The RenewaNation Review 2020 Volume 12 Issue 1 | Page 29

R TIONSHIPS LA LGBT ideology is taken by the authors of the report as gospel. “It’s no longer just [a] male-female binary,” says one. The report criticizes “individuals with religious affiliations and conservative social and political views, who may equate masculinity with heterosexuality.” These folks, hints the APA, need to be cured of their errant views. The game here is painfully obvious. This isn’t science; it’s a worldview that sees masculinity as anyone would have defined it just a generation ago as a problem needing to be solved. But as David French writes at the National Review, the APA has it all backward. 4 The real plight of boys and men today coincides with our culture’s rejection of tradi- tional masculinity, not the embrace of it! To say that the answer is to further deconstruct what it means to be a man is ludicrous. Our society has no fixed categories of what it means to be a man, much less any resources for catechizing the next generation of men. To be a man doesn’t always mean being a tough guy, though that can come in handy. But it does mean protect- ing, loving, leading, fellowshipping with God, and cultivat- ing our garden as Adam was to cultivate his. Masculinity reaches its pinnacle in Christ, who far from being a man of violence, laid down His life for His beloved, and invites all men to do the same. Our culture’s rejection of these created truths is at the root of much of the real turmoil that the APA documents. But the solution isn’t to caricature and then reject masculinity like a disorder. It is to rediscover and embrace real mascu- linity, which God declared to be “very good.” Thankfully, the traits and roles of real masculinity aren’t socially construct- ed. They’re innate—created by God as an expression of His image complemented by and working in concert with femi- ninity. Unless we recognize this, it won’t be socially-con- structed concepts of masculinity we’ll be pathologizing. It will be men themselves. ■ UNDS F E RENEWANATION DONOR DEVELOPMENT BOOT CAMP OCTOBER 1-3, 2020 MANDERLEY CHRISTIAN CAMP – PIKEVILLE, TN “After just a few days of working with Zach Clark and Jeff Keaton at this boot camp, my vision for giving and givers was absolute- ly transformed. We were able to take principles from the boot camp and apply them immediately. We had a path forward, so that just in the short few months at the end of that year after going, we were able to see giving increased by 25 percent. And then in the following year, we were able to see giving increased by 50 percent. I can’t even imagine where our ministry would be or if it would even exist if God had not led us to the Donor Development Boot Camp.” Ben Schettler, Founder and President of The Center for Truth in Love John Stonestreet is president of The Chuck Colson Center and a BreakPoint radio co-host. Begun by Chuck Colson in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today’s news and trends via radio, interactive media, and print. BreakPoint commentaries, co-hosted by Eric Metaxas and John Stonestreet, air daily on more than 1,200 outlets with an estimated weekly listening audience of eight million people. ENDNOTES 1. APA GUIDELINES for Psychological Practice with Boys and Men, https://www.apa.org/ about/policy/boys-men-practice-guidelines.pdf. 2. Stephanie Pappas, “APA issues first-ever guidelines for practice with men and boys,” American Psychological Association, 2019, https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/01/ ce-corner. 3. “Suicide in the United States,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_in_the_ United_States. 4. David French, “Grown Men Are the Solution, Not the Problem,” National Review, January 7, 2019, https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/01/psychologists-criticize-tradition- al-masculinity. Copyright © 2019 The Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Reprinted from BreakPoint. org with permission. If your school or ministry is God-ordained, then God has prepared the hearts of many people in your community to join your team and expand your impact. You just need to know how to clearly present your work and how to build meaningful relationships with those who have the capacity to give and an affinity for your cause. Our three-day donor development boot camp with Zach Clark is a powerful first step in helping you reach your donor develop- ment potential. Whether you need a refresher, total overhaul, or are starting from scratch, this camp will be a tremendous help to you and your organization. Judy Ralph · 540-890-8900 [email protected] 29