Posted by:
HWint
(
)
Date: August 31, 2018 10:58PM
babyloncansuckit Wrote:
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> with the
> abysmal retention rates among young males, the
> pool of RMs is drying up. Once today’s women
> reach menopause, then what? The leaders can’t
> think their way out of the box they’re in
> because such thinking has been selected out.
if the LDS Church (screw 'em, I'm not typing out the full name) eventually collapses it will probably be from lack of men. it's happened in other churches.
track down a copy of "Why Men Hate Going to Church" by David Murrow. most Christian denominations are majority female -- up to 80-90% in some cases. there's a tipping point when denominations reach about 70% female. there's a slow but inevitable tailspin that's hard to recover from. and that's
regardless of doctrine, regardless of if men or women are clergy. LDSinc is about 60% female, and the men are bailing out far faster than the women.
LDSinc, like most Christian churches, have men in leadership roles. but on the ground the churches function like social clubs for women. and it's often stultifying for men. churches that keep men take very specific, deliberate steps (e.g., male-only ministry groups that positively empower men and don't emphasize shaming language). LDSinc is halfway on the mark with some of this (e.g., Boy Scouts, EQ, etc). and data from Murrow's book demonstrates that men AND women simply don't respond as well to women in church leadership roles. when women become clergy, overall attendance tends to drop dramatically. but where LDSinc misses the mark, and what may be impossible to recover from, is all the controversies and historical scandals, along with the doctrinal quirks that have painted them into a corner. to be a mainline Christian you need to accept only a handful of miracles from 2000 years ago surrounding Jesus. and some churches are pretty flexible (nothing like a TR interview to be a member in good standing). to be a mormon, in contrast, you need to accept A LOT more than just Jesus.
my perspective is that Mormonism puts FAR more pressure on men than on women. the feminist critics of the church might raise some good points, but they (a) are seeing only part of the picture and (b) are looking at Mormonism in a vacuum -- without comparing it to other christian denominations. for example, the entire reason to go on a mission is to get married in the temple; i.e., to meet a woman's expectations. men are obligated to go on missions, or they're persona non grata and 2nd class citizens. women have the option of missions, and there's no stigma for women who don't.
in the last few years I have seen about 4-5 younger RM co-workers face _tremendous_ pressure to get married. And the pressure comes almost entirely from women. their moms, their girlfriends, their GF's mothers, RS busybodies, etc. at times it looks like a conspiracy between women and the GAs to whip the young men into line. and after marriage, there is usually tremendous pressure from the wife who expects her new hubby to make her dreams a reality and make it happen NOW. they want the cars, the house, the vacations, the cute little baby in Gap clothes, they want to post it all on instagram to compete with their frenemies, and they demand hubby finance all of it.
"Women have taken great care to ensure that their lobby, the clergy, are always men. First, because the female image might be damaged if they represented their own interests – men might think them calculating – and second, because they know men rate feminine intelligence rather low, which is why they can only influence a man's emotions. Advice from another man, and one respected from childhood, is much more likely to be listened to and taken. Although this advice always benefits women it does not reflect hostility on the part of this holy lobby toward "normal" men, but is a direct consequence of that lobby's financial dependence on women." ~ Rich Zubaty, "What Men Know that Women Don't"