At the heart of mature masculinity is a sense of benevolent responsibility to lead, provide for and protect women in ways appropriate to a man's differing relationships.
At the heart of mature femininity is a freeing disposition to affirm, receive and nurture strength and leadership from worthy men in ways appropriate to a women's differing relationships.
-John Piper
Masculinity is leading, providing, and protecting? Maybe he should have added in "hunting the herds and foraging for firewood" too. What if someone lives up to only a portion of these qualities (i.e. not all three), is he no longer masculine or not really all that masculine? If a husband dies in a marriage and he lived up to all three of these standards, who then provides, leads, and protects the woman and possibly her children, especially when her role was to affirm, receive, and nurture the man? Would she be more masculine by taking on these roles? Is anyone either fully masculine or fully feminine? If a husband is not a "worthy man" then does the wife have the right to divorce him because of his shortcomings in embodying the masculine role - especially if he decides he doesn't wish to live up to those role characteristics?
ReplyDeleteSorry if I'm coming off as confrontative with all these questions. I of course realize that this quote only reflects a small portion of the larger teachings of John Piper and so that's why I only ask these questions pertaining to the text. These are just questions (food) for thought.
I am reminded of Genesis 1:26-27 (the language is plural) when I read quotes like this.
Those questions have been asked and addressed.
ReplyDeleteYes. If you would like to read Piper's answers to these thoughts, maybe you should read his book. (Title is the title of my post.)
If you’d like to know how I’d answer these thoughts, then perhaps we should talk in person rather than online where communication can be distorted very easily.
I simply post quotes that catch my attention, so that others could think about them. : )
As far as the passage you provided, I don't see how the quote and the passage contradict.