Christianity and Sexism: Is God a Dude?

I recently ran across a book called, “Stellarella”.  It’s a book that tries to present positive female role models for young girls.  (Hoorah!)   But one distinctive feature of the book is that Stellarella refers to God with feminine pronouns:

“Did you know God makes rain too, Tank?  She’s very clever.”

If you are like me, you’ve grown up hearing God referred to exclusively in the masculine.  Reading a divine feminine pronoun can be a bit jarring.

Still… it raises a good question.  God doesn’t have an innate physical form.  The Creator isn’t properly male or female.  So why the insistence on referring to God in the masculine?  Why can’t God be a she?

Is this convention simply a leftover from a cruder age of sexism and patriarchy… or does it point to something deeper?

Revealed as Father, through the Son:

The first two answers are given to us by Christ - both by His nature and His example. 

In regard to the former; when God came into the world, He came as a male child.  That child, we are told in Paul's letter to the Colossians, is the image of the invisible God:

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” – Colossians 1:15

And that same Jesus instructed His followers to refer to God as “Father”:

“This, then, is how you should pray, ‘Our father in heaven, hallowed be thy name…” – Matthew 6:9

So it should come as no surprise that Christians would refer to God with masculine pronouns.  Doing the opposite, referring to God in the feminine, would be rejecting the manner in which Jesus revealed God to us. 

Or, at least, trying to improve on Jesus' revelation by being more “inclusive”.

That works as an explanation from the authority of Jesus.  But inquisitive minds might want to take it a step further and ask… why did Jesus reveal God in that way?



How Does the Creator Create?:

One way of answering that question is to start by recognizing that gender isn’t simply an accident.  The male and female forms are something God intended - and the way men and women work together to create life can tell us something about why God has chosen to relate to us in the masculine.

How does a woman create?  First she receives something from a man.  Then life is created inside herself.  The environment in which the baby finds itself is the mother.

Apply that to God and creation and what do you get?

It would say that God must first receive something in order to create.  And then the resulting creatures find themselves in an environment which is God.  That view is called Pantheism – the idea that the God is the universe, and the universe is God.

[There are also forms of semi-pantheism, which hold that the universe is part of God]

Well, pantheism is not compatible with the Judeo-Christian understanding creation.  God did not need to receive anything to create the universe, nor is God the universe.  If that were the case, the material world would be worthy of worship.   But everything we see around us is other stuff God created - and not to be worshiped.

Now, how does a man create?

He initiates a process by giving something.  His part in creation is from outside the sphere in which the creature grows. The baby created by a father finds itself in an environment wholly distinct from the father.

This is more like the manner in which God creates.  And it is a theological reason why we relate to God in masculine terms.


Wait, I'm What?

One of the classic images of the people of God is “the Bride of Christ”.  You will find those Biblical passages in some of the texts I cited last time.  This image is usually easier for women to envision than for men.  Tell a guy that he is part of the bride of Christ and you’ll likely get a confused look.

But the marital bond between Christ and the Church is a continuation of the analogy of the way God relates to us.  Jesus gives, we receive.  All humanity is spiritually female before God.  Thus, Paul says in his letter to the Corinthians:

 “Man is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man.” – 1 Corinthians 11:7 

So it’s not that men are better or holier than women.  We are both works of art, but we represent different cosmic truths through our masculinity and femininity.   People lose sight of these truths – or reverse them entirely - when they adopt gender-neutral or feminine language for God.

While it may not please those wedded to the cause of gender neutrality, this is something woven into the fabric of the Christian faith.  One cannot pull out this string without disturbing the others.  For God gives us the Holy Spirit so that we might cry out “Abba, daddy.” [Galatians 4:6]


A Partial Family?

I’ll conclude with one final thought.  God built into each human being the desire to reach out to both a father and a mother.  The desire to experience of paternal and maternal love is an intrinsic human yearning.

So if God wants to relate to us as father… did He leave our desire for the maternal unfulfilled?  Would this not devalue motherhood?  Is it as if God thought it worthwhile for us to have a Father… but saw no need to give someone for us all to call mother?

There most certainly is such a person.