The first week of June brought us the Vanity Fair issue with Caitlyn Jenner on the cover, and now we're having much more expansive conversations about issues of gender and bodies and sexuality.
I've returned to my thinking about the gender of God, and I've been wondering how I've been shortsighted. I spent decades looking for the female face of God in the Bible, and then I spent time moving towards stripping God of gender.
What has been lost with that approach?
I wrote this piece for the Living Lutheran site. It doesn't fully answer that question. In fact, to be honest, it only begins to address this question.
Here are some quotes to whet your appetite:
"But it never occurred to me to read the Bible looking for evidence that God's gender moves across a spectrum too. I'm surprised to realize that I'm guilty of binary thinking too."
"At a recent Synod Assembly, I received communion from female pastors. I thought about the first time I received the elements from someone who looked like me, and how deeply moving it was. I am not the first feminist to make this observation."
"Some have thought that homosexuality is the last frontier, but now we're wrestling with transgender issues. What will be the next frontier? "
"And how will these frontiers change the way we view God?"
but bestows favor on the humble
6 months ago
3 comments:
The ELCA apostasies have led to confusion over gender, even God's gender, and since the Bible no longer guides ELCA, any wacky idea is plausible where heresy abounds, and traces of true Biblical Christianity can be erased in that body. Only those willing to leave ELCA for a faithful Christian church will escape the utter stupidity and spiritual emptiness of this paganized once Lutheran church.
I agree, John. This is one of the wacky-est things I have ever read. Incredibly, Living Lutheran published it. Jesus and the Bible are pretty clear that God "created them male and female."
This is such a great post. I, too, have long thought of sexuality on a spectrum, and as a decidedly non-girly-girl, I think I have inherently thought of gender that way, too, but I never put words to it. Thank you for doing so. (Also, re. a different blog post, I downloaded Fun Home the graphic novel to my kindle and am thoroughly enjoying it.)
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