Yes, I’m devasted that, yet again, England have failed to bring home an international trophy. Football is not coming home. It’s saddening, heart-breaking, but that’s it. For so many girlfriends, wives, sisters and mothers, that’s not where it ends. According to Warwick Business School, domestic abuse rises 47% after an England win.
This isn’t a new revelation, a 2014 study showed that domestic abuse went up 38% when England lost and 26% when the team won or drew. Having been in A&E and seen the reality of alcohol related domestic abuse first hand, combining an England fan’s passion, a lot of booze and a loved one in arm’s reach, usually leads to a black eye, or worse.
Hilary McBride says that uncontrolled aggression, emotional unintelligence and tribalism are features of toxic masculinity. In other words only the strong survive, don’t cry and bros before h**s, to put it crudely.
The three legs of this stool leads to violence against women, other men and themselves, as well as holding us back from becoming fully developed and mature men.
Yet, if we look at the example of Jesus, here we have a man born into foreign oppression, with lots of his countrymen taking justice into their own hands and committing violence against an empire that ‘deserved it’. He’s ridiculed by his own kin, deserted by his friends (Matthew 26:31) and falsely executed for ultimately, telling the truth (as crazy as telling everyone that you’re God in the flesh sounds).
Hilary McBride says that uncontrolled aggression, emotional unintelligence and tribalism are features of toxic masculinity. In other words only the strong survive, don’t cry and bros before h**s, to put it crudely.
My point is to highlight the fact that Jesus had every reason to exact the most violence against mankind possible, and the power to do so, yet constantly shows an immeasurable amount of self-control. Additionally, he cries, wails and has a borderline anxiety attack at the mount of Gethsemane (Luke 22:39 – 46). Make no mistake, Jesus wasn’t an iron-faced robot who just took it on the chin. He was very in touch with his emotions and showed the full spectre of humanity that we all experience.
Sadly, we’re not like Jesus. And so we have some repenting to do. If we are to be more like Jesus, we must acknowledge our failure as men and women, but especially men, to keep our strength in check, difficulty at sharing how we really feel, and simply following the pack. With Jesus as our example, let’s follow the Bible’s commands to self-control (Titus 2:2), emotional vulnerability (1 John 1:8) and love for our enemies (Matt 5:44; Luke 6:28).
England have failed to bring home an international trophy. Football is not coming home.
It’s heart-breaking, but that’s all it is.
Time to go enjoy Christmas with Clare.
