... is this.
![]() |
For the TL;DR crowd, here's the post in a nutshell. |
From my last post wherein I pondered if life was peaceful back when single-celled algae occupied the top rung of the evolutionary ladder. Life was not peaceful, it was filled with microscopic predations.
The whole model of the world God made is effectively, while not utterly, Darwinian. Violent competition is a part of life at all levels. It is into that world that Jesus came. It is that world that gives us the dramatic conflicts of our lives, conflict being a necessary element of any story.
Christian life happens within a context of violence. The violence is inescapable. God designed the world this way and it is in this structure that we must practice our Christianity.
From the summary post in my series on sex, Sex, SEX!
Women, in a primal environment, are neither strong nor independent. Women can only be strong and independent if they can afford to have men create a barrier between them and the primal world. Some can afford that, most cannot.
Women have babies. Women are required for the continuation of the species. If you want to get all Biblical, the divine injunction from the beginning was "be fruitful and multiply." If you're going to do that in a world of violence, then men are going to have to protect women.
If God created a world based on violent competition, and He did, then all environments are primal. Further, women are nearly always vulnerable. When young children are involved, they are hopelessly vulnerable. When young children are not involved, you get South Korea and Japan, places where women are not as vulnerable because they don't have any children.
![]() |
Clearly, that does not satisfy the "be fruitful and multiply" divine exam question.
An unburdened woman is small, softer, weaker, less aggressive and slower than a man. A woman who is pregnant is practically immobile late in the pregnancy. A nursing mother may as well have a target on her back and one with a toddler isn't much better. And no, the stay-at-home dad isn't the solution. The mom is still the one who produces the milk baby needs. Sending your woman to bring you back sustenance is suboptimal in a violent, competitive world.
Then there's the matter of food. Even if you're a vegan, you have to fight for your food. You fight other creatures who want to prey on your crops. You fight the elements - drought, floods, poor soil. Life is an endless series of violent competition even for the priests in the pulpit who preach Teletubby sermons.
Working from the top of your loyalty hierarchy down, you must protect and provide for your woman. Then you must protect and provide for your children. Then family, clan, neighborhood, town and so forth. As a man, you must do it because the women are unsuited for this job.
So the romantic, chivalric image above tells what you need to be as a man in the Darwinian world God created. Vigilant, powerful, dangerous, protective and competent, the man builds a wall around his woman and, by extension, his family and civilization itself, wherein higher order arts might flower.
By the way, I've always loved the expression on the face of the girl in that image. She is absolutely glowing with pleasure. Her knight makes the world safe for her at the same time he makes her feel like the most beautiful and desirable girl in the world. That is his job as a man in a dangerous world. He is there to protect, provide and cherish.
Exit question: What are her responsibilities towards him?
God Is Love
So the Teletubby priests and deacons with their nauseatingly sweet sermons are right about one thing. We men, bristling and growling, must act with love as our central motivation. That is the whole drama of life, the central moral conflict we have to navigate.
How do I protect and provide in a violent, competitive world while keeping love, forgiveness and charity as my central moral guides?
Sometimes you can be all kissy-kissy love-love and sometimes you can't. Even motivated by Christian love, there are times when you have to choose violence. If that was never the best choice, life wouldn't have any dramatic conflict and we'd all undulate around cooing at each other.
When that choice has to be made, you need to be skilled at aggressive, protective decisions and actions.
I hope you love Jesus because you're about to meet Him. |