married men who run or work in a female only/majority environment (or vice versa)

[Lanolin]

well nobody is NAKED in aerobics class, and the women are paying to take those classes, its not forced on them.

I'd be more concerned if it was a pimp running a brothel. Yes there are male pimps that do this, and yes some women DO work as prostitutes where they take off their clothes, often for married men.

And yes, they get paid, well actually, they have to pay money to a pimp so Ive heard and do 'services'. Also, pornography is wrong.

But an aerobic class? Um people do it to get fit. Not to satisfy their lust. If someone has that much of a problem with lust they should not be leading a class IMHO.

 

[Lanolin]

if you are feeling sexually harassed by a male in the workplace you need to first refuse those advances and then talk to someone who can do something about it (and not another male, cos he might just take his side) as that is not on. It might be other females have been cornered in the same way.

yes you may lose your job or he might lose his. Or you could leave. But if you dont speak up it will get worse.

dont think I am glossing over it I am quite serious. I just wanted to make sure this is a legit concern and not just oh I think something might be happening. Doesnt matter if a guy is married or unmarried. Unmaried guys need to learn self control around women the same as marrieds to their spouse.

 

[Live4Him2]

What do you think?

Is it right biblically for a man, especially a married man, to - for example - run a step aerobic class that is attended by just women?
Or vice versa of course, though I personally don't know of any examples of a woman running a male dominated / men only type of class.

I cant find a scripture to back this up but it really feels wrong to me.

Hi, Tararose.

It seems to me that if there was a genuine problem, then the underlying issue would be that of lust.

With such being the case, I really don't think that it matters whether or not it's an environment where a man is overseeing a group consisting of only women or vice versa.

In other words, people lust after other people all of the time within environments where both men and women are present alike.

In fact, only about 3 months ago at my previous job (I just started a new job last week), a female MARRIED co-worker of mine started sending me all sorts of provocative text messages (I was her manager, so we all had each other's phone numbers for work-related purposes). I had to not only confront her and tell her to stop doing the same, but I also informed upper management of the situation in case the situation escalated or in case her husband saw her phone and mistakenly thought that I was an active participant in what was transpiring.

At the same time, we had another male manager there who was creeping out some of the younger female workers in that he spent the bulk of the day sitting in the back office while zooming in on certain female employees on the closed circuit TV cameras.

Anyhow, more in line with your opening question, the scripture which immediately came to my mind was this one:

"Abstain from all appearance of evil. " (I Thessalonians 5:22)

It's oftentimes wise for Christians who don't even have any sinful desires to avoid putting themselves in certain situations that might only have the appearance of evil.

Just my two cents worth.

 

[Live4Him2]

P.S.

I feel the need to add the following...

Although there are times when Christians ought to avoid even the appearance of evil, there are also times when they simply need to do what's right in God's eyes no matter how it may look in someone else's eyes.

For example, I used to work with a young, attractive woman who was a lesbian and who was actually "married" (by society's standards, but not God's standards) to another female.

Well, she became a Christian (and divorced the woman that she was "married" to), and I gave her a Bible, and she told me that she felt that the Lord wanted me to have Bible studies with her. I felt exactly the same thing, and I used to go to her apartment during the day one day each weekend to have Bible studies with her that lasted 5 hours on average.

To an outsider, this may have looked and seemed totally inappropriate, but it most certainly wasn't in God's eyes.

Anyhow, just to give some balance from personal experience.

 

[Tararose]

Hi, Tararose.

It seems to me that if there was a genuine problem, then the underlying issue would be that of lust.

With such being the case, I really don't think that it matters whether or not it's an environment where a man is overseeing a group consisting of only women or vice versa.

In other words, people lust after other people all of the time within environments where both men and women are present alike.

In fact, only about 3 months ago at my previous job (I just started a new job last week), a female MARRIED co-worker of mine started sending me all sorts of provocative text messages (I was her manager, so we all had each other's phone numbers for work-related purposes). I had to not only confront her and tell her to stop doing the same, but I also informed upper management of the situation in case the situation escalated or in case her husband saw her phone and mistakenly thought that I was an active participant in what was transpiring.

At the same time, we had another male manager there who was creeping out some of the younger female workers in that he spent the bulk of the day sitting in the back office while zooming in on certain female employees on the closed circuit TV cameras.

Anyhow, more in line with your opening question, the scripture which immediately came to my mind was this one:

"Abstain from all appearance of evil. " (I Thessalonians 5:22)

It's oftentimes wise for Christians who don't even have any sinful desires to avoid putting themselves in certain situations that might only have the appearance of evil.

Just my two cents worth.

Thanks for sharing. It helps to see the issue in that light.

 

[Tararose]

P.S.

I feel the need to add the following...

Although there are times when Christians ought to avoid even the appearance of evil, there are also times when they simply need to do what's right in God's eyes no matter how it may look in someone else's eyes.

For example, I used to work with a young, attractive woman who was a lesbian and who was actually "married" (by society's standards, but not God's standards) to another female.

Well, she became a Christian (and divorced the woman that she was "married" to), and I gave her a Bible, and she told me that she felt that the Lord wanted me to have Bible studies with her. I felt exactly the same thing, and I used to go to her apartment during the day one day each weekend to have Bible studies with her that lasted 5 hours on average.

To an outsider, this may have looked and seemed totally inappropriate, but it most certainly wasn't in God's eyes.

Anyhow, just to give some balance from personal experience.

Praise the Lord! That is a great testimony, and yeah I guess though we need to be discrete and wise there is always a time we have to break with what is expected for the greater good, if the Lord is moving us to do so

 

[JohnDB]

Now this sounds like torture...
I much prefer the company of men.

Don't get me wrong...I love my wife and she is my best friend.
But to be surrounded by that much estrogen, regardless of their clothing, on a daily basis is torture.

Because, to us guys, women do all kinds of things that are somewhat silly and ridiculous at times. High heeled shoes are just one example of many.

And I understand why they do it...but that doesn't mean that it isn't ridiculous to me.
Guys are much more fun and amenable. No games. Dumb at times, but much easier to get along with.

Sure women flirt and cut eyes at us guys....but that's not because they actually want anything to do with us other than get our attention.

 

[ChristianTonyB]

What do you think?

Is it right biblically for a man, especially a married man, to - for example - run a step aerobic class that is attended by just women?
Or vice versa of course, though I personally don't know of any examples of a woman running a male dominated / men only type of class.

I cant find a scripture to back this up but it really feels wrong to me.

It wouldn't be appropriate for a male to run a female only step aerobic or any other kind of gym class without there being a female instructor along with him, in my opinion, and then only if he be there on a short term consultative basis. Satan doesn't miss such opportunities to tempt a male into an adulterous or fornication thought or action. As far as a Christian male is concerned, they might think themselves to be spiritually and morally strong enough to withstand the evil one's temptations, but it's not worth taking the risk. A female running a male only class is less morally risky, but still risky, and why would anyone want a female to do that anyway, unless again she would only be involved helping a male instructor on a short term basis, otherwise the arrangement would sound very fishy to me!

 

[Tararose]

It wouldn't be appropriate for a male to run a female only step aerobic or any other kind of gym class without there being a female instructor along with him, in my opinion, and then only if he be there on a short term consultative basis. Satan doesn't miss such opportunities to tempt a male into an adulterous or fornication thought or action. As far as a Christian male is concerned, they might think themselves to be spiritually and morally strong enough to withstand the evil one's temptations, but it's not worth taking the risk. A female running a male only class is less morally risky, but still risky, and why would anyone want a female to do that anyway, unless again she would only be involved helping a male instructor on a short term basis, otherwise the arrangement would sound very fishy to me!

Thanks for that - straight and to the point, and I think that is good plain common-sense thinking. I just wondered if there were some clear scriptures that I could use as a reference for this way of thinking.

 

[ChristianTonyB]

Thanks for that - straight and to the point, and I think that is good plain common-sense thinking. I just wondered if there were some clear scriptures that I could use as a reference for this way of thinking.

Well, I guess the obvious one is the Lord teaching the kind of things we need to pray to God about, or ask God for... " lead us not into temptation". If that's how we ought pray, why would we then knowingly put ourselves in the way of temptation, wouldn't that be considered as carelessness.

There may be scripture that specifically deals with the situation you've described, but nothing comes to mind. Paul warned Timothy to flee from youthful lusts, so it could be argued that implies he needed to guard himself against being caught in situations, that might lead to him having lustful thoughts, or others having lustful thoughts about him for that matter. There's two dimensions here, one that puts us at high risk of being tempted to sin by the presentations of others, and the other dimension, the flip side if you will, that puts an observer of ourselves at a high risk of being tempted into sin as well.

In the scenario you have described, we wouldn't only be responsible for our own thoughts and actions, but also for the thoughts and actions of others that would be influenced by our behaviour. A double whammy event we need to guard against, if we are being smart.