I was invited to a Christian forum recently, and was dismayed to find this posted there as "humor"
I don't know if you've seen this, but it's floating around on a few blogs:
Top Ten Reasons Why Men Should Not Be Ordained
10. A man's place is in the army.
9. For men who have children, their duties might distract them from the responsibilities of being a parent.
8. Their physical build indicates that men are more suited to tasks such as chopping down trees and wrestling mountain lions. It would be "unnatural" for them to do other forms of work.
7. Man was created before woman. It is therefore obvious that man was a prototype. Thus, they represent an experiment, rather than the crowning achievement of creation.
6. Men are too emotional to be priests or pastors. This is easily demonstrated by their conduct at football games and watching basketball tournaments.
5. Some men are handsome; they will distract women worshipers.
4. To be ordained pastor is to nurture the congregation. But this is not a traditional male role. Rather, throughout history, women have been considered to be not only more skilled than men at nurturing, but also more frequently attracted to it. This makes them the obvious choice for ordination.
3. Men are overly prone to violence. No really manly man wants to settle disputes by any means other than by fighting about it. Thus, they would be poor role models, as well as being dangerously unstable in positions of leadership.
2. Men can still be involved in church activities, even without being ordained. They can sweep paths, repair the church roof, and maybe even lead the singing on Father's Day. By confining themselves to such traditional male roles, they can still be vitally important in the life of the Church.
1. In the New Testament account, the person who betrayed Jesus was a man. Thus, his lack of faith and ensuing punishment stands as a symbol of the subordinated position that all men should take.
I sent this reply, but new members are moderated and I'm not sure if my message will be posted:
I'm sorry, but I was just invited to join this group recently, only to find this male-bashing message presented as "humor." This is disappointing to see in a Christian group. I might get attacked for posting this here, but perhaps you would like to see the other side of sexism, which is explained in this .pdf file:
http://www.mensactivism.org/activism_files/what_are_mens_issues.pdfThe brochure was adapted by me from a post originally written by a woman involved in father's rights and men's issues.
Men may be overrepresented at the top tiers of society, but that says nothing of who benefits from this (e.g. the wife of a doctor or lawyer gets to benefit from his income, while the fact that most politicans are male is irrelevant as the majority of voters are women and politicians tend to support women's issues regardless of whether they are male or female.)
Also, I'm the founder of a group called Men's Issues Online. I don't know if I'm supposed to post the URL of this or not, but here it is anyway:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MensIssuesOnlineAs you can see from the introduction, the group is not anti-woman but merely seeks to address issues affecting men such as divorce and custody, health and safety, education and domestic violence laws.
Attack me if you will for posting this, but I'm sick of one-sided anti-male attitudes in society, and won't put up with it anymore.
Steve Van Valkenburg