Tim Ellsworth

5 Responses to “Be a man”

1. Mark G says:
   December 3rd, 2007 at 2:37 pm
   

   I would have liked to have heard then when I was a junior in high school and thoughout college. Embarassingly, I probably would have said “amen” and kept on playing video games and procrastinating as usual.

   I appreciate the recent movement calling men to be men. I don’t know if it is recent, it is recent to me, but I’m glad. I don’t think I realize just how feminized I had been (I did attend public school) until I started reading MacArthur, Douglas Wilson, and studied George Washington and Teddy Roosevelt. I hope that preaching like this will turn the tide in a very feminized church.

2. Nick Fox says:
   December 4th, 2007 at 2:21 am
   

   I read most of the article.

   I like what Donald Miller says in his book To Own A Dragon: Reflections on Growing up Without A Father. He calls into question this idea about speakers and authors saying “A Real man is/does (fill in the blank).” In reality, the only thing that makes a man a man, as Don points out, is that they have the male parts (a word I can’t use here or it will get moderated). Being a man is not something you do, like go fishing or treat women well etc., it is a physical thing. God has said you are a man, so let’s not play this game.

   Donald talks about how when he was growing up, he didnt have a father, so when he heard those statements saying “A real man is _____”, he assumed it wasn’t him because he didnt have a father in his life to tell him that he was a man.

   To say that some behaviour or beliefe makes a man a real man, seems to suggest that there are fake men. it is like saying that a certain thing makes someone a “real person.” It doesn;t work.

   Now, it doesn’t seem like this is what Ray V. is doing. His point is fair, if I’m understanding correctly, that is that men should be mature, hard working etc.. not that these things make him a real man. I agree.

   Thought it was interesting.

3. Mark G. says:
   December 4th, 2007 at 9:59 am
   

   What I meant by “calling men to be men” wasn’t that men without male parts should get some (although on some level…), but I meant exactly what Ray V. was saying, that men should act like men ought to act; mature. I don’t think anyone is trying to say there are fake men, just that some men who don’t have manly character are immature or feminized men who are not living up to what God made them to be.

4. Nick Fox says:
   December 4th, 2007 at 11:42 am
   

   Hi Mark,

   Yeah, I wasn’t accusing at all (you or anyone). The article just made me think of what donald miller said and i thought it was a great point.

5. Mark G. says:
   December 4th, 2007 at 3:01 pm
   

   oh, okay.