Who is more religious? Men or women? This Telegraph article attempts to broach the topic but I think there is a pretty simple (yet complex) reason that men at least seem to be less religious than women.

The performance of masculinity in most cultures requires men to be a leader (the boss), be tough (play contact sports), lack emotion (boys don’t cry!), not require anyone else (women “trap” them in marriage), know everything (man-splaining), and, in general, just have everything under control. Of course, there are tons of other ways to explain secular expectations of masculinity but those are the ones that popped into my head right away.

The problem is, secular expectations of men are, by definition, not very church-y. When you pray, you are acknowledging that there is a bigger boss than you – someone that is more in control than you (God). To be a part of a church community means you have to care about others’ suffering an try to help – there isn’t competition to be better than them. Marriage and emotional connection with a wife is definitely encouraged (elevated to the level of a Sacrament even!). At church, you don’t get to make the rules, you just have to follow them. However, the rest of your life outside of church says all those things are male weaknesses.

The performance of traditional secular femininity**, however, does support all of those things. Women are used to functioning within a patriarchy which situates them into a subservient social role in everyday life. So it makes it “easier” for them (and I’m generalizing here so know that I’m not claiming it is 100% true for 100% of all women) to accept that same role within a religious structure and church life.

It’s just that “simple.” LOL, right?

But all of that is, of course, based on outer expression of behavior. Intention we cannot know of other people. And that is really the important part when it comes to prayer and relationship with God. Sure, kindness, compassion, and love are actions that can be measured but there are all sorts of reasons why people feel limited in expressing those things (see above). God can see through all of that, though.

One thing we can do as supportive members of the world community is to “paws to pray” for those who feel restricted by secular expectations in their ability to fully and freely worship God in the way Jesus taught us ALL to because:

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  Galatians 3:28

**I say “traditional” secular femininity because in today’s Western society, women are more encouraged to exhibit traditionally masculine behaviors in order to be more equal participants in society. This could be why church participation in general is on the decline?