Mark Tooley: Neutering God

from Stand Firm by Matt Kennedy

Happily, feminist "theology" is in decline...yet another radical faddish relic of the sixties meeting an overdue end. The memories of seminary evoked by this article, however, made me feel more ill than I already do.

Christians and Jews worship a Spirit who is not a man or woman, though Christians of course believe that God did become man in Jesus Christ. Jewish and Christian Scriptures always refer to God in masculine terms, while sometimes metaphorically likening God's love to a hen protecting her chicks or a woman searching for a lost coin. God in neither Old or New Testament is ever referred to as "she" or "her." Some theologians speculate that, among other reasons, the transcendent God of the Jews was entirely distinct from the very gendered and sexualized pagan deities, some of which literally gave birth to creation. The Jewish God created by fiat, not birthing. Jesus called God "Father," and there is no scriptural reference of a Heavenly Mother. An unauthorized United Methodist hymnal supplement of 10 years ago included hymns titled: "I Am Your Mother," "Mothering God You Gave Me Birth," and "Womb of Life," benignly intertwined with more traditional anthems like "Eternal Father, Strong to Save," the Navy's traditional hymn. There's no evidence that any of these "Mother" hymns has gained a wide following.

The rising new Evangelical Left is anxious to repeat many of the same mistakes that took Mainline Protestantism from the center of America's religious to the sideline. So it was inevitable that some Evangelical Left voices would encourage feminist friendly gender-neutral God language. A recent commentary in Jim Wallis' Sojourners comes from a woman Presbyterian minister, who apparently learned "inclusive language" at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago. "Using inclusive language makes room for the diversity of God's people to feel equally valued, included, acknowledged, and invited to participate in God's community," she explains, as she struggled to overcome her conservative Southern Baptist background. She recalled attending a feminist theological conference where "Godde" was offered as a compromise between God and "Goddess." Apparently this was advocated by older women, while the younger women were somewhat discomfited. Currently based at a "diverse" San Francisco church, this minister now feels a "connection with God as Mother, Bosom, and Nurturer."

We can wish her well. But a deity who lacks personal pronouns, or who is gender fluid, is ultimately depersonalized and distant, defeating the purpose of Judaism and Christianity to relate fallen humanity to a very personal, redemptive deity whom Jesus asked be called "Father." ...more