e-Book Missing from action: Vanishing manhood in America download

To a highly educated,well read,world travelled old geezer ,such as myself,this was my patriarchal family upbringing.
However,almost all American men should read it,then give it to their male children and their children.
The subject matter must be a required course from the elementary school level onward and upward.
Since the American Civil War to the present global conflicts,American men's seed has been wiped from the Earth.
In many cases,a fatherless America.
No,I did not know the author,the publisher or family members.I worry for my 24 year old son.

This book although written in the 80's definitely has some great points to make regarding the roll which we men should be playing in our families lives.

The increase of children without fathers and society's decrease of importance of fathers and men in general certainly is contributing to the mess we as a nation are currently in and again this guy was talking about it in the 80s and it's only gotten MUCH worse.

While the book is written from a religious point of view, which I am not, it makes many valid points.

We men have lost our way and our society at the same time. This book gives some of the reasons to our lost identities and what we may do to correct them. Although again, some are too religious for me.

If you are looking for some insite into your own roll as a Man, Father or Husband it's a good read and well worth the few hours it'll take to read it.

Very pleased with this book so needed in today's world.

This book was okay. I noted that John Piper recommended it in another book I was reading. I found some of Hardenbrook's ideas to be old fashioned and the rest to be repetitious, so I only read half of the book.

Had already read it before and liked it. bought two to have around and pass along.

good book to have around and pass on.

One of the main trouble spots plaguing the modern family is the absent father, identified by Weldon M. Hardenbrook as Missing From Action: Vanishing Manhood in America (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, c. 1987). Hardenbrook once served on the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ and now pastors an Orthodox church in Santa Cruz, California. In his judgment, "the American male is in a fundamental struggle for his identity" in part because of "the touch of feminizing forces that have taken over the land" (p. 7).
Despite the widespread media attention to the plight of women in America, Hardenbrook contends the nation's men are, in areas which really matter, even more benighted. "In almost every way measurable, the stresses of modern life now seem more damaging to men than to women" (p. 9). They die sooner, suffer more diseases, commit suicide more frequently, are more addicted to various substances, kill each other more frequently, get imprisoned more often. Other than making more money for a few years, men have little in their favor!
Complicating this, Hardenbrook believes, men have retreated, abandoned the challenge to be truly masculine. "The single most devastating factor contributing to the feminizing of American males is the desertion of families by their fathers. Writer Edwin Cole insightfully notes that 'the absentee father is the curse of our day.' It is a national plague that is reshaping the very foundations of U.S. society" (p. 80).
Modern men evade their rightful roles by asserting their "masculinity" in false ways, strutting about in a macho style, pretending to be clones of "the Duke, Dirty Harry, and Rambo"--movie models all! Or they play the bumbling Archie Bunker. Or the "world-class wimp: Dagwood Bumstead." Even worse, some assume the ambiguous stance of "gender blenders" such as Michael Jackson and Boy George.
We need real men, not media models. We need males who recover a vision of what it means to be husbands and fathers. "Real masculinity involves a willingness to remain committed to loved ones no matter what circumstances arise," Hardenbrook says. For too many men in America, however, it's been reduced to playing roles on stages, to "starring" in athletic contests, rather than learning how to live at their fathers' sides.
In traditional, patriarchal cultures before the Industrial Revolution, a boy spent the first few years at his mother's side, enjoying her nurturing love. But when he was seven or eight, he moved to his father's side and began to do the work necessary on farm or shop. Such a young man in a patriarchal culture easily established a healthy sense of identity. The past 200 years, however, have witnessed the emergence of an socio-economic system which dissolved patriarchal bonds. Traditional rites of passage, important for young men in all cultures, slipped away, only to be replaced by such activities as "getting into fistfights, drinking booze, and having sex outside a marital relationship" (p. 52).
Along with the Industrial Revolution, Hardenbrook points to the wave of revivals in America's Second Great Awakening as a source of men's discomfort. Charles G. Finney and the revivalists appealed to "feelings and emotions" rather than "manly characteristics, such as courage, aggressiveness, and a desire for justice" (p. 58). Thus there appeared a "gentle Jesus, meek and mild" sizably at variance with the New Testament portrait.
Consequently, many men in the Victorian Age, a century ago, abandoned their calling to spiritual leadership. They left it up to women to support the church (largely running the Sunday school, for example), to rear the children, to teach school children. Young boys, constantly taught by women in school and Sunday school, often turned rebellious, causing discipline problems in class, dropping out of church rather than attend Sunday school.
So men went AWOL. They detached themselves, emotionally if not physically, from their main responsibility, the family. In time, many refused to marry. In Hardenbrook's opinion, single men in America are "the epitome of irresponsible self-indulgence. These spoiled, self-serving, self-seeking brats live in singles apartments and frequent singles bars; a primary goal is to try to find a mate for the night" (p. 109).
The answer for us, as for cultures in the past, he says, is a resolute return to patriarchy. Here Hardenbrook holds up Job as a model for emulation. Job's sense of continuity with the past, his concern for his children, his commitment to justice, his concern for permanent things, his wisdom and pursuit of God, all make him a model to follow. Like Job, today's men face challenges: "A moral and a spiritual war is raging in our land that can be won only by men who know who they are and who are willing to confront the enemies of authentic manhood" (p. 136). That means restoring patriarchy as the only legitimate familial structure. In a patriarchy the father's given a charge to keep: taking responsibility for wife and children.
After listing some of the "marks of manly love," Hardenbrook challenges America's men to return to their calling, to be real men. Men need to move back into school classrooms, teaching children. They need to accept responsibilities in the church, assuming positions of spiritual leadership there as well as in the home. They need, desperately, to embrace and live according to a standard of sexual purity. They need to be "gentlemen," recovering some of the chivalry, the courtly courage and civility of earlier eras.
Hardenbrook's treatise sets forth an Orthodox view on the family, speaking from traditions rooted in antiquity, giving guidance to Christians concerned with the continuity of viable communities of faith.

Read this book many years ago when my oldest boys were still very young. Made up my mind at that point regardless of what actions my husband may take or not take I would be hands off in certain areas of my boys' upbringing. Whether my husband chose to be a 'spiritual leader' or not I would not usurp that role in their lives. I didn't want them to reject God because of me as they matured into manhood. My role was supportive, answering spiritual questions as they came up, tossing out ideas from time to time, and living what I believed but not forcing anything. The Lord blessed this. My husband and I are not perfect people and like other parents struggled in home devotions, etc. Yet my husband was involved when my sons put their trust in Christ for salvation. And each of these sons--completely on their own--dug into the Bible, voluntarily sought to know the Lord deeper for themselves, and put their faith into practical action. They are on their own now and still very passionate for Christ. My third son seems to be going the same direction as well as my daughter.

Don't know if all the author's interpretations of history are right but after watching a lot of families, believe that he touches on some very vital truths that need action. This book is especially critical for families that home school, where Mom is the main teacher.