“Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics”
By Andrew Wildes | 
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A Response to the article “Church Not Macho Enough for Men” published in the Gleaner (http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20070925/news/news4.html)
I have a very serious problem with this Macho church article (and its not personal), nor is it relating primarily to anything incorrectly said by the writer of the article. The reality is that the article in question and all the Articles that have been coming out about the male problem, are highlighting a real issue that exists in the society.
My issue is with the interpretation and analysis of all these church statistics relating to the attendance of men, and how they are used to form the notion that it is a failure in the church to be macho that has cause this decline in male support.
This is why I’ve entitled this article after Mark Twain’s famous quotation noting that “there are 3 types of lies; lies, damn lies, and statistics. In this case, I agree. Though the statistics clearly say, that men are not coming to church like their female counterpart, I put it to you that masculinity is not at all the issue, and this is my argument :
The absence of men from the church and the prevalence of women does not reflect a deficiency in the church’s masculine appeal but in its overall spiritual decline.
It is important that we understand the true issue, for whatever we think is the truth is what is going to drive our actions.
I think I should start by saying that the situation is the same through almost every area of society, and most of the western world. In the school system, work places, youth clubs and so forth, men are absent, or poorly represented.
Is there a Shortage of Men?
No. the last time I checked, the sex ratio was almost equal, and yet, in all conventional areas of upward mobility men are missing while women abound. Where are the men? Check a football match, or a construction site, anywhere a Challis light up, or a Rasta meeting, prisons, Dancehall, and all of what we call “underground Jamaica.” The men are not dead, or non-existent, they are alive, just not where they were before.
The gods of the Jamaican society is wealth, pleasure, prestige and pride and that is the focus of a vast majority of its males.
1) Sadly, the Church in Jamaica (the whole Western World) is largely perceived in our time as another means of path to gaining upward social mobility. This is coming from the days when church and state use to be close, and when people would dress in their “Sunday best” to attend church and every notable person was affiliated with the church. But now the church in Jamaica does not provide anybody with any significant social status, and so losing the main purpose for which many once supported it, it is of no more value. So men in Jamaica have forsaken the church.
The gods of the Jamaican society (and the entire Western World) are wealth, pleasure, prestige and pride and the truth is these define the focus of a vast majority of its males.
2) Why are the women still there, and still joining?
Forgive me for this argument.
I think there are many serious Christian women, but for many their motive in “joining the church,” as we love to say in Jamaica, is exactly for the same reasons why the men leave.
The situation has always been bad for our women, but now they are making the best use of every opportunity they have to advance themselves through the conventional means of social mobility. They want the legal, stable, admirable, means that suggests a particular quality of life. Women, like the article, said, are looking for ’safe, nurturing, stable environments’ – and so it works for their benefit, and they stay.
I submit to you may most important point, that the issue is not about the masculine appeal of the church, but its overall spiritual decline.
Over 2000 years the leading men in the church never raised an alarm about being in love with Jesus (for it was never, and still is not meant to be a sexual type of love).
There was never any question about adventure or risk taking, when scriptures like 2 Timothy 3:10-12 which say that for a fact “everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” The reality is the man who practices true Christianity is always gravest danger (1 Cor 15:30), and this is proven throughout all Christian history, just examine:
John the Baptist (Beheaded)
The Apostle Paul (tradition say he was beheaded),
The Apostle Peter (crucified upside down
Jesus Christ (Tortured and Crucified)
The Apostle John (thrown in cauldron of hot oil | then exiled to isle of Patmos until death)
Martin Luther (Reformer: Excommunicated from the church| Threaten with death by the King)
William Tyndale (Translated the bible into English: Imprisoned, Branded a heretic, Strangled to death and Burned at the Stake)
John Williams and James Harris (Missionaries: Eaten by cannibals)
Martin Luther King Jr (Christian Civil Rights Leader : Assassinated)
And the list goes on. We do not need to defend the church’s manhood or femininity; perfection in every area of life is exemplified best by those within the Church who follow the dictates of the perfect God (Ecclesiastes 7:18).
Back to my closing argument.
The real problem is that the message and demonstration of true Christianity, of the true God-centered, God-glorifying Gospel is nowadays, either not being heralded, or is corrupted and the truth is the absence of men is just a manifestation of that great problem.
The men leave quicker, because the church as it is sold to them nowadays really has no value in their eyes, and so they leave quicker than the women. The women stay for a variety of reasons – some of course spiritual, but all together they are of the same cloth as the men. The Church therefore lacks vital power and these statistics point to the fact of her illness, not any gender issue.