As a young man, I didn’t notice my advantages. I knew that growing up poor was a stumbling block in many ways, but it was a time when the government helped with those disadvantages. It was also a time when the church was welcoming more diversity in clergy leadership (at least, in the Metropolitan New York area), and I was so used to women and people of color in those positions that I thought nothing of it. I also didn’t think of the disparities in pay and position until a number of women pointed out that they never got Senior Pastor positions, only Associate positions. And the people of color I knew were serving congregations made up of people who looked like them (the same as me), so that made sense, right? Except for the economic differences that existed (not that any of us got paid what we were worth in the 1980s and ’90s) between predominantly white church pastors and everyone else.
I didn’t think that much about how portraying God as a white man supported patriarchy; in fact, I never thought about patriarchy at all. Which is part of the point – those who don’t notice the disadvantages of others are probably doing so because they are benefiting from cultural and economic disparity. That is how privilege works. That is also why almost all of the loud protests against the idea that privilege is a thing come from white, straight men. If one isn’t negatively affected by something, it doesn’t exist, right? God as male has perpetuated the idea that the man came first and the woman was an afterthought, created to keep him company – to help him – in the Garden of Eden. This same story was at the root of Paul’s writing in 1 Corinthians 7 and the idea that women will be saved through childbearing in 1 Timothy 2. Paul’s idea that men are created in the image and glory of God, and women are in the image and glory of men, created and maintained a hierarchy of power and authority that continues in the vast majority of churches.
Women can’t be ordained in Catholic, Orthodox, and most Evangelical and Fundamentalist churches. They are, to use the old King James Version language, “helpmates”, created to support men and stay silent. Proclaiming God as Father only creates and supports systems that put maleness above femaleness. It is why some marriage ceremonies turn a man and woman into man and wife; only the wife’s position changes as she becomes an appendage to the man. Again, thankfully, many of these injustices have been corrected, but the larger culture continues to push back against equality. It isn’t over the top to say that when a male God is the only option, women remain second-class citizens.
There is nothing a man can do that a woman can’t. To maintain this fallacy is to nurture misogyny. When misogyny is nurtured, inequality is born. God is about equality. If you are for inequality, you are against God. Simple math. Let’s destroy the patriarchy before it destroys us.
Prayer – God, You are so many things to so many people, and we appreciate how relatable You are. Teach us how to treat each other as people made in Your image. Amen.