Ph.D. candidate tries making a case AGAINST masculinity in Christianity and it does NOT go well

Huh?

To this day, a pretty scary amount of Christian dudes still think that becoming more "manly" is either at the center or close to the center of Christian discipleship.

— Zachary Wagner (@ZacharyCWagner) January 2, 2023

Spoken like a dude who needs to actually spend more time with Christian dudes. Or maybe different Christian dudes.

What a pathetic generalization.

Pastors, authors, and plenty of people on this website continue to preach about how boys and men need to "man up" and then somehow, magically, everything bad (or "woke") in the church and the culture will go away.

This is the gospel according to Peterson, Driscoll, etc.

— Zachary Wagner (@ZacharyCWagner) January 2, 2023

And there is the ‘woke’ talking point.

And if you believe that some sort of loss of "traditional" masculine values is at the root of everything ailing our society, you're of course very much entitled to that opinion.

I'm just trying to point out that there's nothing necessarily biblical about that view.

— Zachary Wagner (@ZacharyCWagner) January 2, 2023

No, he’s just trying to gaslight like crazy for attention.

As I've reflected, studied, and written on masculinity over the past couple years, it never ceases to amaze me how the "Christian" vision of masculinity I saw championed as a boy/young adult is completely absent from the New Testament.

— Zachary Wagner (@ZacharyCWagner) January 2, 2023

What vision of masculinity is he talking about exactly?

There's just, like, no data to support it.

What the NT *does* do is challenge a lot of prevailing notions of masculinity. It almost completely devalues physical strength––"God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong" (1 Cor 1:27; cf. 2 Cor 12:9).

— Zachary Wagner (@ZacharyCWagner) January 2, 2023

IT’S THE BIBLE, DUDE.

And like, why does he like, tweet like a high school girl?

Jesus tells Peter to put his sword away (Matt 26:52), undermining stereotypically male values of violence, warfare and self-determination. Jesus demonstrates immense restraint in the exercise of power available to him (Matt 26:53, cf. Phil 2).

— Zachary Wagner (@ZacharyCWagner) January 2, 2023

Jesus also flipped over tables, Zach.

Freedom (as opposed to slavery) was a huge masculine value in the ancient world. Servants were thus considered to be less masculine. But Jesus says he did not come to be served but to serve (Mark 10:45). Paul also talks about himself as a servant. Not exactly hyper-masculine.

— Zachary Wagner (@ZacharyCWagner) January 2, 2023

What?!

Death by crucifixion was maximally emasculating by design. So, Christians walking around claiming a crucified messiah would have made the gospel an especially *effeminate* message to many hearers in the first century.

— Zachary Wagner (@ZacharyCWagner) January 2, 2023

We … got nothin’.

But the gospel wasn't just unmasculine in its original context. It challenges and overturns many of the masculine values that prevail in some conservative Christian circles today.

— Zachary Wagner (@ZacharyCWagner) January 2, 2023

Hoo boy.

The household codes exhort husbands towards "love" not "leadership".

Other male-specific exhortations are almost completely absent from the NT, and possible candidate passages are pretty generic, like "treat other Christians like family" (e.g. 1 Tim 5:1–2).

— Zachary Wagner (@ZacharyCWagner) January 2, 2023

The virtues that Christians are exhorted toward (like the fruits of the Spirit), have a decidedly feminine slant by today's standards. And it's extremely difficult to produce a single NT passage that exhorts men specifically to act more "manly".

— Zachary Wagner (@ZacharyCWagner) January 2, 2023

(And before anyone comes at me with 1 Cor 16:13, I'd just say quickly that this is addressed to both men and women and that what Paul's saying about strength should be read in light of what he says elsewhere in the letter [and in 2 Cor] about power, strength, etc.)

— Zachary Wagner (@ZacharyCWagner) January 2, 2023

But this false gospel of manliness remains extremely popular despite its lack of scriptural support.

Why?

Because men enjoy hearing it. Men enjoy hearing that what Christianity is *really* all about is being strong. Or being in charge. Or being entitled to marital sex, etc.

— Zachary Wagner (@ZacharyCWagner) January 2, 2023

While this gospel may tickle men's ears, it's not what we find in the NT.

Manliness, per se, is not a Christian virtue. Sometimes––depending on your cultural or subcultural standard of masculinity––it may even be a vice.

— Zachary Wagner (@ZacharyCWagner) January 2, 2023

We’re starting to think a white, middle-aged Leftist woman is actually writing Zach’s tweets for him.

Buuuuutt people still out here talking about how the church is suffering because men aren't being manly enough and how Christianity has always had a masculine "feel". pic.twitter.com/eK7Ln5wWgT

— Zachary Wagner (@ZacharyCWagner) January 2, 2023

Oooh, and an edgy gif.

Is love manly?
Is joy manly?
Is peace manly?

Is patience manly?
Is kindness manly?
Is goodness manly?

Is gentleness manly?
Is faithfulness manly?
Is self-control manly?

— "Eacho" (EACCO) ✝️🌐🆗🆓🇺🇸 (nee realBarneyFife) (@Nee_Nihilo) January 2, 2023

Seems he is pretty clueless about manly and what manly means. Almost as if Zach himself is dealing in lazy caricatures and stereotypes.

"Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong." – I Cor 16:13.

— Kent Haley (@kenthaley) January 2, 2023

Good thread.

Could we agree, though, that as much as the uber-manly-show-your-guns-to-your-daughters-first-date type of manliness has been harmful, the passivity, laziness & surrender of any kind of duty/leadership has been just as harmful a toxic masculinity, if not more?

— Taylor Murray (@TaylorMurray) January 2, 2023

What he said.

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