Update: Christina Hoff Summers has been a staunch defender of traditional masculinity and its virtues in recent years, and this article today in Time provides another rare defense: http://ideas.time.com/2013/08/19/school-has-become-too-hostile-to-boys/?iid=ent-main-mostpop2
Before the hustle and bustle of Cross Fit and a lunch with my fellow chaplains and an Afghan general, I enjoyed a relatively quiet morning.
I intended for the morning to be light, as my Tuesday afternoons tend to be heavy with counseling appointments. I plugged my headphones into my laptop, where I spent a couple of hours downloading the Les Miserables soundtrack (from the recent movie). Listening to the soul-stirring music, I continued through my sermon prep work. I translated the Ancient Greek yesterday and spent some time wrestling with the various components. Today, I finished reading a couple of commentaries (I use Hywel Jones, John Calvin, and J.B. Lightfoot), and got to work on an outline. I'm excited to preach the passage (Phil. 1:12-18), as it speaks of the Gospel being advanced in Paul's chains. What a powerful thought!
Since my dear pianist friend went home to Virginia, I am now "covering down" on her responsibilities. So I am also in the process of picking out the songs to be sung next Sunday. I will then print out the guitar chords to each of those songs so that I can make sure I have them down. Later in the week, I will rehearse with two other singers (one of whom is the Baptist chaplain).
Perhaps the thing I enjoy the most about Les Mis is the character of Jean Valjean (played admirably by Hugh Jackman, who has eclipsed my Wolverine typecast of him). Rarely do you have an image of a strong and compassionate man presented in modern entertainment. Most men are either strong simply in their sexuality, or just plain dunces (Simpsons, Family Guy, Everybody Loves Raymond, etc). In most commercials even, it seems men are being coached and corrected by their enlightened female counterparts.
But it is different with this story. The lead male is not the cause (at least direct) of the lead female's suffering, but her deliverer from that suffering. He learns about her child and acts to be her savior as well. His characters speaks of the unspoken virtue of masculine strength and chivalry, touched by the tender traits of compassion and humility (normally only associated with effeminate men today).
So the heroics of Jean Valjean speak to the heart of jaded men. It reminds men of their mighty calling to sacrifice. It reminds men to use their strength in service of the weak, whether it be sweeping the woman or child off the streets, or saving another man in an hour of need.
Men are told in today's society that they no longer be a hero. Until they buck the conventional wisdom, they will remain the villain in these drummed up gender wars.
