With all the things I absolutely love about my job there are a few things I cannot stand. One of which is
that I have to keep up with modern culture. So, when some asks what is Among Us, Tic-Tok, or Visco is I
know even though I’ve never used any of them. It can get a little embarrassing when I know about these
things that are clearly made for teenage girls, because I’ve heard the teenage girls talk about them. All of
that explains why I know who Harry Styles is. That and the fact that my wife use to have a cardboard cut
out of him.
If you don’t know who Harry Styles is, he is a British musician who use to be in One Direction.
Recently he had a photo shoot with Vogue. In this photo shoot he put on different dresses to take photos in. Yes, you read that right; HE put on dresses. You may hear this and think, “So what? Why should I care that some British guy played dress up for a magazine? I don’t think we have to pay too much attention to the photos themselves, but we should pay attention to what it says about the culture we live in. Studying the culture we live in helps us to understand the kinds of things we will be presented with when we go out into the world and try to bring people to Jesus. Think of how He evangelized. He didn’t just stand in the street and wait for people to come to Him. He went out and preached to people and found them where they were. Jesus knew the culture and used that to His advantage in telling parables that people would understand.
That begs the questions, “What does this say about our culture?” My OPINION is it says there is a
wide group of people in popular society who want to blur the line between men and women. In some
cases, they want to get rid of the line all together. There are those that want the terms men and women to be done away with. There are those that want gender roles to be destroyed. This is the world that our
children are growing up in.
This may be obvious for many of us, but it still merits discussion. Why does this matter so much to us
as Christians? Deuteronomy 22:5 reads: “A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put
on a woman’s cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God.” Your first
response should be, “Hey, that’s the Old Testament. We don’t live under that anymore.” You’d be right,
but I bring up that verse to compare it with 1 Cor. 11:7-10, which states that men shouldn’t cover their
heads and women should. God didn’t want any confusion if someone was a man or a woman. God wanted gender to be clear and obvious. But why?
God gave us clear gender roles when it comes to worship and family. Throughout scripture He explains
to us the differences in how men and women are to act within the Church. Outside of scripture He placed in us basic biological nature which dictates our roles in the family. Women are naturally more caring and nurturing. Men are more protective and focus on providing. This is so important to God He used it as the example (Eph. 5:23). God wants a difference in men and women. If we don’t talk about this and make this clear within the Church, our children will see things like Harry Styles in a dress and think he makes some good point about gender roles, not realizing that it is against everything God has set forth for us.
That being said, I think it is important to note that this attack on masculinity is nothing new at all.
David Bowie did this long before Harry Styles. That shows me for 50 years society has tried to slowly
chip away at the gender roles God has set forth, but the Church is still here. Those who take seriously the Word of God have not been affected and likely never will. I’ve heard so much recently similar to, “God has to be coming back soon with how bad things are getting.” To anyone who feels this way I’d like to remind you of two verses”
1 Thess. 5:1-2
Now concerning the times and the seasons, rothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
Ecc. 1:9
What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new
under the sun.
