Crisis in Masculinity

Leanne Payne's book is a vital message for our confused generation. She tells the story of several men whose lives have been affected by their lack of a strong inner sense of masculine identity. By listening to God and coming into His healing presence, each of them was freed to recognise their own manhood, and to accept it. We live in an age where divergent sexual "identities" are promulgated as solutions to people's inner crises. Yet the truth each of us needs is that God is our Father. Everyone of us is feminine in comparison with the strong masculinity of God. Yet also, each man among us derives his identity as a man from God and each woman also derives her sense of femininity from the Father. When God created Adam, he was both male and female, and God drew Eve from within Adam. So God is "the One from whom all Fatherhood derives its name". Homosexuality and lesbianism are conditions men and women find themselves in, but they are not the will of God. They are, like all of us, in urgent need of the healing presence of God. There is no room for judgment of one by another. All of us shrink in one degree or another from healing, and need it so much. I am refreshed by the courage and honesty of Ms Payne in stating, against the potential wrath of the current world system, that heterosexuality is God's true pattern for humanity. To relinquish the fight for truth and to fail to offer a healing alternative to people struggling for freedom is - as Ms Payne writes elsewhere - to abandon people to "the dark demons in the blood". The above is my personal reading of, and reaction to, Crisis in Masculinity.

For those who are not christians, it may be difficult to try to accept the notions in the book. but even reading it purely from a secular angle, stripping out the religious connotations, it is an excellent book for those who want to find rapport for their feelings and excellent first step in understanding themselves in order to have faith that if they have the courage and will, they can change. I wish today's professionals have better understanding of this topic like Leanne Payne and would think twice before labelling someone to be a homosexual by birth or nature.

I am not gay myself but some of my male christian friends who are have talked to me about their struggles as they deal with same sex attractions. This book really helped me understand them and help them. Payne's equally excellent "The Broken Image" is a perfect companion to this little gem. I recomend it to parents, sibblings and friends of men and women dealing with this issue.

Leanne Payne effectively identifies the major problem in humanity today: the failure of man to lead, as God directed, because of man's lack of understanding of his own masculinity. Primarily this can come from the failure of his father's affirmation of his masculinity and/or a daughter's feminity. The issue is rampant in our society today and is the primary cause of contemporary deviation from a life of godliness and purity. Payne calls for man to return to God, seek His presence and to walk in obedience. Shema, O Israel. Hear, listen and obey.(Deuteronomy 6:4-9)