This past Tuesday a number of us were present at a presentation given by Calvary member, activist, and retired UCC pastor Rev. Marian Shearer titled “Is God a Boy’s Name?” It was well laid out and presented, and I think we learned a lot. As I listened, I thought a lot about how we misrepresent God, and how those misrepresentations have destroyed lives, cultures, and the world. Too much? I don’t think so. When I try to define what I believe about God, one of the central tenets I stand on is that God loves all people equally. It doesn’t matter what your religion, color, national origin, gender, sex, economic status; God’s love is not about any of that. God doesn’t differentiate – people do. God doesn’t pick one group over another – people say God does. And yet, this flies in the face of what most religious people believe. Remember that there was also a time when opposing enslaving people was also a minority opinion. People commit evil, not God.
God does not think women are inferior to men – men do. God does not believe people of one race are better than others – people of those arrogant groups did (and some still do). As I am typing this, I can’t believe that these ideas aren’t universal. And yet, nations everywhere are being run by men who believe women are less than them in every way – this country included. After years of women serving in every way in the armed forces, now we are being told they shouldn’t. Most churches will not ordain women, which is one of the most ignorant practices in history. A huge minority of people in America won’t vote for a woman for president just because she is a she. They base that on 2 Timothy.
For Christians, a big part of the problem is the way the Bible was written and is interpreted. In Genesis 1, God’s pronouns are we/they and people are created in “our” image. Genesis 2 makes God male. In the Gospel of John, the Holy Spirit is called He, which was then adopted by the Creeds. In the Hebrew, however, the Spirit is feminine, and in the Greek, neutral – no “He” for the Holy Spirit anywhere in our Scriptures. And yet, men continue to point to the Bible as proof that God is a boy’s name. It isn’t. God has no gender or sex or color or nationality. God is for all of us. To think otherwise is proof that there hasn’t been enough thinking done on the subject. If you believe that God is only male, please consider alternative views. It might grow on you.
Prayer – Holy God, thank You for being more than we interpret You to be, and forgive our attempts to control others by limiting You. Amen.
Today’s art is “Holy Spirit Fire” by Dolores Develde.