Page 163 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 5

A Portrait of a Christian Psychologist: Paul C. Vitz

We will call this kind of male “the macho man.” vides a loving and supporting relationship. This
The answer to macho psychology provided by relationship strengthens and empowers her and
God the Father is shown in the life of Jesus. The helps her to separate from her mother (see be-
style of Jesus has been well described as “servant low).
leadership.” Jesus was a tough man, living in A serious psychological problem in talking
what today we would call a rough world, filled about God as father and mother is the strong
with fishermen, farmers, and carpenters, as well implication that God is two people, just as our
as the tough competitive world of the market parents are two people. This would be setting
place, such as tax collectors and money len- up yet another Jupiter/Juno, Moloch/Astarte
ders, and an even tougher world of politics do- pair. It should be noted that the various god-
minated by unsentimental physical power. All desses who have recently been proposed by cer-
of the authority with which he spoke and led, tain feminists as candidates for worship leave
5
all of the power that he manifested in his mira- something to be desired. In most cases (as was
cles, his mental power shown in his intellectual true of the ancient goddesses), the modern ex-
con¬frontations with the scribes and Pharisees, amples also contain obvious aspects of evil. This
was put in the service of others and of God. He is not surprising since feminists are especially
did not come to do his own will. Servant leader- concerned with advocating - and I might add,
ship is the only model I know of that is strong worshiping - female power, but the last thing
enough to remove the sin of male exploitive that we need these days is a goddess patterned
psychology. along the model of an Indian Kali (famous for
God the Father figures into this explicitly in her destructive and devouring aspects).
Scripture. For example, when the disciples ask How does the concept of God the Father help
Jesus to show them the Father, Jesus is some- men who are drifting toward androgyny, the
what taken aback and then says, “If you have other pathological model of sexuality? Since in
seen me, you have seen the Father” (cf. Jn 14:8- this unisex model men and women are seen as
10). The concept of fatherhood as involving sac- essentially the same, this has led to the develop-
rificial leadership is further underlined by the ment of a new kind of man commonly called
fact that Jesus as the image of the Father had no “the wimp.” In many respects the wimp is based
natural children and indeed was chaste. There- on the attempt to reverse the traditional logic of
fore, Jesus and God the Father model masculi- sex roles. We have gone from the macho man
nity in its highest forms, independent of sexual to what I call the “wimpo” man. In rejecting his
activity or behavior. All children are God’s; all basic masculine nature, this type of man is left
children are Jesus’. in severe conflict and confusion about how to
When masculine capacities are put in the ser- live. The result of this uncertainty is the psycho-
vice of others, neither women nor children nor logical weakness of the wimpo man. 6
community are likely to object. The basic point Today American men very often seem to fall
of the Christian model about God as Father is into one of these two categories - or to vacillate
that it allows a boy to identify strongly and posi- between them. The macho man remains a man
tively with masculine ways of life, but it removes but does not care much for others; he devotes
the sting of selfishness - of what psychologists
call “narcissism”- by placing male abilities in the 5 For example, see the prominent Jungian, G. Paris, The
service of others. The notion of God as Mother Sacrament of Abortion (Dallas: Spring, 1992), who wor-
ships Artemis (also known as Diana). Paris is attracted
or androgynous Parent makes male identifica- to Artemis because she is independent, chaste, and a
tion psychologically not just difficult but es- huntress of males. Other examples are the goddess Earth
sentially impossible. The girl, who is strong in or Earth Mother, or the goddess within, as well as other
her feminine identity, which is usually the case, feminine spirits. All this is often an integral part of Wic-
responds positively to God as a father who pro- ca. For discussions and critiques of this feminist religious
position, which was very popular in the ’80s and ’90s, see
recent writers who present similar ideas but in a much D. Steichen and P. G. Davis above.
more benevolent form include D. Amneus, Back to Pat- 6 Along these lines, see D. Kiley, The Peter Pan Syndro-
riarchy (New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, 1979); S. B. me: Men Who Have Never Grown Up (New York: Dodd
Clark, Man and Woman in Christ (Ann Arbor, MI: Ser- Mead, 1983).
vant Books, 1980).
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