Ever wonder why so many people are locked into the belief that God is male?
Why not? you say! The Bible uses the pronoun “him” and “he” exclusively when referring to God. And Jesus called God “Father”. He taught the prayer, “Our Father, who art in heaven…”.
Take the little boy who came home from Sunday School and announced to his mom that he now knew God’s name. Surprised, she asked what it was. “Howard”, her son replied. She wanted to know how he knew that. It says so in the prayer, he told her-“Our Father who art in heaven, Howard be thy name.”
God’s male gender is so ingrained in most folks, that even a young child will almost always describe God as a man.
Thus…how can I even think that God is not a man, nor of the male gender.
Historical Look Back- Short and Sweet
Enter- a short, succinct historical review of how come…
Waaaay back, the goddess reigned. Why? Because women gave birth. Artifacts of the goddess consist primarily of a body trunk with large breasts and bulging hips.
Yea for regeneration! The tribe survives!
Fast forward a ways. OMG! The man had something to do with this birth thing. Not that it’s a two-fer thing, as in sperm AND egg. Nope. Male sperm was understood as weeny, miniature humans- hence the taboo on masturbation. There go all those future tribe members. What a waste to drop all those teensy babies on the ground!
It was believed that these miniature humans were inserted into the female and she, incubator-like, carried that baby until it was large enough to emerge.
And that was the end of the primacy of women in reproduction.
Even today, the Orthodox Church refers to Mary as “theotokos”, meaning God-bearer or carrier.
Man now became the dominant figure, and the snake which historically, represented fertility or a creative life force in goddess worship, was reassigned the role of bad guy, Satan- as in the good old Garden of Eden story.
There, Eve, instead of being seen as the more curious and assertive of the two, was graced with the role of man’s downfall.
Woman bad. Led poor Adam into sin.
From the Garden story emerges the idea of original sin.
Them Good Old Days
Early times were tough, and survival was a primary concern. The kind of God they wanted and needed was a protector who would be on their side- a male who would fight for and along side of them. So that is the way they conceived their God.
BUT- there is a huge difference between human viewpoint and perception, and what God really is. Modern case in point- Richard Dawkins, the devout God repudiator, and his famous quote about God in the Old testament.
“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”
―Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion
Amazing how badly he misses the whole concept. That is not a description of God, but of how those people understood and thought God to be. They didn’t then understand cause and effect, or science, or weather and seasons. Any natural disaster, illness, crops or animals dying, attack, bad fortune, were all attributed to God’s disapproval and/or punishment. Therefore- a vengeful God.
Dawkins seriously needs a course in theology and history!
Time Moves On
In spite of the Torah’s and Old Testament’s use of multiple images of God, the male father image took ascendance in religion. So also in society.
By the time the sperm AND egg importance was deduced, the males had taken the leading roles in society and religion.
Think about it…If Jesus had been a female, who would have believed or followed such a woman? So, no- Jesus had to be a man.
However, for his time, he was no misogamist. Women were very active in his ministry and after his death, women continued to serve as leaders, teachers and heads of home churches.
Of course, the male scribes neglected to mention much of this information.
In time, males usurped the women’s participation in religion.
Once again the women became a thing to be possessed- “given away” in marriage- often for political advancement for her family.
And so it went for pretty much 2,000 years. Women continued to be perceived as lesser…relegated to the role of “helpmate” and child bearer.
Enter Modern Times
…Until the 19th and 20th centuries. Women rose up and demanded voting and inheritance rights.
.
They began joining the work force, some becoming doctors and lawyers and scientists- typical roles reserved for men.
But the churches and synagogues remained sacrosanct, with women remaining out of leadership positions.
But women found ways to be involved- in Guilds and women’s groups, in missionary societies and Bible study groups
But true leadership, especially pastoral?
VERBOTEN!
Because, God and Jesus continued to be understood as male, so leadership was for men.
The general consensus was that women were defiled and thus blamed for all manner of bad things, including enticing men through sex.
And all because of some naughty apple!
Women in Religion
Along came mid-20th century and women began claiming the right to be in religious leadership. Those early pioneers paved the way, but at great cost.
By the time I came on the pastoral scene in 1981, things were still tough.
Many denominations were bucking hard and continued resisting female pastors. Women pastors were marginalized, put as “tokens” on committees, but never really regarded as true participants in the group.
Some people left their church if a woman pastor were called. Some couples refused to have a women conduct their weddings. Some seminary professors were reluctant to have women in their class.
But gradually the role of pastor became open for women.
In spite of these steps forward, there are still large pockets of resistance.
Although many Catholic nuns do as much work as the local priest, they are forbidden priesthood.
Often I participated in some large ecumenical gathering which was often held at the local Catholic Church. We pastors were all up front in a leadership role- and it broke my heart to observe the nuns quietly excluded and sitting silently in the congregation.
It has taken so long to achieve any kind of equality, and there’s still a ways to go. However, many men are supportive and pro women in ministry!
Why Women in Ministry Matter
How many thousands of years has God or the principal gods of the past or primitive tribes been perceived as male?
Seemingly forever. That knowledge was considered “the TRUTH”.
But with the influx of women, and men who also advocated a more well-rounded concept of God, the rock-hard idea of God’s maleness was addressed, and continues to be studied, discussed, revised and reformed.
But age-old traditions are so ingrained, that many find the subject painful, or abhorrent.
God Is Not Male!
With such a historical background, and with all the religious patriarchy, am I still able to imagine God as Father? Absolutely.
But not solely as a father, but as one of the Divine’s many attributes, or characteristics.
The shocking news for many is that God is not a male. God is genderless. But we have only our human experience to try and describe or define that which is so other, that words fail us, so we fall back on the familiar- what we do know.
God does not have a gender. He is neither male nor female. Gender is a biological characteristic, and God is not a biological being. God is spirit and spirit does not have flesh and blood. Matt Slick
The Almighty is so much bigger than us that the never-ending challenge is to keep bursting the confines of our own hang-ups and narrow human thinking. We need daring humility, a courageous passion for reality, and a yearning for divine intimacy if we are to continually expand our understanding of God. Grantley Morris
While the actualities of gender are of course irrelevant to God, who has no body, there is a reason for the use of allegories. Humans are hopelessly addicted to physical reality. Our ability to think in abstractions without using the physical world as a base tends to be illusory. We turn to words to convey ideas that are vastly beyond our experience, and fool ourselves into thinking that because we feel comfortable with the word, our grasp of the idea it conveys is complete. Rebbetzin Tziporah Heller
There’s no way a human being can escape his or her human-ness to be able to imagine God. We can talk about how we’ve experienced God, not what or who God is. John Shelby Spong
Since God is in fact not a biological being and has no sex, what can it matter whether we say He or She, Father or Mother, Son or Daughter? C.S. Lewis
But as long as we picture God as some artist’s concept- old, white beard and gown, and obviously male, our concept of divinity is severely limited.
Looking Ahead
In my next post, I want to address alternate images of the divine. Many are Biblical, and a number of them are modern concepts.
These images allow for a much broader, more comprehensive attempt to imagine the unknown and unseen infinite higher power!
Stay tuned!
