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Strong men are not products of mere social constructs, cultural pressures or personality clones. But they’re crucial to happy, healthy relationships, families and societies, writes Caleb Stephen.

“Australia's 'man drought' is real — especially if you're a Christian woman looking for love” was the attention-grabbing ABC headline that caught my eye a few days ago.

The story was about 32-year-old Anna Hitchings who expected to be married with children by now but hasn’t. She attributes this in a large part to there being a lack of men who share her Christian values.

“It seems to be quite a rare thing to meet a man on the same level who also shares our faith,” she lamented.

Ms Hitchings who has dated both Christian and non-Christian men went on to say that she once thought “that if you find someone that you love and get along with, everything will be fine — and that's not true.”

“You do have to sacrifice a lot to make a relationship work.”

It really got my brain cogs turning on this one. You see, this problem is a symptom of a far deeper issue.

When you look at the character of today’s men, it’s really not surprising why so many marriage-ready women are still single and why the breakdown of relationships and marriages are at an all-time high. 

And while it is true, that there are less men than women in Australia – 98.6 males for every 100 females – the growing problem is not just the lack of men alone but a lack of men with solid values. 

Furthermore, the issue is not men being too masculine, but rather men not being masculine enough.  The issue is not men but the very values that shape who today’s men are.

When masculinity is shunned, men by default run away from responsibilities resulting in despair, destruction and depression. 

We are currently in the middle of a manhood crisis. Women of today are crying out for men who can provide in both the realms of affection and basic life necessities but who can also lead them and ride through the storms of life with them.

Women want real men.

Women want men they can count on.

Women want men they can look up to.

Women want men who are brave, intentional, strong and tender.

Whether that is responsibility for their own actions, responsibility for provision, protection and nurturing, more and more men are doing the complete opposite by running away from it.

And the impact is staggering. In the United States, 71% of kids who dropped out of high school are fatherless. This has a direct correlation to alarming rates of teen pregnancy, homelessness and mental health issues. The cycle just repeats itself. Fathers are 100% critical to the early developmental stages of a boy and those actions have a huge bearing on that boy’s progression into manhood. 

Manhood doesn’t begin at puberty. Manhood begins the moment values that will make a positive impact on the lives of those around them are forged.

A boy’s voice can deepen with physical maturity, but a boy does not simply transition into manhood overnight.

Strong men are not products of mere social constructs, cultural pressures or personality clones.

Strong men are needed for happy families, thriving relationships and healthy communities.

And while there is the notion of “toxic masculinity” swirling about in today’s culture, the answer to the reckless and irresponsible actions of men is not less masculinity, but more.

Radical agendas including “gender equality” pushed by various ideologues are also very unhelpful and severely detrimental to this cause. These radicals believe that feminising men will achieve the goal of eliminating sexism, abuse and violence perpetrated by men on women whether that’s in a domestic, workplace or other context.

Masculinity isn’t toxic. It’s actually men who aren’t masculine which brings about toxicity. Feminine, passive men don’t stop evil. It’s strong, resolute men of grit who stop evil. 

Weak, little men who use and abuse women instead of protecting, loving and cherishing them is the cause.

Strong men with Christian values will treat women with respect, provide, protect and make responsible life decisions.

The bottom line is our society is not suffering from a lack of males, but rather a shortage of real masculinity which results in great harm to women and children and society as a whole.

 

firefighter nsw bushfire

Despite daily turmoil and trepidation of living in a shattered and hurting world, Christians everywhere have unshakeable hope, writes Caleb Stephen.

I write this piece as out of control bushfires rage in NSW and QLD meanwhile the hot topic of the day is linking this devastation to climate change.

I am mindful that hundreds upon hundreds of people have been displaced or tragically lost homes. And sadly too, there are families right now grieving the loss of loved ones.

And as if that stuff isn’t heavy enough, this globe continues to turn and for every morning that we wake up, we flick on the TV, scroll through our social media feeds or read through the newspaper and the cold hard reality of the fractured world that we live in hits home hard.

Constant attacks on religious freedom, faith, family values and the sanctity of human life only results in our further disconcertment, disillusionment and depression.

Everywhere we look we see bleakness; we see darkness looming. Hardly a bright and hopeful future ahead… or so it seems.

As an organisation, FamilyVoice Australia is daily at the forefront of repelling attacks from those who seek to undermine the Christian faith - which has been the cornerstone of Western Civilization for the last millennium.

We do what we can as servants of God attempting to fulfil our calling in the Kingdom of God to be loving agents of grace, delivering “salt and light” to the world around us.

And yes, there are definitely times when our efforts feel less than enough. Less than effective. Less than important.

After all, we’re only human and try as we might, cannot solve all the problems of this world. Whether they’re social, political, spiritual or physical, without Jesus, we are ultimately powerless.

“Where is the hope in all of this?” it is only natural to ask.

In trying times like this, I find it comforting to fall back on my faith in God. It’s the one place in which I can find answers when everywhere else I can find none.

In the book of Matthew 8 and in verse 23 we read of Jesus and his disciples entering a boat on the sea of Galilee and a storm arising which caused waves to actually start sweeping over that boat.

Jesus was fast asleep and the disciples who by that point were panicking yelled at Jesus saying: “save us, we’re going to drown!”

And I love this part of the passage. In verse 26 He replied: “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” 

Then He rebuked the raging wind and the crashing waves and ushered in calmness.

I think at times it is so easy to forget the presence and power of God in the moments in life that are really dark. And as I go through life, I realise there are a lot of those.

While the darkness increases and the storm rages around us, we can rest assured that God is ultimately in control and above all these things.

Romans 5 talks about suffering producing important character qualities, one of those being hope.

Verse 5 goes on to say that “And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”

The bottom line is that despite daily turmoil and trepidation of living in a shattered and hurting world, Christians everywhere have unshakeable hope. Living hope. Unashamed hope. Comforting hope.

It doesn’t matter how thick the darkness, how crushing the despair or how agonizing the desperation. Jesus gives Hope. Jesus gives Life. None of these things are too big for Him.

And this is why it is crucial to have faith and that we need to let our faith be strengthened in the hardest moments of life.

So, in the middle of these storms, let me conclude by saying this: lean into Jesus, draw close to Him and find your hope for the future in Him when everywhere else seems to be void of it.

 

pregnant

FamilyVoice Australia is warning about a new national scheme that will enable more women to handle their own chemical abortion at home.

“More women are going to experience the devastating consequences of abortion in their own bathrooms as a result of this program,” said FamilyVoice spokesman David d’Lima.

‘Abortion Online’ will enable women to access abortifacient chemicals with no requirement of an appointment or face-to-face meeting with a medical doctor.

“Women facing crisis pregnancy will simply visit a website and secure abortifacient chemicals, with devastating consequences,” he said.

FamilyVoice Australia recently screened the ground-breaking “Unplanned” film that portrays pitifully a woman who takes a prescription to kill and expel her baby in the bathroom.

“The move is extremely difficult to watch, but we must see the devastating reality of all kinds of abortion, including use of RU-486 prescriptions,” David d’Lima said.

“This new national scheme to provide so-called tele-abortion will utterly privatise the killing of the unborn and it will devastate women in their own homes.

“More women are going to suffer physical, mental and spiritual anguish as they imbibe poison to kill their little one, see it expelled and then have to handle the disposal.

“Our civic authorities seem to have no idea about the profound damage this will do to women in their own homes and they must ban this new program.”

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Paralympian Marieke Vervoort, who won Gold at the 2012 London Olympics, has been euthanised at just 40 years of age.

Vervoort suffered from a spinal condition which she had lived with since she was 21.

The talented athlete, who also won silver and bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics, first signed Belgium euthanasia documents in 2008.

In Australia, euthanasia was legalised in Victoria this year and activists are pushing for it to be another part of “healthcare” in Western Australia and Queensland.

But there has been strong pushback against the legalisation moves, particularly from medical professionals and indigenous leaders.

FamilyVoice has previously reported that WA's most senior end-of-life care specialists are concerned that an alarming lack of palliative care resources has caused increased demand for euthanasia.

More recently, two Aboriginal politicians have criticised the WA legislation.

“I strongly believe that all life is sacrosanct and should be protected”, said Ken Wyatt.

While Pat Dodson said he was concerned by a lack of public commentary on Aboriginal self-determination surrounding the bill.

“The Western civil society has had an alleged need for this change to the sanctity of life. This sanctity of life understanding has much resonance with our perspectives and First Nations have respected it,” Mr Dodson said.

“Now, with little education or explanation we are confused as to why a change is necessary,” he added.

Meanwhile barrister and former MP Tim Hammond has featured in a number of videos with healthcare specialists.

“For me, when it comes to this notion of voluntary assisted dying, or euthanasia, or whatever label we want to put on it, quite frankly, it sort of comes back to the same thing,” Mr Hammond says in one of the videos.

“And that is, what does it actually mean, applying this notion of giving someone else the right to end the life of my family member, my wife if she gets a terminal illness, my mum, others.

“If this legislation passes, and I get it wrong, or we get it wrong in relation to a diagnosis, what number is a number that is acceptable for you for us to get this wrong, for us to make one mistake at the end of life and we'll never get that time back again.

Christian governor

A Christian school governor has been suspended for daring to say that she would not want her children to read books with LGBT ideology.

Maureen Griffith, 73 years of age, was a governor at Alperton Community School in Brent, northwest London, for over 20 years before she was suspended.

Griffith had also worked for the National Health Service for more than 40 years.

According to The Times, she received a letter earlier this year informing her that she was being suspended due to two complaints alleging that she had made “homophobic comments at a public meeting”.

Discussing the meeting in question, Griffith said that she raised that the introduction of LGBT books and Pride month into the school had not been mentioned before at any previous meetings.

"I said that parents had not been consulted and that there would be parents with children from religious backgrounds who would object and not want their children to have this form of sex education. I urged them to consider those families, and added that as a parent myself, I would not have wanted my sons to be reading LGBT books or to be involved in an LGBT Pride month.

“As I said this, a member of staff stood up and left the room and the clerk of the school began to rage at me saying: ‘Look what you’ve gone and done, you’ve upset him.’ She then told me that I should be accepting of what was happening as it is law.

“I know there were members of staff present who were glad that I raised the issue as they felt unable to do so themselves. After this, my understanding is that two people present complained about what I had said.”

Griffith said when they told her she been ‘homophobic’ for scrutinising the introduction of LGBT Pride month, she had to go home and look up what it meant.

"I couldn’t believe it. It never occurred to me that I could be ‘homophobic’ or scared of something. These things don’t come into my head.

“But now with this LGBT agenda, not just in schools, but across society, there is no debate, no questioning and there is only a one-way democracy.

“I loved being part of education and planning what was happening at the school. I am, however, at peace over the whole situation. I am not annoyed; I am only saddened that this is happening in this country.

“My faith in Jesus is very important to me in good and bad times – it is my be all and end all. I can do nothing without His help, and he makes my burden lighter. This is how my mum brought me up.”