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Jesus turned tables, spoke highly of war leaders, and warned the chattering religious elites that they were going to be thrown into the fiery pits of hell. A review of Paul T. Coughlin's No More Christian Nice Guy.

No More Christian Nice Guy: When Being Nice–Instead of Good–Hurts Men, Women And Children
by Paul T. Coughlin
Foreword by Dr. Laura Schlessinger
published by Bethany House (September 1, 2005)
Hdbk., 224 pgs.
ISBN: 0764200925

Note to self: Jesus is not a bearded woman.  It’s understandable, however, that men find themselves thinking that Christ is an effeminate wimp. Just look around a churchy bookshop. Yet, there is hope. Denouncing what he calls the “feminization of Christianity,” Paul Coughlin openly challenges the scripture twisters in No More Christian Nice Guy.

Well, fine. I’m not particularly fond of those lacy heart bible verse cushions, scripture mints, wavy gravy Hillsong praise albums . . . but what does Coughlin mean by the “feminization of Christianity?” Does turning the other cheek make one a girly boy?

“Jesus’ admonishment to ‘turn the other cheek,’ does not mean to accept abuse; it means not to return evil for evil,” Coughlin reasons.  Christ, we are told, was an urban warrior.

He has a point. Jesus only told us to turn our cheeks in some social situations; he didn’t command us to turn our backs on backstabbers. Put simply, the Christian Left is wrong.

But if Jesus wasn’t a girly-boy then who was he? Coughlin explains:

Here’s our popular misconception: Jesus didn’t drink, swear, get angry, use sarcasm, avoid questions, grow impatient or complain. Conversely, the record shows he did all of the above, and the gospel includes no apology, confession, or repentance for any of them.

Notably, Jesus turned tables, spoke highly of war leaders (past and present) and warned the chattering religious elites (of all people) that they were going to be thrown into the fiery pits of hell. In a nutshell, He was religiously incorrect. This is beyond dispute.

Fortunately, Coughlin’s testosterone-filled text promotes Christ’s masculine qualities, presenting them in a way that gives a feel for what must disturb Green Anglican Marxists: a kind of taking off of the eco-socialist rainbow robes we’ve tried to dress Jesus up in for decades.

The most publicized lie, of course, is that Jesus was a non-judgmental prophet, a contradiction in terms, but a seductive myth nonetheless. Coughlin agrees. “As Mark Twain mused, Jesus said to pray for your enemies; he never said you couldn’t have any.”

Yes, Christ taught his follows “not to judge” unwisely but context is important here. He also praised individuals for making wise judgments. Remember John the Baptist? When Christian Leftists hypocritically judge people for judging, they are promoting mindless populism.

Adults-only libertarians, of course, will hate this book but Paul Coughlin isn’t seeking the approval of Green Day. He is, however, trying to introduce readers to the real Jesus. “It’s time to reclaim genuine masculinity and give man-hating feminism the boot,” he argues.

Coughlin’s central concern is not an active pagan agenda. Rather, it is one of the church’s institutional blindness, which is either promoting sleepiness, or denying Christ’s manliness, thereby selling men short. When did we all become Oprah’s disciples?

Secular pastors only have themselves to blame for their hard-won demise. For one thing, they should have distanced themselves from Green Marxist agendas in the 1970s. In any case, the radical pro-feminist lobby’s loss is the conservative church community’s gain.

Pro-family and male-friendly churches, of course, are making inroads (mainly in the growing evangelical Anglican, traditional Baptist, Roman Catholic and Mormon groups), whereas cuddly pro-lesbian feminist congregations look like their own worst enemies. 

Christians are called to be shakers, not pontificators of slippery values. But the truth is getting out there. Coughlin has been interviewed by the New York Times, C-SPAN and other major media outlets. My fellow Australians are also taking notes. 

“'Nice' can’t confront this world’s sources of pain. Niceness makes people agreeable, not good. Somehow we have mistaken niceness for righteousness,” maintains Coughlin. American men, of course, need to toughen up for the challenges ahead. They need to stop “making nice” with Martini Marxists.

There’s only one way to save the church, in God’s view, from irrelevance: cast aside our purses and follow Jesus – which means defending the unborn, sharing the Gospel of Christ with Muslim sinners, celebrating war victories overseas (from Saddam’s capture to the Taliban’s losses), protecting the Pope from radical Islamists, shaking up liberal colleges, praying for our leaders, joining the Young Republicans at pub crawls, supporting Zionist soldiers, renewing our NRA subscriptions, sharing the Gospel with our godless professors . . . did I mention that Jesus was not a bearded woman?
   
Okay, I may have overstated Coughlin’s case for masculinity but you get the picture. In a very real sense, the feminization of Christianity is a beautiful lie that millions of men are rejecting. Admittedly, there are only so many heart cushions, scripture mints and praise albums a man can stomach. Plus, some men secretly like fire and brimstone sermons.

No More Christian Nice Guy raises many thorny issues that will be as fiercely debated among the religious elites as it will be comforting to millions of politically incorrect Christian men. Jesus, after all, was a controversial carpenter and not a bearded woman.

No More Christian Nice Guy is available on Amazon.com.