MAN CHURCH

Gentlemen! Do you like church but find the whole thing a little bit girly? Why not try MAN CHURCH.

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Man Church is church the way a man expects it to be done. No singing, short sermon, time to talk with other guys, no women present, and coffee and donuts.

That's right! None of that woman's stuff like singing or long sermons. Man Church is too MANLY for that.

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The topics of discussion will have a definite manly focus - being the best possible husband, father, employee, leader - being a real man.

Real men don't worship with women!

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This ain't your mama's church!

Or their mums. That's just so feminine.

Not manly enough for you? How about joining in in some of Man Church's manly workshops?

Are you suffering from living in a sexualised world with all those women walking round in bikinis? Try the Valiant Man seminars:

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Men are sexual beings invested with a strong and relentless sexual appetite.

Furthermore, we live in a highly sexualized world. The pressure to develop distortions in male sexuality is high. When men develop distorted sexuality their integrity is imperiled, their spiritual vitality is undermined, their marriages are endangered, and all too often women and children are the victims.

Learning to handle the pressure of male sexuality is one of the skills a man must acquire if he is to be successful in his personal life, his home life and in his spiritual development.

Control that strong sexual appetite! God wants you to get married!

Or perhaps you can indoctrinate biblical ideas of masculinity. Lots of Genesis there, that's the manliest bit of all!

Still not manly enough? There's also a motorcycle group and, of course, a sports league.

Gotta keep things manly.

Okay, let's start with the first thing that hits you when you click that website:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Sufficiently manly?

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The pressure to develop distortions in male sexuality is high. When men develop distorted sexuality their integrity is imperiled, their spiritual vitality is undermined, their marriages are endangered, and all too often women and children are the victims.

Learning to handle the pressure of male sexuality is one of the skills a man must acquire if he is to be successful in his personal life, his home life and in his spiritual development.

What does 'distorted sexuality' mean, exactly? Keep your dick in your pants (which mightn't go amiss with some) or PRAY AWAY THE GAY! Although the 2nd paragraph would seem to suggest the former.

The rest of it is hard to comment on without knowing the content of the manliness seminars (although I can't imagine they'd be too useful) and the Man Camp which I'm sure is not gay.

And I don't like coffee. I prefer the simpler approach to manliness:

Man Church should have used Liefeld!Jesus for their logo.

Spoiler:

Oddly enough, for all that they need some serious help in other places, this quote isn't entirely a bad one.

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Furthermore, we live in a highly sexualized world. The pressure to develop distortions in male sexuality is high. When men develop distorted sexuality their integrity is imperiled, their spiritual vitality is undermined, their marriages are endangered, and all too often women and children are the victims.

While they're using sexual temptation specifically to make this point, the underlying message here is of the onus being on an individual to control their own words, thoughts, and actions not just because you're supposed to, but because you have a responsibility to other people. There's no blame-shifting or responsibility-dodging. Mock all you like, but that's an important point for a lot of reasons, not all of them entirely theological.

Speaking of, what denomination are these dudes? *clicks around* Oh.

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Man Church is Thursday mornings (beginning in September) from 6:30 to 7:30 AM in the Student Center at Cornerstone Church, 1595 S. Alma School Road in Chandler (just south of the San Tan 202). Doors open at 6:00 AM and the coffee and donuts will be ready.

bolding mine

I get it now. This isn't a group of men who kicked their wives out of Sunday services. This is the men's Bible study for Cornerstone Church...which is apparently non-denominational. The "beliefs" link on their About page is essentially a rephrasing of the Apostle's Creed.

KelinciHutan wrote:

Oddly enough, for all that they need some serious help in other places, this quote isn't entirely a bad one.

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Furthermore, we live in a highly sexualized world. The pressure to develop distortions in male sexuality is high. When men develop distorted sexuality their integrity is imperiled, their spiritual vitality is undermined, their marriages are endangered, and all too often women and children are the victims.

While they're using sexual temptation specifically to make this point, the underlying message here is of the onus being on an individual to control their own words, thoughts, and actions not just because you're supposed to, but because you have a responsibility to other people. There's no blame-shifting or responsibility-dodging. Mock all you like, but that's an important point for a lot of reasons, not all of them entirely theological.

Thing is, it is blame shifting. "Distorted seuxality".

Admittedly, I'd be very interested in seeing the actual content of those seminars. Of course, I couldn't, as I'm a woman.

Incidentally, this:

Galatians 3:28 wrote:

28There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Hot Cancer wrote:

Okay, let's start with the first thing that hits you when you click that website:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

So, is the Man Church logo exploding or is there an explosion behind it, or an implosion (it looks very... dusty and debris-clogged), or...what, exactly? Also, HC's right, it does look like it's gonna come flying out and clobber us all.

As for the rest of it... I don't think it's an entirely bad idea. There are lots of women-only Bible studies, Christian seminars that cater to women and women's needs, singles Bible studies, married couple Bible studies, Christian things aimed at kids and teens, etc. So I don't think that the problem is so much in the idea, but in the possible execution of it.

Frankly, I think the flying-exploding-imploding-whatever graphic is stupid. It looks more like something that belongs in a parody of an action film than in any serious, prayerful contemplation of one's gender and how your spirituality and life relate to that.

I also can't see someone like my boyfriend being too interested in it, just judging by his personality and the overall tone of the excerpts here. They don't seem to realize that A) not every guy likes or displays loads of stereotypical, macho, backslapping, one-of-the-boys behavior, and B) not every guy prefers the company of other men. So where's a place in a program like this for a guy like my guy? I don't think they've thought their approach through very well.

Another risk of these sorts of *insert gender/marital/age group here*-only study and seminar groups is, as said above, the risk of distortion of a message that applies to everyone, regardless of physical differences.

ZoZo wrote:

KelinciHutan wrote:

While they're using sexual temptation specifically to make this point, the underlying message here is of the onus being on an individual to control their own words, thoughts, and actions not just because you're supposed to, but because you have a responsibility to other people. There's no blame-shifting or responsibility-dodging. Mock all you like, but that's an important point for a lot of reasons, not all of them entirely theological.

Thing is, it is blame shifting. "Distorted seuxality".

Their own personal "distorted sexuality." It's not blame-shifting when you blame some specific trait a person possesses, rather than just the whole person in general. At least that's the impression I'm getting, but I'm far too lazy to go looking to see if there are videos available from this thing. Or the last one, since the upcoming one doesn't start until September, according to their calendar.

ZoZo wrote:

Admittedly, I'd be very interested in seeing the actual content of those seminars. Of course, I couldn't, as I'm a woman.

Actually, all those links on the right-hand side of the page are to speakers they've had at "Man Church." And they're equally clickable for women as men. The seminar is a different thing from this, and I have no idea where you'd look for that, but it's not like they're hiding the content of their Thursday mornings. I haven't watched any of those videos, so they could be saying anything, but whatever they're saying, it's not exactly a secret.

ZoZo wrote:

Incidentally, this:

Galatians 3:28 wrote:

28There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Yes, I am familiar with the verse. However, being as these guys are not excluding women from the church, then that verse isn't one they're in violation of. If the whole church were men-only and excluded all women from worship or fellowship, that would be a serious problem, but since they're not doing that, then...I guess I'm not quite sure what point you're trying to make bringing that verse up. This church has a whole raft of women-centric and women-only things going too, so...yeah.

Overall, if you want to know what I think, I think this is probably overblown, stupid marketing, when what I'd bet really happens is a bunch of guys get together on Thursday mornings, eat doughnuts, drink coffee, read the Bible, pray, then go to work. Honestly, it's a sort of boring idea, on top of the bit where it starts at 6:30 in the freaking AM. *dramatic shudder*

ZoZo wrote:

KelinciHutan wrote:

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Furthermore, we live in a highly sexualized world. The pressure to develop distortions in male sexuality is high. When men develop distorted sexuality their integrity is imperiled, their spiritual vitality is undermined, their marriages are endangered, and all too often women and children are the victims.

While they're using sexual temptation specifically to make this point, the underlying message here is of the onus being on an individual to control their own words, thoughts, and actions not just because you're supposed to, but because you have a responsibility to other people. There's no blame-shifting or responsibility-dodging. Mock all you like, but that's an important point for a lot of reasons, not all of them entirely theological.

Thing is, it is blame shifting. "Distorted seuxality".

How is that blame shifting? Claiming that men can't control their 'distorted sexuality', sure, that's blame shifting. But encouraging them not to develop one in the first place seems to be saying that it's the assailant's job not to rape/molest (that being what I assume they're talking about, based on 'all too often women and children are the victims') and not the victim's job not to be raped/molested. That seems like a pretty excellent message to me, especially from an organization that seems so oafish on the surface (mostly from that hilarious logo )

Their seminars probably aren't wallowing in closeted homosexuality at all.

Man Chruch = secret gay dating service.

XLT-100852.0 wrote:

Man Chruch = secret gay dating service.

Well really, where else would you meet gay Christians?

ZoZo wrote:

XLT-100852.0 wrote:

Man Chruch = secret gay dating service.

Well really, where else would you meet gay Christians?

The men's restroom at a RNC convention.

Well, it's a good idea, but there's only one Church that I can follow.

Just Chipper wrote:

Well, it's a good idea, but there's only one Church that I can follow.

That one's loads manlier, too.

ARE YOU READING THIS, MAN CHURCH? THAT'S HOW YOU DO IT!

And here was me hoping this was a church dedicated to acting as much like these amazing bastards as possible. I am disappoint.

Yeah, I agree with Kel pretty much. It's one of those things that sounds awful on the surface but really isn't what you think it is. Re: "distorted sexuality," I didn't get the impression that it was necessarily about homosexuality; it seemed to be about sexual urges and temptations. Sexuality has a broader scope than just who you find attractive.

I don't actually see this as all that heinous. It sounds to me like they're just trying to make a group for men to talk about issues specific to their gender with a religious focus. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Heinous, no. But just look at that logo. Hilarious, yes.

Somath Cegem wrote:

And here was me hoping this was a church dedicated to acting as much like these amazing bastards as possible. I am disappoint.

Damn you. Whatever youre looking at is banned in the Us due to copywrite. :/

InkWeaver wrote:

Heinous, no. But just look at that logo. Hilarious, yes.

Whenever I see the word "Man Church", I keep imagining some Uruk-hai grunting it.

Nihilist wrote:

Miss Prince wrote:

Yeah, I agree with Kel pretty much. It's one of those things that sounds awful on the surface but really isn't what you think it is. Re: "distorted sexuality," I didn't get the impression that it was necessarily about homosexuality; it seemed to be about sexual urges and temptations. Sexuality has a broader scope than just who you find attractive.

I figured it was about how the visual porn industry and how it's distorted body images and expectations of women, and how it's nothing like real life. Or something.

Yeah, that's the impression I got, too. Like others have said, even though it looks completely ridiculous, having a men's Bible study group that promotes being a good father/husband/brother to the women and children in their lives and taking responsibility for their actions sounds like a fucking good idea to me.

Things that look ridiculous but are actually harmless are funnier/ less depressing than things that are actually awful, imho.

Reepicheep-chan wrote:

Things that look ridiculous but are actually harmless are funnier/ less depressing than things that are actually awful, imho.

This.

Which is why I'm loving their logo. All it needs is some yard tools.

SlyChild wrote:

I don't actually see this as all that heinous. It sounds to me like they're just trying to make a group for men to talk about issues specific to their gender with a religious focus. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

You never know. It could be an innocuous front for those "mens' rights groups".