I am assuming that Men’s Health magazine is not the go to place if you are looking for thoughtful articles on the state of North American evangelicalism and spirituality. The current issue, however, offers one such consideration. Jason Rogers, a writer for the magazine who is also an ex-Olympic athlete, writes about attending “Man Camp,” a men’s retreat hosted by the pastor of a megachurch in the United States.
If you grew up in the evangelical church within the past few decades, you will be familiar with the word “retreat,” and you will be familiar with the versions directed to particular demographics. In many churches, there were youth retreats, men’s retreats, women’s retreats, etc.
Most expressions of these retreats are organized by one particular church and tend to be of relatively modest size, say 15 - 50 participants. However, like many things in evangelical culture, there are the behemoths; the super huge and super “successful” versions. I find it curious that the more “successful” these kinds of things are, the more they appear as a kind of parody. You can read an article like Rogers’ and wonder if it is all real.
Like many things in evangelical culture that you may assume existed only in the past (think Promise Keepers), these mega-retreats are very real, even today. Jason Rogers attended one of these behemoth retreats, a men’s retreat called “Man Camp” with almost 3000 other men.
Should you not have a subscription to Men’s Health Magazine, I accessed it through Apple News, I will include a few quotes here:
“In addition to the intense fireside chats, the schedule featured a manual-labor activity, an arm-wrestling competition, and an obstacle course. There were spiritual talks and a prayer tent situated next to 80 kegs of free beer. The weekend culminated with baptisms in an uninviting cow pond.”
“The next morning, our group headed to the center of camp for the weekend’s first spiritual talk. Along the way, I spotted a group of dudes chopping wood with fluid competency and then another attempting to lift a set of Atlas stones. One campsite flew an “Easter Grizzlies” flag—apparently a reference to Tome’s suggestion one time that the holiday’s symbolic bunny be replaced with something more masculine, like a bear.”
“Suddenly, Tome (the Pastor/Leader) appeared onstage wearing an orange anorak and a black cap with a crosshairs logo for Buds Gun Shop & Range. He quieted the music and asked if anyone was feeling open to Jesus in new ways. Men began to rise from their seats one by one. When about 30 were standing, Tome pumped his fist like a proud football coach and bellowed, “FUCK YEAH!” into the mic. He quickly added it was his first time dropping the f-bomb onstage in a godly context, but I didn’t think so. The moment ended sweetly, with the seated men standing and laying their hands on the shoulders of the attesters, forming little huddles.”
One of the things that I appreciated about Rogers’ article was the thoughtful analysis and consideration. His writing clearly conveys that he saw the humanity, kindness, and even vulnerability in many of the men attending the retreat. He mentions positives in his own experience on the weekend and addresses what is going on spiritually without mocking it or writing it off. To be fair, he does this as he honestly addresses the clear theological frame present that sees people in the camp of the saved or the damned. Rogers also mentions Kristin Kobes du Mez’ book, Jesus and John Wayne, that delves deeper into concepts of masculinity that were present in much of evangelicalism (and still often are).
I have read Jesus and John Wayne and in it Kobes du Mez insightfully outlines how, in much of evangelicalism, ideal masculinity was characterized by both aggression and triumphalism AND by a constant sense of victimhood or of being besieged. It seems to me, from Rogers’ article, that Man Camp repeats some of these tendencies.
As I read the article, I asked myself how Jesus would fit in at such a retreat. Would it be like Jesus among 3000 Peters? Perhaps.
We struggle so much around ideal images of masculinity or of femininity. In your church upbringing, what did these images look like? Who fit them? Did Jesus fit them? Maybe we could grow in love for others and self in realizing that there is no such ideal, and that the many variations add to rather than diminish the world.
We are about to enter Holy Week, the week before Easter in the Christian calendar.
On Good Friday we will observe that Jesus laid down his life for the sake of the world. He laid down his life. He told us to love our enemies. He did not “kick ass”.
In the book of Revelation, there is a cosmic vision of Jesus at the culmination of all history. Myriads, nations, people are gathered around what is to be the opening of a scroll that will tell the meaning of history and the fulfillment of time. No one is found to be worthy to open the scroll until attention is called to “the lion of the tribe of Judah”. In Christian understanding, this is a reference to Jesus, sometimes depicted as a lion. However, when the person seeing the vision turns to see the lion he sees instead a lamb, and a slain lamb at that. It is from here that arises the words often heard in evangelical choruses, “worthy is the lamb”. A slain lamb is not very “kick ass”.
In 30 years as a pastor, I never much liked the men’s retreat gatherings. They weren’t really my thing. I never really understood why men would want to be with just other men. When I was told that there would be THOUSANDS of men together, I understood it even less. Having said that, I recognized that some people loved things such as men’s retreats and clearly benefitted from them. I can even see, as Jason Rogers did, that significant spiritual and emotional steps can be taken in such gatherings.
My reflection, as I read articles like Rogers’, is that Christian faith, truly hopeful Christian theology, has pretty much nothing at all to do with reclaiming some idealized version of masculinity or femininity. These idealized versions tend to be about marketing and empire building. Hopeful Christian theology has pretty much nothing to do with reclaiming anything actually. Hopeful Christian faith has to do with the laying down of life for the sake of others. From what Rogers’ wrote, it is apparent that he saw such a desire in some of the people he met at Man Camp.
Maybe this offers another example of an often stated expression in the non-profit that I help to run. I picture it as a banner over Man Camp.
“Most people are better than their theology.”