Sunday, November 12, 2017

How Are Men Supposed to Act?

Men don't know how to act today.  I admit that.  I believe it 100%.  I also believe that women don't know how they want men to act.  So what do men do?

More and more news arises of men treating women different than, it seems, how they want to be treated.  Is it different than how men want to treat women?  I'm not sure.  Men don't know how to treat women.  They don't know what's right.  There isn't a standard for how to act as a man and there is no standard for how to treat women.

Don't get me wrong.  There is a standard for how men should act and how they should treat women.  It's in the Bible.  But the Bible is ignored as a standard.  That leaves us men with what?  If we have no absolute truth or no standard for how to act as men or how we are to treat women, how can anything be expected of us as men?  Unless we're going to bring the Bible back.  Do women want that?

Let's say that Roy Moore, the Senate candidate in Alabama, is a hypocrite.  With hypocrisy, you've got to have a standard, one that you advocate, but that you don't keep yourself.  Is that standard, the one you're advocating, the correct standard? We might say that Roy Moore is a hypocrite, but what standard was he supposed to keep and why?

Roy Moore was a 32 year old assistant district attorney.  The most egregious example I read of his misbehavior was that he molested a 14 year old girl under the guise of "dating" her.  It is alleged behavior, which is enough to convict him the court of public opinion.  However, he is also said to have attempted to "date" a number of other teen-aged girls.

What's bad about the whole story of Roy Moore?  He stands as perhaps the most prominent enthusiast of the ten commandments in the United States.  So, while he was busy carving a wooden plaque of the ten commandments as a 32 year old assistant district attorney, he was lusting after teen-aged girls.  If it's true, it's creepy, but it doesn't disobey in corporeal way any of the ten commandments.  The ten commandments are not the end all of moral behavior.  Jesus said, if you lusted after a woman in your heart, you've committed adultery already.  Women today would scoff at that standard of behavior for men.  They wouldn't say that's how men are supposed to act.  Lust away, just don't touch when we don't want it, is more like it.

Women don't like how they are being treated by men.  They are talking about it.  They are marching against it.  Where do we go from here?  We know some things women don't want.  Many of them sat listening to Louis C. K. tell masturbation jokes, laughing away, returning for another comedy show, watching the next one, joining him in his productions.  Now he's a pariah, worse than one.  Untouchable.  He did things awhile ago and in a continuous way, but now, while it's expedient, he's being called on them, ruined, and getting battered further for his bungled apology.  Why wasn't he being punished when he was telling those jokes?  Women were a large part of his audience.  He was considered a great dad.  If the goal is to help men with their behavior, this isn't helpful.

The Bible has a standard for how men are supposed to act and with a lot of examples, both positive and negative.  It is clear.  It also has the standard for female behavior.

I'm contending that among the chief reasons men misbehave is that they don't know how to act.  If you give up your standard, you can't expect men to know how.  Lines have to be drawn far in advance of assault and molestation.  You have to know what respect is, who women are and how to treat them.  You have to know that as a man.  It's taught by men.

What I get is the following so far in the latest protest by women.  "Don't assault us."  Don't molest us.  Don't harass us.  Don't use positions of power to subjugate us."  Men shouldn't do any of those.  We know what men shouldn't do.  So they won't do that, right?  I don't know.  I doubt it.  I think men need to know what to do, how to act, not just what they shouldn't.  I think, if men don't know what to do and are not taught what to do, because it's the right thing to do, they won't stop doing what they're not supposed to do.

Roy Moore is a little more than one month of a Senatorial election and the Washington Post of all papers exposes him as a child molesting hypocrite.  Not a moment sooner.  Let Roy Moore shrink off into oblivion.  How men are supposed to act?  It will still be an issue.  Will the Washington Post show the same interest in male Democrat candidates?  I'm predicting even greater confusion and chaos for the future.  Women can tell men how they want them to act, but men will decide how they will act.  The bigger issue will still exist.

March 30 of this year, the Washington Post wrote a piece, Mike Pence and the Temptresses.   There the Post laid out unacceptable behavior for men, for the Vice President of the United States.  He was being careful.  That was a no-no.  He was treating his wife with respect.  That wasn't right.  Again, we find out what men are not supposed to do.  Have a low standard, just not too low.

We need male role models.  First, we need a male role.  We've got to start with a standard.  Men don't know how to act, because there's no standard for how men are supposed to act.  We know what women don't want.  Perhaps we can find out too what they do.

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