Evangelical Men Research Articles

The Integration of Psychology & Christianity: A Domain-Based Approach

The Integration of Psychology & Christianity: A Domain-Based Approach

‘A sacred relic kept’

By at least the 1830s, evangelical Protestants in the United States considered relic collection and distribution to be an essential part of an individual’s ‘good death’ experience. Protestant relics took form as bodily and contact relics. Bodily relics included locks of hair, pictures of bodies that once lived, post-mortem images, and, in rare cases, blood and bones. Contact relics included Bibles, clothes, burial shrouds, letters, and other objects associated with the dead. Evangelical publishers employed the memoir genre to teach children and adults how to distribute these relics on their deathbeds to family and friends. Some evangelical children even modeled handwritten memoirs of their friends after these published accounts. By the mid-nineteenth century, most Anglo-American Protestants regarded relic collection and distribution around the deathbed as a defining feature of evangelicalism. This held true for evangelical women, children, and men. In fact, evangelical men took these deathbed practices with them to war. Civil War soldiers who died away from home insisted on writing deathbed letters to families as part of their good death experiences. These letters usually carried soldiers’ most treasured possessions back home as Protestant relics, including locks of hair, Bibles, and rings.

The Privileged Sex? An Examination of Gendered Beliefs and Well-Being in Evangelical Men

The current study sought to investigate the relationship between benevolent sexism, gender role ideologies, and well-being in Evangelical men. Despite recent research that has established a relationship between restrictive gender beliefs and negative outcomes for women, few studies have addressed the relationship between these variables in men. Furthermore, Evangelical men’s specific experience has not been explored, in spite of religiosity’s association with these beliefs. Therefore, this study directly assessed relationship between well-being and two kinds of restrictive gender beliefs (i.e., benevolent sexism and traditional gender role ideology) in a sample of Evangelical men. Results showed that endorsement of benevolent sexism and traditional gender role ideology were related to lower levels of eudaimonic well-being for this population. Additionally, it was found that different patterns of relationship exist between restrictive gender beliefs and the two kinds of well-being: eudaimonic well-being (e.g., purpose and meaning) and hedonic well-being (e.g., pleasure and satisfaction) for this population. Specifically, the negative relationships with eudaimonic well-being were stronger than the negative relationships with aspects of hedonic well-being.

A Gender Gap among Evangelicals? An Examination of Vote Choice by Gender and Religion in the 2008 Presidential Elections

Barack Obama appeared poised to capture more votes among Evangelical women than Evangelical men given the prominence that economic and wartime issues played in the 2008 election. However, I find that no gender gap existed among Evangelicals in 2008; instead, religious tradition trumps gender as a predictor of presidential vote choice. While Obama fared similarly to John Kerry, Evangelical women were significantly more likely to vote for Al Gore than Evangelical men, demonstrating that there may be circumstances in which Democratic presidential candidates can mitigate some of their voting losses to Evangelical women.

Act Like Men: Social Engagement and Evangelical Masculinity

This article contributes to ongoing public and scholarly debates about evangelical social engagement in the United States. I illustrate that, for some conservative evangelical men, activism is fused to the cultural construction of masculinity. My central argument is that, despite becoming invested in ‘new’ acts of social engagement, these conservative evangelicals continue to rely on a familiar cultural script that uses individualist logics, rather than structural logics, to address social problems. My primary example is a relatively recent men’s movement, Acts29, and its commitment to anti-human trafficking campaigns. This article draws on ethnographic fieldwork and textual data collected between January 2009 and March 2011.

Type patterns among evangelical Protestants in Ontario

Drawn from five southern Ontario evangelical churches and two related church organisations, evangelical women (N = 93) were more J, F, FJ, IJ, SJ, and NJ compared to both Canadian and American women, and more I, SF, and IS than Canadian women. Evangelical men (N = 84) were more S, J, SJ, IS, and included more ISFJs and ISTJs compared to Canadian men, but did not diverge from Consulting Psychologist Press American male norms, nor from Canadian Catholic men except for including more ISFJs. Compared to a combined female and male sample of Ontario Anglicans, the total evangelical sample was more E, S, T, J, ES, IS, SJ, ST, and SF. The study replicates for Anglophone Canadians findings from studies in Francophone Canada, the USA, England and Wales that established the association of sensing and judging type preferences with activity in, or affiliation to, evangelical Protestant Christian groups. Type-associated limitations to growth of evangelical churches are discussed here.

“That’s Not How We Do Things Here”: American Men’s Ministries in an Australasian Context

“That’s Not How We Do Things Here”: American Men’s Ministries in an Australasian Context Joseph Gelfer Christian organizations that focus on men are nothing new. For example, the Holy Name Society, founded at the Council of Lyons in 1274, and the Knights of Columbus, founded in 1882, both continue to this day (Kauffman 1982). More broadly, Christian movements that focus on men are also nothing new: Muscular Christianity as well as the Men and Religion Forward Movement gained momentum in the late 1800s and early 1900s (Allen 2002, Bederman 1989, Putney 2003). A second wave of Muscular Christianity took hold after the Second World War, with special reference to Christian sporting activities (Ladd and Mathisen 1999). A third wave of Muscular Christianity can be identified in the late 1970s, starting with the establishment by Ed Cole of the Christian Men’s Network (CMN), which saw the creation of what we now know as “men’s ministries” (Gelfer 2009). Some men’s ministries, such as the well‐known Promise Keepers (PK), are non‐denominational, while others are affiliated with specific denominations, the most numerous of which are Catholic (Gelfer 2008). Some men’s ministries have no further focus than men, while others have a tighter agenda, such as fatherhood (Gelfer 2010a). The uniting reason for men’s ministry is an anxiety about the fading of men within the church: either an anxiety about men losing power in the Church as a result of increasing feminine influence or a missiological anxiety that fewer men are being brought to Christ. The goal of men’s ministries is therefore to attract men back into churches. This is largely achieved by appealing to stereotypical masculinities based on sporting, military, and mythopoetic images (Gelfer 2009) as well as a conservative understanding of servant leadership within the home or what has worryingly been described as “soft patriarchy” (Wilcox 2004). Most men’s ministries are based in America. In recent years, when talking about men’s ministries in Australia and New Zealand, I have met a common complaint from both theologians and clergy, “that’s not how we do things here.” Their argument is twofold: First, these critics argue, I present a caricature of evangelicalism that does not bear witness to its diversity; second, I do not acknowledge that evangelicalism (and therefore evangelical men’s ministries) looks different in Australasia compared to America. Australasian men’s ministries, these critics claim, are more subtle. They are less prone to soft patriarchy, less prone to appealing to sport and military images to entice men, and consequently less prone to the problematic masculinity they promote.1 Part of this criticism is reasonable (at least according to research sympathetic to evangelical diversity). It is true that American evangelicalism—due to the assumed creep of modernity and its values—is not the conservative monolith once identified by progressive critics. There is a spectrum of positions on this issue ranging from the paradox that evangelical rhetoric remains conservative while its practice is increasingly liberal/progressive (Bartkowski 1999, Gallagher and Smith 1999, Wilcox and Bartkowski 1999) through to there being a “megashift” in the evangelical worldview (Brow 1990). It is also true that Australasian evangelicalism has its own particular flavor. For example, Brian Dickey (1994) argues that by the 1990s, the Australian evangelical domain can be seen as a “self‐contained, self‐directing phenomena whose linkages are tenuous and various, whose driving forces are largely endogamous, whose endeavors are largely independent” (240).2 However, the claim of “that’s not how we do things here” requires further unpacking. First, it must be recognized that while there may be diversity to evangelicalism in America, this does not necessarily mean that evangelical men’s ministries are similarly diverse. Indeed, the evangelical caricature is largely justified when the masculine performances in American men’s ministries are examined (Gelfer 2009). Second, it cannot be assumed that because evangelicalism in Australasia has its own particularities, men’s ministries in Australasia will also have their own particularities (especially in light of the American caricature). Canvassing men’s ministry Web sites,3 this article looks specifically at Australasian men’s ministries to see whether the claim of “that’s not...

“Lord, I Am a Father!” The Transnational Evangelical Men's Movement and the Advent of “Benevolent’ Patriarchy

Begun as a small faith-based organization in South Korea in the late twentieth century, the Father School has evolved into a transnational evangelical men's movement, aiming to bring positive changes not only in the family but also in the church and larger society. Through a critical examination of the Father School's remaking of manhood and womanhood by analyzing what I call the “scripts of the wounded father’ and “scripts of the wise mother and good wife,” this article argues that despite its seemingly commendable goals such as the reduction of family violence and an increase in communication among family members, the Father School does not alter hierarchical gender relations and the hetero-patriarchal structure of the family and church. Instead, the remaking of manhood through the reformation of hegemonic masculinity “softens’ such a structure by calling for “benevolent’ patriarchy. Simultaneously, the Father School encourages women's re-domestication by legitimizing the roles of wife and mother as women's most valuable functions.

Braveheart , Sacred Heart: Exploring Resistance to Patriarchal Discourses in Mainstream Media and Faith in the American Spiritual Marketplace

This research assesses the relationship between gender identity and Christian faith through the lens of myriad forms of media. Specifically this essay first recognizes the use of a new marketing strategy employed by evangelical churches - namely the incorporation of Hollywood movies into religious messages - and then explores how male and female churchgoers receive the patriarchal discourses that exist within the varied media formations they encounter as they develop faith and identity in their everyday lives. This work is defined as a study of resistance to the subordinate identity that female churchgoers are invited to accept in the spaces of their churches - not a struggle against the masculinist tropes within the Hollywood movies that are woven into religious messages, however, but instead opposition only to a perceived patriarchal bias in religious texts. For what this study has revealed is that while evangelical females are quite critical of religious texts used by their church leaders, they offer no overt resistance to the strong patriarchal bias in the mainstream movies used during church sermons, those media formations that have become inextricably woven into religious messages. This research revolves around three central questions. First, what beliefs about gender are evangelicals invited to accept in the spaces of their churches now that the imagery and discourses of commercial entertainment media permeate religious messages ? Second, how do evangelical men and women who are exposed to this new mediated form of religion define and negotiate issues of gender in their lives inside and outside church? Finally, why is there no resistance to the patriarchal discourses in the commercial media texts, those media formations that are meant to attract the Unchurched Harry and Mary demographic?1 Is there something about evangelical perception of religious versus secular commercial texts that makes them less critical of the movies that have become an integral part of the development of their faith? Ascertaining what messages regarding gender are being sent to evangelicals in the spaces of their churches and how these individuals navigate issues of gender in the context of their faith is important, given the relatively recent rise of a new, highly mediated marketplace, one where Hollywood movies and television shows are used to both evangelize and instruct the faithful2 Marketing Religion In recent decades, American evangelicalism has undergone a significant shift. While some of the central tenets of evangelicalism - including a belief in the authority and inerrancy of the Bible, an emphasis on developing a personal relationship with Jesus, and the perceived need to evangelize, or spread the good news - remain, there is a new approach to evangelicalism characterized as a marketplace.3 The phrase spiritual marketplace was coined by Wade Clark Roof (1999), who recognized a new religious environment that is more closely influenced by a market mentality of supply and demand, one where religious institutions are redefined as a business and churchgoers are repositioned as consumers with personal choice. Other scholars have built on Roof s findings of increased market influences on religion (Einstein 2009; Hoover 2006; Schofield Clark 2003; Finke and Stark 2005; Wolfe 2003; Cimino and Lattin 1998). Cimino and Lattin, in their exploration of the ways in which evangelical churches market themselves to churchgoers, state that evangelical church leaders have now shifted to a business model of worship, one in which megachurches ... are the evangelical answer to Home Depot (1998, 56). The idea of competition between religious institutions is also recognized by Einstein, who in Brands of Faith states it succinctly: contemporary American religion is packaged as just another branded product in the American consumer-focused environment, one that can be advertised by companies (churches) and purchased by consumers (churchgoers) (2008, 10). …

The Lived Experiences of Evangelical Christian Men Who Self-Identify as Sexual Addicts: An Existential-Phenomenological Study

This existential-phenomenological investigation examines the lived experiences of evangelical Christian men who self-identify as sexual addicts. Individual interviews and follow-up individual interviews of six self-identified evangelical male sexual addicts were analyzed. The results of the study indicate that the male evangelical self-identified sexual addict lives through compartmentalized worlds. Only through the forced convergence of these spaces due to exposure along with the risk of extreme consequences do self-identified evangelical men surrender to change. After surrendering to change, these men willingly grasp the concept of sexual addiction, an identity that gives them a sense of relief. A growing dependence on a recovery program emerges along with a necessary and renewed reliance, appreciation, and understanding of God. The findings of this investigation illuminate the need for counselors to recognize the inextricable link between evangelicals and their relationship with God.

Reason to Believe: Cultural Agency in Latin American Evangelicalism

Numerous studies have examined the explosive growth of Evangelicalism in parts of Latin America. David Smilde's book—grounded in several years of ethnographic field work in Venezuela—adds to our growing knowledge of this phenomenon by focusing on the practical reasons for conversion among impoverished men in Caracas. He documents how many of his respondents turned to Evangelicalism to cope with substance abuse, marital conflicts, and economic difficulties. Since drinking, drug use, and gambling are forbidden among Evangelicals, new converts find themselves in a social context where there is strong support for refraining from these activities. Moreover, their sense of masculinity is undercut by economic marginalization, which is compounded by Venezuela's macho culture. Evangelicalism, therefore, may be particularly appealing, since its emphasis on male headship in the family offers an alternative masculinity that reinforces men's authority. Perhaps most interesting is the author's discussion of how Evangelical men are able to absolve themselves from neighborhood vendettas since Evangelicals are not permitted to engage in violence and, therefore, they are no longer perceived as threats to their rivals. This religious identity even appears to deter street muggings since Venezuelan popular Catholicism grants respect to sacred items such as the Bibles Evangelicals often carry with them. Thus, the author notes, “a Bible-toting Evangelical is an image that frequently instills enough insecurity in would-be attackers to prevent an assault” (71).

Liquor in the land of the lost cause: southern white evangelicals and the Prohibition movement

The temperance movement first appeared in America in the 1820s as an outgrowth of the same evangelical fervor that fostered a wide range of reform campaigns. Like many of these movements, temperance was confined primarily to the northeastern United States during the antebellum period. Viewed with suspicion by Southerners because of its close connection to the antislavery movement, prohibition sentiment remained relatively weak in the antebellum South. After the Civil War, however, southern evangelicals embraced the movement, and by 1915, liquor had been officially banned from the region. Liquor in the Land of the Lost Cause examines how southern evangelical men and women transformed a Yankee moral reform movement into an ideology that was compatible with southern culture and values.

The promise keepers: servants, soldiers, and godly men

book is about much more than just Promise Keepers. It offers critical insight into shifting ideas about masculinity, family, multiculturalism, fraternal associations, men and sports, subcultural boundary work, and grassroots social movements.--Sally K. Gallagher, author of Evangelical Identity and Gendered Family Life The evangelical men's movement widely known as the Promise Keepers--PK for short--captured America's imagination and generated intense controversy during the 1990s. PK promoted adherence to a strict code of conduct that masculinized conservative religious and social values. However, the movement now evokes little more than a hazy memory of football stadiums teeming with tear-stained faces and clasped arms that signaled spiritual transformation. What factors contributed to their demise, and what broader insights can be gleaned from the rapid rise and fall of the movement? This is the first book to consider the turbulent forces that contributed to the group's wild popularity, declining fortunes, and subsequent efforts to reinvent itself. John P. Bartkowski provides a broad and balanced portrait of the movement while evaluating its impact on the landscape of American religion. He argues that there is much to be learned about the changing contours of religion, culture, and social life through a study of the Promise Keepers. By carefully examining the character and contagious appeal of the movement, he sheds new light on evangelicalism, gender, family, therapeutic culture, sport, and multiculturalism. John P. Bartkowski is an associate professor of sociology at Mississippi State University. He is the author of Remaking the Godly Marriage: Gender Negotiations in Evangelical Families and the co-author of Charitable Choices: Religion, Race, and Poverty in the Post-Welfare Era.

Godly Masculinities: Gender Discourse Among the Promise Keepers

At tlxpeak of its prominence, the Promise Keepers had attracted criticism from many quarters. Morerecently, this evangelical men's movement has struggled to retain the visibility it once enjoyed. Using insights from cul tural theory, 1 analyze a select sample of best-selling men s manuals representingmrious advice genres within this movement larguethatPK gender discourses have given rise tofour evangelical archetypes of godly manioood: the Rational Patriarch (traditional masculinity), the Expres sive Egalitarian (men's liberationism), the Tender Warrior (poeticized manhood), and the Multicultural Man (interracial masculinity) 1 explore howPK luminaries utilize two rlxtorical devices—discursive tackingand gendered metaphors—to manage the tensions and contradictions thatsur facewithinandamongthesediscourses. ThesearchetypesenablethePromise Keepers to define themselves with reference to othernewsocial movements. Multiple depictions of godly manhood contributed to therapid riseofthis evangelicalmen'srnavementduringthel990s,andmaybeonesourceofits mcentdedine.

Breaking Walls, Raising Fences: Masculinity, Intimacy, and Accountability among the Promise Keepers

The Promise Keepers' desire to rejuvenate has stimulated debate about this evangelical men's movement. This study addresses two key questions: (1) What do Promise Keeper luminaries understand to be godly manhood? (2) What is the impact of elite PK definitions of godly manhood on the gender identities and practices of this group's members? I begin by briefly sketching the contours of two competing gender discourses -- instrumentalist versus expressive masculinity -- advanced by Promise Keeper leaders. I then examine the ways in which these divergent discourses of masculinity are reproduced, negotiated, and creatively reformulated through accountability groups frequented by PK members in a Texas metropolitan area. I reveal how social interaction and identity negotiation within these settings meld together contradictory gender practices, thereby producing a godly masculinity that is marked by both expressive and instrumental characteristics. My investigation concludes by addressing the implications of these findings, and by specifying directions for future research on the Promise Keepers.

EVANGELICAL WITNESS IN SOUTH AFRICA — THE STORY OF CONCERNED EVANGELICALS

International Review of MissionVolume 83, Issue 328 p. 139-141 EVANGELICAL WITNESS IN SOUTH AFRICA — THE STORY OF CONCERNED EVANGELICALS Moss Ntlha, Moss Ntlha Moss Ntlha is the general secretary of the Concerned Evangelicals, which is based in Johannesburg.Search for more papers by this author Moss Ntlha, Moss Ntlha Moss Ntlha is the general secretary of the Concerned Evangelicals, which is based in Johannesburg.Search for more papers by this author First published: January 1994 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-6631.1994.tb02351.x AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume83, Issue328January 1994Pages 139-141 RelatedInformation