Lone Star Parson
TheEye has linked for quite a while now to the Lone Star Parson, a “Brit Anglican priest in rural Texas getting into the country life”. It’s a cracking good read and about as far from Cranmer as you could imagine…his latest post begins “I know this blog’s been a frivolous mix of aliens, guns, boots and horses recently, so here’s a bit on St. Thomas Aquinas to even things out” which pretty much sets the tone of the place.
So what might his sermons be like? Well, certainly nothing like the ones this scribbler in The Times is familiar with:
Real men don’t like going to church because they don’t want to “sing love songs to a man”, because the “vicar wears a dress”, because they feel like “mongrels on parade at Crufts”…The image of church is ‘women and children’ – action songs or kid’s plays just emphasise this…. Men don’t want to feel brainwashed by reciting words that they don’t believe… The problem has become male culture versus church culture. Too many sermons talk about Jesus’ love, compassion and grace which are great but not male concepts. Men want to know about his great decision making and leadership. That is what they recognise. Churches are very pastorally driven whereas blokes are looking for decisions not discussions.
For a dose of religion as it should be, go check out the LSP’s guns, aliens and healthy attitude to American politics…
Real men don’t like going to church because they don’t want to “sing love songs to a man”.
Perhaps it is just the building that affects them, because looking at news-reel footage of US & British soldiers in Afghanistan, standing together and praying with a priest before going out on patrol appeared very much at ease to me.
But then again, they weren’t in Surbiton with Ruth Gledhill.
Thanks for the plaudit All Seeing Eye.
Have a blessed Candlemas!
That’s a scenario the LSP would be familiar with, so yes, different approaches get different responses. The Times writer is missing out.
It’s a pleasure to recommend your blog, LSP. I read the Times article thinking that it was a blinkered and unfair view of the church which needed some balance from me, and, as the scaffolding comes off of my cathedral this week following its refurb I’m in a new start sort of religious mood at the moment too. Hence the post.
The Times has never recovered from the strike in, er, the late ’70s… anyway, keep the faith.