Yearning for Freedom

Once a person embraces the rigid structures of religion, he/she wilts under its weight and wonders if this is all there is.

Puritanical religion doesn't just hurt women, it also hurts men so men look for a way to get out from under the burden.

One of the latest moves among men is led by a man who wrote the book, Wild at Heart.

http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Heart-Discovering-Secret-Mans/dp/0785268839


Now I read Wild at Heart and enjoyed it and took the message to heart for myself, that I also needed to be wild and free in the Lord and that it wasn't just limited to men, even though the author implied that it was men who needed to let loose their spiritual wild side, not women. But I hold no grudge toward the author. Not when his book was used to help me shake off some false structure that had attached itself to me.

However, I do hold a grudge towards certain preachers that have taken the Wild at Heart message, ran with it and excluded women from the freedom they feel men need to walk in.

Mark Driscoll is just such a preacher. While he teaches that it's okay for men to burp and fart and cuss and drink beer and a whole lot of other wild manly things, he still holds women to a structured, religious oppression and even calls on them to be saved by fulfilling a role.

Mark Driscoll Quote: "Women will be saved by going back to that role that God has chosen for them. Ladies, if the hair on the back of your neck stands up it is because you are fighting your roll in the scripture."

Through slight of hand, men like Driscoll allow themselves some Dionysian freedom from Apollonian over structure while making sure their women remain under rigid structure and control in order to fulfill the needs, wants, and desires of men. While the men get some level of freedom, women continue to wilt under puritanical control.

Actually, there is one place that Mark pushes for Dionysian freedom to the hurt of women, as my friend Jane pointed out. One place and one place only. This place is in the bedroom where she must throw off all inhibitions and change from a mild and meek mouse and turn into a nymphomaniac porn star. All for the sake of satisfying men and keeping them from straying off to real porn stars.

So, here is the dynamic of Apollonian and Dionysian being used and manipulated so that the man gets the best benefits of both principles and the woman must conform to the structures men create for them.

This building of structures on the sand of human thinking is hurting and even destroying many. This is why it is needful to see the false structures and false dynamics for what they are. Human, man made, and false.

We have looked at a couple of overviews of Apollonian/Dionysian thought and structure. I hope to look at a few specific arguments used against women.