Cut From a Different Cloth by Randy Rowley 6/12/25 ©

Sportsmen, especially men, often don’t fit in with others.  In social gatherings, sportsmen often find that hunting, fishing, or sports shooting are  foreign to their companions.  This is especially true of younger adults.

That is because:

• Only 21% of people target shoot, 18% fish, and 8% hunt.
• America is predominantly urban. Many city kids grow up without anyone taking them hunting, fishing, or sports shooting.
• Hunting leases and all the necessary hunting, fishing and sports shooting gear have become very expensive.
• Younger adults today have grown up expecting everything immediately and don’t have the patience to sit in a deer blind or in a boat or stand at a range for hours. Many would rather shoot animals or clays or catch fish on a video or computer game because it takes little time, they don’t get their hands dirty and smelly, and they can do it from their homes.
• Many younger adults were taught that guns are evil, hunting is barbaric, and fishing is cruel.

Men are less manly now, and engage in fewer sportsmen’s activities because:

• Many boys were taught mainly by their single mothers, schoolteachers (which are 76% female), feminist university professors, and the leftist media that masculinity is toxic. Their examples include dominance, strength/toughness, independence, aggression, competitiveness, chivalry, emotional repression, isolation/stoicism, and homophobia.  Consequently, many young men scorn our pursuits.
• Around 45% of first marriages end in divorce and 9% of couples are living together instead of getting married. Consequently, many boys grow up without a stable man in their lives.  They have no father to teach them or that they can mimic, and grow up with only maternal influences.  In many cases, women whose husbands left or divorced them develop animosity towards men and pass that disdain on to their children.
• In the past, kids played outside during non-school hours. Now they sit around indoors on their phones, play video or computer games, or watch TV.
• Schools have removed all the active outlets that boys need. Rough housing, running, yelling, and defending themselves are forbidden.  Schools teach boys how to be women.

Somewhere along the line, men have lost our way.  Many people see several of the things that many masculine men like to do, such as hunt, fish, or shoot targets, as archaic.  They see as toxic the John Wayne, Chuck Norris, and Tom Selleck-type manly men with hairy chests, dirt under their fingernails, and bloody knuckles, who drank whiskey, smoked cigarettes, rode horses or motorcycles, and were self-sufficient.  What replaced such men are males with man buns, shaved chests, manicured fingernails, and tight jeans, who drink soy lattes, vape, ride electric scooters, and expect others to take care of them.  Such men usually don’t participate in sportsmen’s activities.

Sadly, Christianity isn’t excluded from the war on masculinity.  Covert and overt attacks on masculinity include:

• Many churches collectively portray Christ as ‘Gentle Jesus’ who was a nice guy, servant, and the lamb who suffered and was slain, but ignore the desert dwelling preacher who said in Matthew 3:2b (NKJV), “‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!,’” and who is the lion of the tribe of Judah (see Revelation 5:5) who drove the moneychangers from the temple with a whip (see John 2:15-17) and called Pharisees “hypocrites,” “whitewashed tombs” and “a brood of vipers” (see Matthew 23:13-38).
• Books such as Falling in Love With Jesus: Abandoning Yourself to the Greatest Romance of Your Life by Dee Brestin and Kathy Troccoli exemplify Jesus as a personal lover, who we should long for.  Some ministers describe the devout as being ‘in love with Jesus.’
• Messages of a romantic, intimate relationship with Jesus, and that emphasizes femineity, are found in many modern ‘praise and worship’ (P&W) songs.  With hymns, we sang about God – he’s great and powerful.  P&W songs are often sung to him – he’s close by our sides and we’re intimate.   Many masculine men have responded to P&W songs by simply not singing at all.
• Churches are designed for women with attractive floral arrangements, beautiful drapes, boxes of tissues at the alters, lace doilies on the communion tables, foo-fooey furniture, pastel-colored carpets, and pictures of a frail Jesus holding a lamb and encircled by children.
• Some prayer services include holding hands, sharing burdens, and praying aloud with the people around you, who are often strangers.  This gives masculine men hives.
• Church attenders are often encouraged to ‘establish a personal relationship with Jesus.’  The gospel is presented in feminine terms and desires – a personal relationship with a man who loves unconditionally.  This imagery delights women and bewilders masculine men.

The war on masculinity has had several results:

• The ratio of women to men in churches is 61% women to 39% men.  The more that women attended church services, the more that pastors would cater their services to them.  The more feminine that services became, the more that masculine men shied away; causing women to further outnumber men in the congregation.
• Male pastors, who spent more time with women became increasingly feminine.  According to personality tests cited by David Murrow in his book Why Men Hate Going to Church, “men entering the ordained ministry exhibit more ‘feminine’ personality characteristics than men in the population at large.”
• Many women characterize God as loving, forgiving, and comforting, while many men picture him in terms of power, planning, and control.  With more women than men attending churches, the messages heard from most pulpits emphasize women’s characterizations of God.  There are more sermons on God’s love and fewer ones exhorting Christians to take up their cross and become soldiers for Christ.  Pastors present Christianity as the antidote to trials and sorrows, which is contrary to Jesus’ promises of trials and sorrows (see John 16:33b NLT).
• Gone from churches is a risk-taking environment that requires sacrifice, which attracts men.  It was replaced with a safe, predictable environment that attracts women but makes men feel useless.
• Gone or frowned upon by those in power in churches are masculine pursuits.  They have been replaced by golf tournaments and 42 (dominoes) matches.

All the romantic intimacy and femineity emphasis in most churches alienates masculine men, often to the point that they avoid churches like the plague.  Many such men agree with David Murrow, who said in in his aforementioned book, “The Bible never describes our love for God in such erotic terms.  The men of Scripture loved God, but they were never desperate for him or in love with him.”  Jesus never said, “Come, have a personal relationship with me.”  Instead, he simply said to Simon and Andrew in Matthew 4:19b (NKJV), “‘Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.’”  A personal relationship suggests we’re going on a date.  “Follow me” implies we’re going on a mission.

The characteristics that God want men to have include:

• A man leads. We must lead through service, sacrifice, and love.  God blamed Adam for failing to lead Eve (see Genesis 3:17).
• A man protects. We must protect our families physically, to the point of laying down our lives for them (see Ephesians 5:25).
• A man provides.  If a man won’t work, neither should he eat (see 2 Thessalonians 3:10).  A man who doesn’t provide for his family denies the faith and is worse than an unbeliever (see 1 Timothy 5:8).
• A man serves. We must serve others instead of seeking to be served (see Matthew 20:20-28).
• A man encourages, motivates, and refines. We must look for opportunities to build others up, motivate them toward love and good deeds, and strengthen them (see 1 Thessalonians 5:11, Hebrews 10:24-25, and Proverbs 27:17).
• A man acts.  We must do what God’s word says, not just hear it (see James 1:22).  We demonstrate our faith by our acts (see James 2:14-18).
• A man stands fast.  We must “stand firm in the faith” (see 1 Corinthians 16:13b) and not be moved, because God provides us with the strength to stand firm (see 2 Corinthians 15:58a and 2 Corinthians 1:21).  We are to stand by our beliefs, not give in when someone challenges or criticizes them (see 1 Peter 3:15), and refuse to compromise.
• A man stands against and speaks out against evil.  Ephesians 5:11 (NLT) says, “Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them.”  Reacting to sin with silence is a sin.  But when we speak, we must speak the truth in love (see Ephesians 4:15).
• A man walks humbly.  We must “walk humbly with your God” (see Micah 6:8), realizing that “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble” (see James 4:6b), and “with humility consider one another as more important than yourselves” (see Philippians 2:3b).  We must be vigilant against pride.
• A man controls himself.  We mustn’t let sin reign (see Romans 6:12) and must abstain from sexual immorality and control our own bodies (see 1 Thessalonians 4:3-4) and make them obey us (see 1 Corinthians 9:27).

Jesus said in John 15:18-19, “‘If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.  If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own.  As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.  That is why the world hates you.’”  Christians don’t fit in with the world that hates them, and masculine men and male sportsmen don’t fit in with others who can’t relate to them.  Never apologize for who you belong to and for being the masculine sportsman that God made you to be.