My View From The Mountain

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
1 Corinthians 13:11 NKJV

There has been an abundance of books in the past decade or so based entirely on what it takes to be a man in America.  From the rough riding, Teddy Roosevelt type to the all emotional, in touch with his feelings modern man.  It's no wonder, then, that there are plenty of men out there still unsure of whether they've made that step into adult manhood.  After all, there are plenty of voices around them telling them what they need to do to achieve this milestone in life.  Which path is the right one to follow?  Add to that a certain segment of our society who are quick to jump and criticize anyone who even attempts to declare their manhood.  American men, you see, are violent,  agressive, heartless and overtly greedy.  There can be no place for that in our nation they tell us!  Men have started wars, attacked women, created the dreaded Wall Street and overall destroyed our society.  How can anyone aspire to be a man in the face of this onslaught?  There can be only one explanation for this gender war, to degrade and downplay the male of the species!  There, I said it.  All anyone needs do is look at our modern society to see the effects of this.  We now have a entirely new generation of what they call "gender confused" young men.  This makes me want to wretch!

So God created man in His own image; in the image of God he created him; male and female He created them.
Genesis 2:27 NKJV

Who has ever thought of God as being gender confused?   I know I haven't.  However, if we see men as being part male and part female, we see the very same in our Lord!  For the book of  Genesis tells that we are created in Gods own image.  Once again, we are faced with that pandoras box of how we interpret Gods word.  Yet, it is my belief that Gods word needs no extra interpretation, it is all right there in front of us.  Remember, it was God himself in the body of a man, who died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins.  Was Jesus Himself gender confused?  I'll jump out on a limb and say NO!  I believe that this is less about what it takes to be a man and more about people wanting to CHANGE the behavior of men.  Somewhere in the halls of some liberal college faculty lounge, someone came up with the idea that the agressive, dominant male was no longer needed in our society.  No, our kinder, less agressive society needed softer teddy bear types.  The great Arnold Shwarzeneger would have called such a person a "Girly man!"  We even see this in our own White House, where our community agitator in chief Barack Hussein Obama travels around the world bestowing the virtues of  the feminine male.  It's no wonder, then, that every backwoods third world cesspool of a nation feels no threat from the United States, this is by design!

In the end, my story, in Iraq and afterward, is about more than just killing people or even fighting for my country.  It's about being a man.  And it's about love as well as hate.
Chris Kyle ~ Former Navy SEAL Sniper

There are countries and regions throughout this world of ours that celebrate that time in a young mans life when he steps into manhood.  Whatever happened to that in America?  Yes, the tradition yet continues today as fathers prepare their sons for that point in their young lives through hunting, fishing, mechanical work and just leading them into adulthood.  There is something to be said  about that relationship between a father and son as a boys father guides his son into the world of being a man.  These lessons are not lost on our younger generation.  They are lessons which I, as a boy, never received from a father who wasn't there.  However, I have no problem shouting from the mountain that I AM A MAN!

~Scott~