the Podles Controversy
Leon Podles dates the feminization of the Church to when "Bernard of Clairvaux taught that the relationship to the Christian soul to God was that of a bride to a Heavenly Bridegroom. In this he continued an allegorical exegesis that goes back to Origen.."
This was actually rather bluntly stated by Christ, who referred to Himself as the bridegroom in Matt 9:15, Matt 25:1-13. "Similar OT imagery depicts Yahweh as the husband of Old Covenant Israel (Is 54:5, Jer 3:20, Hos 2:14-20). Jesus takes this role upon himself and is now the divine spouse of the New Covenant Church (Jn 3:29, Eph 5:25, Rev 19:7-9)." - Ignatius Study bible.
Like it or not, humans are stuck in a passive role given that we are receivers and not initiators. If the male role is to initiate (if only in a biological sense, but that is important given that God created the idea of gender) then that is explicitly a role given to God. We have only to wait and respond. I would say that Christianity, if feminized, comes by it honestly at least with respect to the bridegroom analogy.
Podles also says that the "age of the martyrs evinced no great signs that Christianity was especially for women but Gibbon, in the "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire", wrote that "The clergy successfully preached the doctrines of patience and pusillanimity; the active virtues of society were discouraged; and the last remains of the military spirit were buried in the cloister."
It's difficult not to surmise that just maybe women are better people and that's the reason they are more religious. Rather than bending and twisting Christianity to gain male adherents why not recognize that there are all kinds of inherent advantages that religious people have that others do not. For instance, people whose father abused them have a hard time believing in God, while those with a strong family are more likely to believe. Poor people in aggregate have a greater faith than rich. Those born with a rational, scientific-type minds seem to struggle with faith (scientists have about a 10% rate of belief in God).
Bottom line is that religious faith has all types of natural fetters, and we can only assume that God will reward each according to the faith given to him or her. That more may be required of a woman or a man with less testosterone is, I don't think, unreasonable. It could be argued that the least masculine figure among the apostles was John, who also was the one most loved by Jesus.
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