I'm a Male

I’m a card-carrying, dues-paying, chrome-plated member of the most destructive culture on the planet: I’m a male. Who is most likely to start a war?  Who is most likely to commit rape, murder or assault?  Who is most often on the internet hacking passwords and writing destructive viruses for fun and profit?  Who must possess women or slaves?  Who is it who most often tortures people and ruins lives for political gain, cultural tradition or religious dogma?  It’s us, the males. Who is it who is too stupid to see that the weapons industry is stoking our masculinity and propensity for violence so they can bank billions of dollars in sales?  It’s us, the males. I’m not saying that women can’t be criminals too.  I’m just saying that men are better at it, perhaps because at this time we’re the dominant gender. (“Worst case of testosterone poisoning I’ve ever seen.” Claudia Christian’s character, referring to a ship’s captain heading for disaster in an episode of Babylon 5.)If I were the television-evangelist type I would say that God is going to “come down here” and strike down all the out-of-control males.  But I don’t believe that God is an interventionist.  I don’t think that God is inclined to break God’s own laws of natural order so that I can have some kind of personal satisfaction or relief.  Instead, I think there are natural consequences, which I like to call the flow of God’s will, for our actions. If the man-culture has its way the planet is going to become a smoking ruin – and in fact it is many male religious leaders who are most out front, saying that just this thing is God’s will. Not so.  I believe that God’s will is echoed by Jesus’ call to repentance, a call also of John the Baptist, and all the prophets before who demanded that we change our way of thinking and strive for restorative justice instead of retribution, and the giving of self ahead of the preservation of self. I don’t believe that we become stronger by taking from others and decimating creation.  I think instead, that the community and the planet become stronger when we give of ourselves, and become part of a healthier, more spiritual, culture.  Make it so.