There is a dark side to womanhood!

Barbara Brown Taylor in her book, Leaving Church, talks about her incurable urge to nurture injured and suffering beings of all kinds. At one point she rescues a small bird, raises it and finally releases it. Somewhere along the lines she discovers it is a starling--an introduced pest that destroys crops and creates health hazards in cities. Nonetheless her maternal instincts drove her to make sure it got a good start in life. Talk about a woman's woman!

On the other hand, Elizabeth Lambert has been suspended from women's college soccer indefinitely for punching an opponent between the shoulder blades, throwing another one on her back by yanking hard on her ponytail, and kicking the ball in an opponent's head from only a couple of feet away, while she was lying on the ground. Though rough play is more expected from men, the commentator on Good Morning America said such violence is not uncommon in women's sports.

They say that Spaniards fight bulls and not cows because a bull will close its eyes when it charges and a cow will keep hers open. An angry cow is much more dangerous. A female bear will take on a male much larger than she to protect her cubs, and often win. When the female of the species attacks is not about pecking order, it's about survival.

And so men know that women don't know how to fight fair. They just don't. When they fight they fight to anihilate, not subdue. There's a dark side to womanhood!

So, guys, when your woman suddenly goes berzerk my advice is to clear out. Let the momma bear do her thing to protect her cubs, and when the dust settles and all is clear, when the maternal sweetness returns to her eyes, when she is repentant of the havoc she has caused, then come back, blow it all off, and make sure you don't do whatever it was you did!

How does this relate to the Christian faith? Christianity today is often a women's experience. Not many men are involved in mainline denominations except in the ordained orders. Partly it's economics, but partly it's because we often portray the faith as nurturing rather than challenging. But nurturing has a dark side, too, and Jesus wasn't always nurturing. The faith has the capacity to challenge the male of the species and nurture the female of the species--and forgive her when her momma bear rises up and tries to knock your block off!