Our People

Young Men Rise Up

Launch of Fr Ken Barker's new book

By Most Rev. Julian Porteous
Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney
7/5/2008

Manhood and masculinity have come under some scrutiny and challenge in recent decades. Who cannot forget the rather gross charge of being a “male chauvinist pig”? Still today the word, “patriarchical”, is seen as a pejorative term. Many charges were being made about the male character – most emphasising dullness and insensitivity.

A good deal of this challenge to the character of men was prompted by the feminist movement and its desire to achieve equity with men in social and economic status. Indeed there was a need for some revision of the standing of women in society in the light of significant social changes that have occurred over recent times. However, the effort to promote the cause of women was often prosecuted by means of a denigration of manhood. There was a time when the worst possible person to be was a white heterosexual male!

In the face of, at times, a relentless stream of criticism, some men responded by seeking a redefined shape to manhood. So the “sensitive new age guy” was born. Men were told that they needed to be re-constructed. Another expression of a reconstituted manhood that developed more recently was the amorphous masculinity of the “metro-sexual”. But these new incarnations of masculinity quickly proved to be unsatisfactory to women. It was an emasculated manhood that was weak and unattractive.

Certainly the challenges being presented to men led to some timely improvements in men’s attitudes and behaviours. Men have begun to give greater attention to the emotional needs of others. They became more caring fathers and more responsive to their responsibilities in the home.

There was eventually a counteraction on the part of men, especially as they experienced themselves being under constant attach. Efforts were made to restore an essential masculinity through what became called “the men’s movement”. Often efforts to rediscover manhood took the form of primitive pagan rituals: campfires and warrior talk. This approach may have sought to restore the masculine, albeit in a retroactive move, but it failed to form a healthy, balanced manhood. It ran the danger of simply recapturing some of the qualities of manhood that the “sisterhood” found so repulsive.

Manhood has been through some crisis. Educationalists are beginning to be concerned about the low levels of achievement by boys at school. If the natural character of manhood in boys is somehow truncated in the educational situation they will become frustrated and easily tend towards forms of delinquent behaviour.

Young men today are faced with some very real challenges in enabling them to grow to full human maturity. It is not only the challenges proposed from the feminist corner, but many young men have had to grow up in the midst of dysfunctional family situations. They have had to face the temptations to engage with drugs. They are lured towards homosexuality. They have had to contend with the prevailing culture which proposes recreational sex. To be able to stand against all these temptations is not easy. Many have been drawn into paths and patterns of behaviour which have been damaging to their health, their self-image and their faith.

Many young men carry wounds.  Some have been quite damaged. It is not enough just to expect them to recognise and live by the truth. There is need for an exposure to truly life-giving and healing sources. Christianity offers this.

Fr Ken’s book comes at a very important time. Young men need assistance and guidance. They need a picture of what a real man is like. They need models of true manhood. They need help in being able to deal with and overcome those things which may be crippling their personal growth. There is a need to present a vision of what true masculinity for young men today is like. In this area the Christian tradition has much to offer. Fr Ken draws on this tradition.

The book is built around the advocacy of the life of virtue. The development of virtue is the serious effort at the formation of character. A person is not just the subject of social forces or learned behaviour from childhood, but rather the product of a willingness to positively engage in the process of personal growth in character. Furthermore, in the Christian context, not only is there an impressive body of teaching and example, but the Christian is conscious that he lives in a dispensation of Grace. Character is moulded not only by will and determination, but also by the co-operation with the mysterious but real workings of the Holy Spirit in the mind and heart.

Fr Ken orients his exploration of the qualities of Christian character around the traditional four “cardinal virtues”: prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance. As he mentions, these are a springboard to his thought and he canvasses various virtues under this basic covering.

What is particularly useful about the work is that Fr Ken brings a valuable application of Sacred Scripture and of the rich witness of the saints in the Church’s history to bear on what could become a fairly dry academic presentation. It is far from that! The book both touches on the experienced reality of young men in contemporary culture and is replete with a spirit of faith that declares that "nothing is impossible to God". We are not determined or so wounded by our experiences that the mercy and love of God cannot heal and restore. The testimony of the Scriptures and the witness of the saints declare this truth. It is important today to be able to make this declaration. We are not victims and indelibly marked by our past, Christian faith teaches that we are redeemed and restored. The power is found in God and the work of Jesus Christ now realised by the activity of the Holy Spirit.

The book benefits particularly from the wide and varied pastoral experience Fr Ken has had as a priest, an evangelist and pastor, and the formator of young men in the Missionaries of God’s Love. Thus the book comes alive through the testimonies that he furnishes which illustrate his teaching.

I recommend the book most highly. Firstly, I recommend it to young men – through this book you can explore the qualities of a mature Christian man and test yourself against a standard. This book wonderfully declares what is possible for a man of faith who turns to God.

Secondly, the book will provide a great resource for youth leaders, pastors and teachers. It offers much useful material that can become an inspiration to working with young men and the content of many talks that can be given. It deserves a place in the resources available to anyone who is concerned with the Christian formation of the young.

One final point: I hope this book may spur someone, somewhere, to write on the nature of Christian womanhood and restore in that arena the Christian vision of womanhood.