Of Men, Knighthood, and Fighting to Protect #Catholic

The reason that we became warriors in the first place was to protect the people we love.

- My husband

I was touched by a New York Times story I found through "Auntie Seraphic's" wonderful blog, Seraphic Singles. Her Sunday entry, Love in the New York Times, was a sad tale of a young woman's quest to find real men to date -- and not "guys." Her definition of "guys" were young men who wanted nothing to do with committing themselves to a relationship, instead preferring a cloudy haze of hanging out and occasional casual sex.

I was both saddened and angered by the article. Saddened that so many young women now have this to deal with, and angered by the seemingly never-ending consequences of radical feminism in our country.

I had a very long discussion with my husband regarding the topic. Basically, I wanted to know how he developed his respect for women. Did it begin when he was younger? What influenced him?

His answers were a mixture of his upbringing, his involvement with Japanese martial arts, and his desire to follow the Biblical pattern for a marriage. My husband had a father who modeled to his sons how to treat women. One time, my husband's older brother back-talked his mother and received a quick slap from his father as he said, "I don't ever want to hear you disrespect your mother like that again." The point was made. You respected your parents and especially didn't mouth off to your mother.

My husband was raised in an era when men usually helped women with heavy burdens like grocery bags and luggage. When he was 20 years old, he became involved with martial arts and was especially intrigued by the Samurai warriors. The Samurai have a code called bushido, translated as "the way of the warrior." Part of the code is treating others with respect and honor. This extended to how the warriors treated women, especially their wives.

I asked my husband if knighthood was similar to the bushido. He said yes. I found it interesting that long ago, throughout the world, there could be found a certain elite class of men who fought for justice, defended the defenseless, and showed respect and honor to women.

When he said the quote I posted above, suddenly I had a revelation of how much we have lost when we started to raise boys who were forbidden to fight.

Feminism destroyed this natural inclination in men by claiming it was wrong to fight, under the guise that "two wrongs don't make a right." Suddenly, fighting either in a battle or simply fighting to defend a woman's honor was attacked. The concept of a righteous battle faded as more and more young boys were scolded for fighting and older young men were belittled for wanting to join the military.

In essence -- the natural desire of men to want to find something worth defending; and then doing it, has been ripped away. In its place, we now have a generation of young men who not only don't know how to fight, but wouldn't know what to fight for if given the opportunity. Aside from our brave men and women in the military, fire departments, and police -- most younger men avoid confrontation of an enemy like the plague.

I grew up with the wise words, "It's always better to use your head than use your hands." However, my father and the men of my family realized that there were times when defending those you loved meant taking a stand. I won't ever forget the time when some teenagers decided to vandalize our home because my father placed a fence on our property, which covered an entrance to a wooded area. One night a big rock was thrown through my window as I was sleeping. (It landed on my bed, thankfully, not on my head.) The next week, a matic (a gardening tool) was thrown through the window again, this time narrowly missing my head.

What did my father do? For one week, he camped outside with his rifle. Of course we called the police, but my father decided he'd do what most normal men would do. He was defending his family from any further attacks.

I remember when the Virginia Tech murders happened. A deranged student nonchalantly walked through the classrooms, lined up the students, and then shot them methodically -- all this while not one man rose up to attack him. After the horrific massacre, I cried out to my husband, "Where were the men?! Could not a small group of them rushed this nutjob and tackled him to the floor where they could have disarmed him?" Obviously the answer to my question was a tragic "no." This generation of young men had the fight bred out of them long before they arrived at college. It was ironic that one of the bravest men during that long ordeal was a Holocaust survivor, who physically prevented the killer from entering his classroom until almost all of the students had escaped through the classroom window.

When men are not clear on what they should defend and why; they become disillusioned and directionless. They have no understanding of honor, let alone knowing how to responsibly conduct themselves in a relationship.

One of the things I deeply desired before I married was to find a man who would fight for me. I meant this on several levels. I wanted a man who would put forth an effort to win my affections and also, a man who would defend me if I was in danger. I will never forget my second date with my husband. We attended the huge Labor Day festival in Cincinnati at the riverfront, to watch the spectacular fireworks show in the evening. The crowd at this annual event is massive, and we finally found a small empty piece of land to stretch out a blanket. After awhile, I got up, saying I needed to find a restroom. My future husband also stood up.

I looked at him, slightly surprised. "Oh, do you need to visit the restroom also?"

He smiled. "No. But I'm going to accompany you. It's a big crowd here and I don't want you to be alone and unescorted."

Can you imagine how shocked I was at the time? I had never had a man say such a thing to me and of course, I was immediately smitten. If I had thought highly of this gentleman before, at that moment he was placed on a very high pedestal!

I know I am old-fashioned in many ways, but I really don't think I'm that different from most women. Most women yearn to be cherished by a man in a relationship and treated with respect. I'm hoping such men aren't completely gone. Our young women are still looking for them.

In Praise of Real Men #tcot #sgp #Catholic

I deliberated over whether to title this entry "In Praise of Men" or "In Praise of Real Men." I chose the latter because "real men" are men not only born with the obvious sexual identity of a man, but those who possess the rock-solid pursuit of being honorable, loyal, hard-working, and true to self. Women know the type of men I'm talking about. They're not Alan Alda. They're John Wayne.

In my early twenties, I flirted with feminism, drawn by the idea of equal pay for women. It didn't take long, however, to observe how many feminist books immediately attacked Christianity (as a male-dominated religion) and promoted a sneering condescension toward men in general. Some feminists loathed men so much that they consciously made the decision to become a lesbian. (Which is one of the reasons why I will never believe there is such a thing as a "gay gene.")

You Say Superiority Like That's a Bad Thing...

As I started to pray and ask God to give me His understanding of male and female roles, my eyes opened to "real men" and how difficult it is for them to persevere in our overly-feminized culture. One of the more successful attacks by feminists was to accuse men of being a "male chauvinist pig." (Notice how authoritarian figures such as police officers were also called "pigs?") Here are some interesting facts about the word, chauvinist. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, it came from a French character in a play, Nicolas Chauvin, noted for his excessive patriotism and devotion to Napoleon in Théodore and Hippolyte Cogniard's play La Cocarde tricolore (1831). It also describes an attitude of superiority toward members of the opposite sex.

If this is true, then there are certainly a group of female chauvinists running around since they quite openly profess women being better than men.

Let's examine this concept of superiority. Would not an Olympian athlete be considered superior when he or she earns a gold medal? Would a student not be considered superior to her fellow students if she earned an "A" while most of the class earned a "C?" And would not a man be considered superior in strength in football? Superior is not a political concept. It is a comparative fact when dealing with intellect and physical prowess. However, we now live in crazy-land, where school sports have done away with keeping score so that the losing team doesn't feel so bad.

Do you remember the outrage some women had when they wanted to become firemen? The test, they claimed, was discriminatory. Brenda Berkman filed a lawsuit saying that the physical strength section (which kept women out) was unnecessary. She won and that part of the exam was removed. Excuse me, but I'm half-German and full of muscle. If I'm unconscious in a burning building, I don't want some female firefighter pulling half of me out because that's all she can handle. This is a clear case of a man being superior to a woman. A man's upper body strength will always trump a woman's and is a good reason why men should be firemen. Firefighters must have incredible strength and endurance, able to hold a hose full of water with 150 lbs. per square inch of pressure. A petite 130 lb. woman is not going to cut it.

So I happily concede that men are superior to women physically. Sure, there are some exceptions, but overall, men are simply stronger than women. And although there may not be as many of them, there still exist men who will throw themselves on a bomb to save others. Men like Jasper Schuringa realize that time is of the essence and that part of being a man is taking action. These are the "real men" in my book. Men who are acting upon something deep within themselves, a knowing of who they are and a clear definition of right and wrong.

Let's Hear It For Men Of Action

I suspect Jasper Schuringa and others like him had a sense of strength instilled in him at a young age. Decisions such as throwing oneself on a Islamofascist terrorist doesn't come from having the masculinity beaten out of you by a feminized school curriculum. It comes from having true masculinity modeled for you and realizing that our world needs men of action.

I will never forget how stunned I was when the Virginia Tech killer, Seung-Hui Cho, easily mowed down a number of students in their classrooms. At one point, he lined up a group of students and then shot them execution-style. My first thought was, where were the men? Were there no men who would rush this killer, tackling him to prevent further carnage? And then I thought about what our schools have done to young boys, penalizing them for being boys and beating any desire to take action against evil out of them. Because as far as our wimpy schools go, there is "no such thing as evil." Those who commit such horrific crimes are instead "victims" and must be given understanding, not judgement.

Well, real men know how to deal out judgement, in my book.

Real men don't sit around, waiting for some nutjob to aerate their bodies with a .22-caliber Walther P22 semi-automatic and a 9 mm semi-automatic Glock 19 handgun. Real men don't wait until a group of Islamofascist terrorists crash their jet into the U.S. Capitol building. Real men take the bull by the horns and say he who hesitates, is lost. Real men usually wear uniforms and don't care who they tick off. Real men will protect a woman, even if she's Hillary Clinton. Real men rock my world.

Are there any real men left? Yes and I believe more are on the way. It is my hope that fellow Catholic blogger (The Lair of the Catholic Cavemen), "Vir Speluncae Catholicus," is wrong on why we'll lose the war. Real men have saved the world before. I'm hoping they'll save it again.

(Video below: Harsh Language Involved!)