Lamenting the Loss of Masculinity

Please read the below entry in the context of a debate among students and alumni of a solidly Christian university which does not reconcile the practice of homosexuality with a Biblically Christian witness.  As originally posted on the MySpace Lee University Message Board:

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Running around in barefeet, I stubbed my toe. As I looked around for some sympathy from my pops, my 6 year old voice began to quiver and tears began to well up in my eyes. Once I made eye contact with Dad, I would let out a real cry so that he would pick me up and make it all right. But, that isn't how it would play out.

My dad reached down and rubbed my blond head and said, "shake it off Big T." Trying to live up to that name, I would stick my toe in the warm dirt to make the pain go away. At six years old, I was learning the how-to's of manhood from a man who grew up in the era of John Wayne, Charlton Heston, Warren Spahn, and Ted Williams.

Somewhere in the span between that time and this, the John Waynes have become interior decorators and the MySpace message board for my alma mater has been over run by guys impersonating gals and dudes who are afraid to eat an egg for fear of damaging the creation of a God they believe does not exist.

Of course, my lament will do nothing but throw the effeminate guys into a tissy. My MySpace account will probably get spammed with electronic color-coordinated cat scratches. But, hopefully, it will cause the dudes who are in doubt about the gender given to them at birth by their Creator or cosmic coincidence (whichever their fully-formed 19 year old minds are fully assured of) to reaffirm that its cool to be a man.

So, gentlemen- change your MySpace layouts from your presently lavender/purple combo and start a campfire, go fishing, shoot something, play basketball, watch some football with your hand tucked conveniently into your waistband, or do something that reaffirms that you are in fact a guy. And, by all means, if these few words on the world wide web are deemed a little bit offensive by you, shake it off and put some dirt on it. Its going to be ok.