I am an unabashed 1980s baby. My childhood was blessed with He-Man, Transformers, G.I. Joe, and the then-wrestlers from the National Wrestling Alliance, American Wrestling Alliance and the World Wrestling Federation. I grew up memorizing movie lines and moves by…
For every critic of Jesus and John Wayne there are many more positive responses Du Mez says
Some conservative Christian leaders continue to blast Kristen Kobes Du Mez for writing Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation, the Calvin University historian said during a recent webinar on evangelicalism in the…
My love-hate relationship with football
This photo from 1964 tells you a lot about me. I had just turned 4 years old. You see how my mother has me dressed. We’re visiting my dad’s sister. My boy cousins had gotten football helmets for Christmas, and…
Tim Tebow, male leadership and the ‘feminine,’ ‘weak’ church
Lately we have seen much talk about “real” biblical manhood vs. the “feminization”of the local church. The church is weak because the men are weak, the critics say. Blame the decline of church attendance and the decline of Christian values…
Christian masculinity, culture and racism: An interview with Kristin Du Mez
In a time when the descriptors “evangelical” and even “Christian” are taking on destructive meanings they have not heretofore known in America, we need wise guides who can help us unravel the political from the theological, who can help us…
Why the use of masculine God language matters at church
Throughout the English Bible, the normal pronouns assigned to God are “he” and “him.” Many references to God within church practice typically fit into this same assignment. However, when we look at the instances in the Bible where imagery for…
Jesus and John Wayne exposes militant masculinity in the age of Trump
Why Donald Trump? Why are American evangelicals so enamored of a president who could serve as a poster boy for the seven deadly sins?
Who decides what it means to ‘be a man’?
By Jason Coker Only a couple of days after my firstborn child came into the world, I was in the hospital room with him when he did what all new babies do. So I carefully laid him on the changing…