06 October 2007

Changing Idea of Fatherhood

Time magazine has an article on fatherhood and whether it makes you less of a man. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1668449-1,00.html
To a group of men interviewed, their response is "sort of." Well the answer should be "definitely not." In fact being a father is all about being a man, truly masculine, truly chivalrous. One can simply look at the history of Christian art and see in it the love of a father towards his children. No doubt somewhere along the line men began to repress those nurturing feelings and became more distant and stoic but that is not in the true nature of man. Now men are beginning to re-discover their true nature but it is not to be attributed to the feminist influence as some would have us believe. In fact the effect of feminism on men and especially on young men and boys is very destructive. One man in the interview feels "a little whipped" because he stays home to take care of his children.
Aaron Rochler who is an associate professor at the University of Texas studying fatherhood and masculinity concludes that being masculine is bad for you. Perhaps in the modern concept of it but not masculine in the classical ideal. Take a look at the Order of the Knights of St. John which began as a hospitaller order taking care of sick pilgrims to the Holy Land. Later they took on a military role in keeping pilgrims and Christian places safe but they never stopped ministering to the sick. Everywhere they went they built hospitals. These noble warriors who earned the respect of their enemies for their strength and valour were equally attentive in their compassionate care and love for the sick and the poor. These men began their day with Mass, prayed their 150 Our Fathers on their Paternoster beads, and spent Holy Hours before the Blessed Sacrament. Is it mere coincidence that as men began to view their faith as "something women do" that their whole concept of manhood and masulinity changed?

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