Christina Gunter

Introduction:

We can hear the themes of our childhood stories echoing throughout our lives. There is Cinderella-- the ragged, pathetic, abused girl, who when she was beautified, becomes the choice of the young, courageous, handsome prince. There is the story of poor little Snow White who needs the kiss of a stunningly gorgeous young man and the help of seven old men to save her from evil. Very few parents, I am sure, would stand up against their children watching or reading Cinderella or even Snow White. After all, these stories are a part of our culture. These stories and others are foundational for all of us.

But who are we as a culture? What is our culture really saying underneath these little fantasy stories? This fabulously romantic idea of the man being the savior and the one who chooses has seeped through our veins and we barely realize it.

When we apply our culture?s underlying ideas in foundational stories to theology, we see that we would never want to make God analogous to the poor, ragged, pathetic, abused female. We would rather see God as the chooser, the hero, the savior, the powerful man.

Biblical Exegesis:

If we turn to a healthy biblical exegesis of scripture, then we see that God is

portrayed in creaturely images both as a father and a mother. The book of Hosea portrays God as the father of Israel. It is in the eleventh chapter that one especially sees God portrayed as a father weeping over his son whom he raised. There are also passages such as Isaiah 49:15 where God?s love is shown as a woman?s love for a child of her womb.

Tradition:

Tradition is what those who have come before us have handed down to us so that we might continue to live their faith (K. S. McCormick). Our tradition as a church has named the Trinity of our one God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The tradition of God as Father comes from a rich heritage that we, as a present, living community, can draw from and use.

Wolfhart Pannenberg points out one of the rich qualities that comes along with referring to God as Father. He says (concerning the Israelites and God), ?the fatherly relation of God to the king by an act of adoption gave the idea of God as father a consistency which made it much more than a metaphor.?[1] Our tradition has passed down to us the idea that God is Father. This image is powerful to show us a consistency in God analogous to the consistency of a father of an adopted son.

Centuries of church leaders have taught us that our Trinity includes God the Father and because it is our tradition (that faith that continues to live through us) we cannot quickly throw it out. It is true, the use of God as Father has been abused to say God is male. This is where we have failed and sinned against God.

Pannenberg points out that ?to bring sexual differentiation into the understanding of God would mean polytheism?[2] (that is belief in more then one God). Therefore in the midst of some misusing tradition to say God as Father means God is male we must (as I am doing through this paper) seriously think about what God as Father means and what it does not mean.

Reason: Thinking About Our Pronouns for God

We can use our mind to think about those things which we see happening around us. One of these things we can see is that there is abuse that happens when one refers to God as male. Concerning the worship setting and honoring all those who are present, Ruth Duck says that ?to honor all people means avoiding expressions that render women invisible and assume that men are the normative human beings.?[3] We know this has happened, especially in our churches. We refer to God as Father and we undoubtedly use pronouns that are specifically masculine. We say things such as ?God in His mercy will save you? or ?God knows how you feel-- just talk to Him.? All of these uses of the masculine pronoun only help to exclude females. Duck specifically mentions the use of the words ?man,? ?men,? or ?brothers,? but I believe it can be applied to our pronouns as well. We cannot exclude women in our language. If we do such a thing, it is nothing more then a trespass against God, who loves all people.

Tradition and Reason:

In order to be good Wesleyans we need a good balance of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. In this case, we must balance our tradition with our reason. It is extremely important that we balance God as Father and God being beyond a particular gender. This is especially true in a worship setting as Duck points out. She says, ?words are an important part of worship? and ?finding words to express praise, prayer, and proclamation is worthy of loving and reverent care.?[4]

How do we balance our rich tradition and our wretched trespasses? How can we help women feel included in the community of faith, feel equal in the community of faith, and still keep our tradition which calls God ?Father?? I propose that we synthesize the two. That is, we hold fast to our tradition of God as father (remembering that God has motherly aspects as well) and be extremely cautious of what pronouns we use to speak of our triune God.

Practically speaking, I propose that we (as a community of faith) change our grammar from ?himself? to ?God?s self,? from ?his? to ?God?s? and ?him? to ?God.? This means that sentences such as: ?God himself knows who you are, just come to him? can be transformed into sentences such as: ?God knows who you are, just come to our all loving God.? There are so many rich descriptors that could be used to replace grammar that is exclusive to females.

Conclusion:

It is with this idea in mind that we can now truly say- ?Our Father which art in heaven? forgive us our trespasses.? God is our genderless father who we need to ask for forgiveness concerning the social injustices the church has done to its people.

Notes

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