Friday, January 30, 2004

LANGUAGE

I had a brief conversation the other day with a fellow seminarian (whom I will call Bob just in case). Turns out that Bob got in trouble for referring to God in the feminine. Now this is something I probably wouldn't have done, but that's okay. I've looked at the text in question, and this was not a feminazi sermon by any means. A listener, however, caught the use of the feminine pronoun and was deeply offended; God, apparently, is a male in every sense according to this listener.

Even for me, that doesn't equate. I use 'he' simply because it's convenient. I despise people's efforts to force a female pronoun on God every chance they get. However, there are instances when referring to God in the feminine makes sense -- Wisdom being the perfect example. I've tried to invent another pronoun for God, but shheit has some pronunciation problems; so I stick pretty much with 'he'.

Holding to a strictly male view of God has problems. If the Trinity is intertwined in love, and the three persons of the Trinity are all male, is God gay? If the Trinity is all male, wouldn't it have made sense to create a woman first (or only) simply to have something different? If the Trinity is all male, would creation look like Bob Villa did the work, or (as I suspect) like the guys at Possum Lodge did it?

Ultimately this is not a theological issue, it's a power issue. The being we call God is so vast, so utterly different that it can't be contained by gender. I think that anyone who attempts to limit God doesn't really want to know God, they want their own personal genie -- you know, "Phenomenol Cosmic Powers! Itty-bitty living space." In other words, God in a box.

God isn't male. God isn't female. God IS.

Peace

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