Culture is like the fisherman’s net you have seen on sunny beaches. When you lift one knot the other knots follow. This is how we rebuild culture: one person at a time, pulling a few others next to him: parents pulling children; friends pulling friends, teachers pulling students, — and when we are blessed, pastors pulling all.
What causes this ‘pull’ between us? Admiration, respect and joy in knowing the magnanimous one who attracts us.
Mapping America, illustrating the strengths and weakness of the people of the US, shows that the most compellingly attractive people among us are those who have experienced the most love – the love of the intact married family, and love of God in weekly worship. This the data show.
All living cultures have a religious core and hold women to be sacred, most especially in their virginity and motherhood. Guarding that sacredness gives strength to families and gives to women a confidence in themselves as creators of life. This confidence is that strength only they can transmit in turn to each one of their children. A child with such a confidence-giving mother is a gift to all.
That is why we need those sacred cultural spaces devoted to virginity and motherhood. Men, who need to be adept at building this devotion, can bask in the confidence that this project is so powerful that a whisper sounds louder than an explosion.
This admiration by men is joyful and gentle. It is fullness of desire in masculine form. Such men must also be dangerous, with the danger that equips protectors of women and children. There is another space that cultivates that dangerous side of men.
Building such a culture is a task that will make men noble. It will bend the industrial, the technological and the digital to honor our women and give us the space where they can aspire to be their most attractive and men aspire to be their noblest.
It is time to start weaving nets and pulling knots.
For the good of the child,
Pat Fagan, PhD