “a born again experience.” They have a feeling of love for God, joy and compassion like nothing they have ever felt before. No one has to explain to them what the term “born again” means, for they have experienced it.
If you have the chance, get a copy of Daniel Defoe’s book, Robinson Crusoe. This book has more to do with Defoe’s own conversion experience than survival on a lost island.
A line that comes from that book, where Crusoe suddenly has this spiritual experience with Christ which says some of what I’m talking about. “In all of the suffering I’ve gone through in my life, there was no relief so rewarding as the forgiveness of my sins.” Many who read the book back in grade school, didn’t realize that it was a story about spiritual conversion and faith, but that’s exactly what the book was about. I know I could relate to it when I read it.
Anyway, with the issue of men, with regards to the topic of this thread, I think it’s harder for men to turn inside and to die to themselves, than it is for women. For a man to give up control of his life and hand it over to something he doesn’t understand, is often too difficult. They’d rather reject the notions of religion and keep what they perceive as feedom.
I think this plays a larger role in the lack of numbers of men not being in religion, than anything else.
Jim
D
dwc
Guest
Jim, thanks for the thoughtful post. I’ve noticed several posts lately along the lines of why men don’t like church and/or Catholocism. Many of the men who respond claim that the liturgy is too feminine or the hymns too feminine or churches are too female dominated (I don’t understand that, when the male priests are unquestionably in charge of everything that goes on in a parish) or that the priest is too effeminate. In other words, it’s all about how they can’t relate because the approach is geared too much for women. When I asked for specifics, because I didn’t understand what they meant, they talked about the church not emphasizing the warrior side of Christ or the ongoing battle.
Your post makes sense in this context. You point out that faith and religion require us to admit we are powerless against sin and to surrender ourselves to God so that he can fix the sorry mess we are in. Any battle between outward sin and evil is far secondary to the battle within ourselves. There’s no question women in general have more practice surrendering ourselves to others than do men. Mothers surrender their entire body during each pregnancy, then we surrender our autonomy during the time we breastfeed, then our time and sleep and energy for … well, as far as I can tell, it seems like forever, lol.
Your post makes sense in this context. You point out that faith and religion require us to admit we are powerless against sin and to surrender ourselves to God so that he can fix the sorry mess we are in. Any battle between outward sin and evil is far secondary to the battle within ourselves. There’s no question women in general have more practice surrendering ourselves to others than do men. Mothers surrender their entire body during each pregnancy, then we surrender our autonomy during the time we breastfeed, then our time and sleep and energy for … well, as far as I can tell, it seems like forever, lol.
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Norseman82
Guest
Well, check out the myriad of threads on this subject already out there and you will see an earful.I have a cousin who is Catholic. She is single (25 years old) and told me that there are few Catholic men for her to date. She went on to say that there are far more Catholic women than Catholic men in every age group and that Catholicism just doesn’t appeal to men…period. Why would that be? In Islam there are plenty of men…why not Catholicism?
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