Does faith and spirituality inform and shape your sense of masculinity? The Good Men Project wants your story.
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Faith is for many the primary meaning-making mechanism in their lives, it’s what guides them in times of confusion, it’s their strength in times of struggle, how they celebrate in times of renewal, and what they fellowship around when times are prosperous. My own faith life has been a roller-coaster ride beginning with the evangelical church and gradually—through religious studies in undergraduate, time with the Lutheran Volunteer Corps, and finally a Masters of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School—has morphed into something entirely different. Nonetheless, my life is still defined by and through the language of faith.
The Good Men Project has sought to develop and contribute to a conversation about men and masculinity in our changing world. Another lens that we can look at that conversation would be through the lens of faith and spirituality in the formation of men in the 21st century. Therefore, The Good Men Project is placing a call for submissions on men and faith, spirituality and religion.
How has your religious or spiritual life affected, for good or for ill, your sense of masculinity? Is your conception of gender, or more particularly, your role in family life—as a husband, father, or son—shaped by your spiritual or religious faith? If so, has this caused problems in your family? Or made your family stronger? Have you suffered a disillusionment of faith? Has your religious faith undergone changes and transformations that have caused you think about what it means to be a man differently?
Please submit posts to Deanna Ogle [email protected] and Ross Steinborn [email protected]. Submissions guidelines can be found here.
For me it’s simple. I live my life with JOY. Jesus, Others, You. I come last in the big scheme of things. That’s the long and short of it. My faith is everything and without it I have nothing. God is and always will be the foundation of my life. My faith has made me the husband, father, grandfather, brother ….. the man I am. Now, if you want to talk about the trials and tribulations with selfish perceptions of what “I” wanted or expected … I won’t go there. My faiths journey is too personal to open up that… Read more »