For a while now, lots of preachers and pundits have been lamenting the feminization of the church. This begins with demographic studies that reflect a greater female participation than male, and continues with a condemnation of the broader "Omega male" culture that is giving men the permission to stay passive -- and stay home on Sundays. Some prominent churches and ministries seem entirely predicated on the mission to draw men back into the fold by reinforcing "biblical" male roles and responsibilities.
Perhaps the most polarizing figure in the conversation is Mark Driscoll, who has famously declared that the culture is turning Jesus into a "Richard Simmons, hippie, queer Christ," and the antidote is Jesus as "a prize fighter with a tattoo down his leg, a sword in his hand, and a commitment to make someone bleed." This leads him to the "counter-cultural" work of telling today's men, "You're the problem," or perhaps screaming at them to the tune of, "How dare you!" And the proof, for him, is in the pudding of a strong, if not majority, male attendance at his megachurch's many campuses.
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