Watch carefully, the blooming hostility and belligerence toward men and masculinity. The #MeToo movement erupted in the liberal enclaves of Hollywood and fake news nutwerks. We cannot permit those who know nothing of restraint to define deviancy down even further under a pretentious quest for "justice."

There is a palpable growing movement in western culture to minimize and marginalize the role and influence of men.  It’s not new, but its voices are becoming increasingly hostile.  Television programs often portray men as crude, slovenly brutes, devoid of manners, ignorant and lazy.  The #MeToo movement has revived the zeal to eradicate masculine influence from network television news programs and sitcoms.  And while stories of men behaving badly are pushed to the fore, the trend announces a further decline for western civilization.

Men are not above women, but neither are we be beneath them.  Radical feminist, Gloria Steinem said in the 1970s, “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.”  In reality, the influence of men is vital and necessary.  Everyone alive today, is here because of a man. 
While sexual assault and harassment claims are being exposed by the dozens today, the actions of these few miscreants are as embarrassing to most men as they are to women.  Are men responsible for all or most of the world’s problems?  Would a society dominated by women be better?  Certainly not. 

I would suggest that, contrary to the narrative of liberal feminists, the essence of the problem is not a fundamental flaw in the combination of the X-Y chromosome pairing or of testosterone.  Instead, the root cause is the godless culture in which we live.  American society has created the very situation that we have today.  A number of factors came together in the recent past. 

The mid-1950s ushered in the divorce revolution.  Millions of families were split apart for specious and selfish reasons concocted by parents who neglected the welfare of their children.  Our culture continues to pay a heavy price for this situation. 

The next blow came with the sexual revolution.  Since the 1960s, men have been encouraged to be more sensitive to the wishes and feelings of women.  By itself, this is not bad.  But like most ideas that originate with, or that are co-opted by psychologists, it was pushed to a harmful extreme.  College-aged men are now being persuaded to celebrate the role of women to the exclusion of themselves. 

The 1973 Roe v. Wade decision brought another crushing social effect.  Abortion laws removed entirely, the responsibility of men to care for the children they sired.  This has been especially destructive in minority communities where nearly 70% of children are now raised by single mothers.   All children, but particularly boys, who are raised in single-parent households suffer an enormous disadvantage in establishing healthy adult relationships. 

Abortion relegated men to secondary status in relationships.  After all, when men are no longer worthy to be consulted in decisions related to pregnancy, they understandably learn to detatch themselves emotionally in their relationships with women. 

Based on her landmark 25-year study of children, The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce, Judith Wallerstein describes the long-term damage that divorce has caused in the lives of kids.  The idea that children are infinitely resilient is simply a lie.  I know, because I’m one.

I believe that it is readily apparent that one horrible side-effect of the fall of man is the innate inability that we humans have establishing healthy balance in our lives.  The problem is magnified in a nation of millions of people.  Is it possible to find a healthy balance?  Can it be reached?  The good news to both questions, is “Yes!” 

The first step is to understand the unique strengths and weaknesses of both men and women in the world and to recognize when they are getting out of whack.  Neither can be eliminated or dismissed without enormous enduring consequences.  A brief description of the common qualities of men and women may be in order here.

Men provide structure in families like steel provides reinforcement to a concrete bridge.  Men are usually the providers and protectors of their wives and children.  But men are also the standard-bearers, defining and affirming family values such as honesty, hard work, personal integrity and self-reliance.  They are more likely to teach children about the natural world, science and mathematics, philosophy and history.  Most men will attack weaknesses such as moral compromise, laziness, cruelty and hypocrisy in themselves and their children. 
A man who is unable to perform these basic responsibilities is like a fish out of water.  He cannot be fulfilled unless he is working within his divinely ordained role.  But the hardness of men becomes harmful when taken to an extreme.  Then, men become harsh, uncaring, mean, belligerent and austere, demanding and cold.  

In a healthy marriage, the hardness of men is tempered by the softness of women.  Women are more social than men.  Women speak more words, as many as ten thousand per day.  Women have a natural capacity for empathy that is less pronounced in men.  Women teach kindness and empathy; women nurture and encourage, healing emotional wounds and teaching children to be compassionate. 

Moms are more likely to give kids time to play.  Women are more likely to be creative placing greater value on music, art, literature and dialogue.  But without the structure provided by men, women will often sacrifice character development or noble principles for the sake of preserving a relationship.  Without the influence of men, the softness of women can incite moral compromise, creating kids that are lazy, weak and dependent upon others. 

What caused our culture’s decline?  A number of factors are to blame, but among them are reckless public policies that raised taxes, requiring both parents to work.  Our nation’s rejection of the role of God in our homes and our personal lives has been caustic.  But the antecedent to the decay of the American culture overall, has been the corrupting influence of liberalism. 

Liberalism has remade America into a nation of counterfeits and imposters.  We now have fake news, fake religion, fake faith and fake marriages.  Our society promotes pseudo values, phony news, relative truth and widespread injustice.  We foolishly chose to believe the lie that “close enough is good enough.”  The enemy of men’s souls, Satan, is the author of pretense and imitation, and his influence on western culture has been devastating. 

Scripture asks, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?  (PS 11:3)  The surest only way to restore our lives, our families, our neighborhoods and our nation is to return to the Almighty God who created the world.  He has the only effective plan to rebuild a nation’s foundations.  Men must be the primary operators in this effort, because they have the qualities that are most in demand.  Wise church leaders across the nation are already aware of this fact.  We must build up one another and beat back the godless hoards that undermine every good and useful structure in our society–the forces of liberalism. 

Again and again throughout the Bible, when Israel strayed from God’s law to its ruin and misery, the Lord’s prescription was the same.  “Return to me.”  If America is to survive as a free and prosperous nation, we must return to the truth of God and follow His instruction.  Nothing less will do.