Upfront April 16, 2012 Issue

Drop the stereotypes

Kim Shippey, Senior Staff Editor

Most of us have at some time asked what drives a man who is a volunteer firefighter to strap on a 50-pound tank and enter a burning building or tackle 60-foot flames on mountain slopes in Colorado. What inspires a police officer or a foot soldier to kick down a door on a smoke-filled street knowing that the suspect or the enemy is armed and ready?

This week, Sentinel writers ask whether such rugged men are also capable of showing love and unselfishness, or the tenderness of a hands-on dad.

Gordon Myers is especially cautious about the media’s take on manhood in the 21st century (p. 10). The big deal, he says, is that stereotypes of any kind limit and undermine. Sound perspective begins with our individual models—“the version of manhood we choose to embrace, and the version we choose to hold to, no matter what the rest of the world is offering up.” And he calls for focus on the qualities that originate in God.

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