The Fasting Masters of the Twenty-First Century

Can male brutishness be cured by a virile religion? Many could hope as much. Muscular Christianity is a recurrent theme in U.S. history, and its defenders have regularly touted the social and domestic benefits of manly restraint and virtuous body control. As we saw in the media flurry devoted to the Promise Keepers a decade ago, men who repent for their sins against women and children get noticed. And rightly so.

It's hard to say how many of those televised tear-stained promises were kept, but with any luck there are fewer cases of outright abusiveness in the homes of onetime participants. Then again, the submissive wives who gave such vocal support to that movement may have gotten more than they bargained for. What attracted and repelled American audiences about

, you will recall, was the group's rich mix of self-sacrifice and self-aggrandizement, in which men confronted their sins, apologized to God and to the women whom they had victimized, and then sought to make amends by taking back their authoritative role as family head to whom wives and children must submit. This was to be a humble headship, following a durable Christian model with scriptural support, but it was a formulation that observers from secular feminists to liberal Christians found regressive and dangerous. We haven't heard much from PK in a while, but now it seems that e5 men are replaying that mix in a slightly new key.

I had never heard of e5 men or founder Steve Habisohn until last month, but the claims emanating from Habisohn's writings on the

are familiar ones: men have been bad to women - violent, unloving, exploitative, immature - and now they need to atone for their misdeeds. To do so is not wimpy, but in fact, "There is something quintessentially masculine about guarding, protecting and healing of one's bride." Since men cause so many of women's problems ("How many women have been screwed up by the selfish bodily acts of men?" he asks), men should take charge in solving them through a conscious recommitment to women's well being.

Continued on page 2: »