Henry Idema: A problem for religion and society: Masculinity

Ninety percent of the murders in America are committed by males. Most of the rapes are done by males. In the Roman Catholic Church, almost all or all of the rapes of children are done by priests, who of course are males. Did you ever hear of a nun raping anyone? In Protestant churches, most of the sexual abuse by clergy preying upon parishioners is done by male clergy. I have never heard of a female minister raping anyone. Most if not all wars are started by men. We have a masculinity problem both in organized religion and in wider society.

Why do we see so much more male aggression than female aggression in our society? I can only scratch the surface of this problem, but in all of the discussion of school shootings and our obsession with guns, the one factor that I never hear discussed is the issue of masculinity, which is the common thread in all the mayhem I have listed. I only have space to examine two insights, one being from the Bible and the other being from psychology.

First the Bible. The story of the Fall in Genesis in chapter 3 is about the desire for power, or the will to power as Nietzsche (1844-1900), the German philosopher, developed that concept in his writings. Genesis 2:15 states, soon after the story of the creation of the first male, "The Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.'"

As any Sunday school student knows, or should know, after the creation of the first female, both the male and the female ate the forbidden fruit. The story symbolizes the desire to have the knowledge of everything, which the knowledge of good and evil represent. Soon after that story, we have the story of one of Adam and Eve's first offspring, Cain, killing his brother Abel. The root cause of this murder was jealousy that Cain's offering to God was not accepted while Abel's was accepted. Before the murder, God said to Cain, "If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is couching at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it" (Genesis 4:7). Good advice for all of us in our own struggles with sin.

The themes of the early chapters of Genesis are our will to power, our frustrations when we do not get what we desire, then the sin of aggression and murder which may happen (and here do happen) when we can not master our feelings. These themes are carried forward in the rest of the Bible.

Now let's turn to psychology. Otto Fenichel writes in his text: "The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis," "Aggressive tendencies of all kinds constitute a considerable proportion of all human drives." And here is the most important point when he continues, aggression tendencies "are the response to frustrations and have as their goal the overcoming of frustrations" (p. 58).

So now with biblical insights and those from psychology, we must examine with eyes wide open the male aggression in so many aspects of our society: clergy abuse, school shootings, politicians threatening other politicians or judges and lawyers, Putin's war on Ukraine and George W. Bush's attack upon Iraq. We then see the same old story. We see the will to power, we see aggression because of frustration (e.g. losing an election or sexual rejection), we see jealousy, murder and rape, (e.g. the atrocities of the Russian soldiers in Ukraine).

The Bible does not say what kind of weapon Cain used to kill his brother, probably a rock or stick since they were out in the field. Today killers have access to rifles with large magazines and automatic pistols. So this ancient biblical story, supported by psychology, is still a story we hear on the news every night or witness ourselves in our schools.

So what is there to be done with this problem of masculinity in our society? We have so many frustrated men in our society who act out their frustrations with weapons of war. Many women are frustrated, too, often from what they tell me with the men in their lives. But, for the most part, unless you are watching a film noir movie you do not see frustrated women raping and murdering.

Knowing the problem of masculinity is only the first step in doing something about the violence in our society. I find it very discouraging that after every mass murder in our schools our politicians do nothing, and some even say there's nothing to be done. Oh, I forgot, they do offer thoughts and prayers, but no action. How about banning assault weapons and limiting magazine capacities? How about having a buy-back program as New Zeeland did after a mass murder there, giving cash for turning over guns to the government so they could be destroyed? How about passing red-flag laws and having universal background checks? How about having a permit for each gun owned, bought or sold by anyone? How about limiting where people can carry guns?

Let's also rebuild the state mental hospital system with enough resources to provide top-notch care and a comfortable living situation with clean beds and healthy food. Let's see if our politicians will put money where their mouth is when they cry out for more mental health resources after each mass murder.

Such laws probably will never be passed. Why? Because the males in power will never pass them! That is part of our masculinity problem. But in 2024, we can vote these male politicians out of office, and I hope we replace most of them with females.

— Henry Idema lives in Grand Haven. He can be reached at henryidema3@yahoo.com.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Henry Idema: A problem for religion and society: Masculinity