"Mischief. Mayhem. Soap."

Title link here.

I saw "Fight Club" back in college. This was pre-"Sin City" so it was disturbing in places. It was also profound and hinted at a path that men should walk down.

Now, in the past week, I've heard of two books that seem to push a similar line, just without quite as much violence and more contained graphic sex: "The Barbarian Way" and "No More Christian Nice Guy". I haven't read either book yet, but the ideas I've heard from them are powerful and demand that we, as men, shape up and bring the Church back to a proper understanding of our role.

A quote that Jason read to me from "No More Christian Nice Guy" went something along these lines: Since women are frequently considered more spiritual, moral, and godly than men, and since they do not display the same sexual urges that guys do, the natural conclusion is that a sex drive is sinful. This has led Christian couples to talk about becoming "closer" to one another and so avoid any mention of sex. ...One Christian woman even called her husband a "pervert" for his sexual desires. A man's sex drive is such that he will seek satisfaction elsewhere, often in places that truly are perverted.

Sex. God made it, and it should be intense. We may not need the yellow glove (didn't get it when I saw the film and don't feel like I need to understand it now), but sex is good in the proper context of marriage. I certainly feel the tendency to think that girls are not only the "fairer sex" but also the sinless one to boot. As Coughlin points out, if you printed off sections of "Song of Solomon" and showed it to many church-goers, they would decry it as pornography written by a sick mind. That's not good.

A similar message holds true for violence as well. Our Christian culture tells boys that it is wrong to punch another kid. "Violence is not the answer" stuff. Instead we hear that we are supposed to "turn the other cheek", even though Christ did not demonstrate this the way we interpret it at all. When struck at His trial, Jesus demanded that the man be held responsible for his action [John 18:23]. Not very "Christ-like" is that when He clearly told us to just let things slide?

Similar things can be said about parents who demand that boys "respect" them even if they are being tyrannical. Coughlin makes many other fantastic observations which are much better in his book than in a small blog post here.

Suffice it to say: "Fight Club" is closer to the truth than many church going Christians. Not that mischief and mayhem are good, but perhaps we need to lay off the soap a bit.

In a recent conversation with a Christian media producer, he recounted the story of a woman who wrote in berating him for putting such filthy content on his program that allowed a guy to touch a young lady's shoulder during a love song. His response was to tell her to "shut the hell up and go to hell." When he said that I smiled and knew I was in the company of a Christian man.

~Luke Holzmann