god Is Not a Man

God is not a physical, material being. Sow when we use physical, material, human-like characteristics to describe The Divine, we are anthropomorphizing. The Bible is chock full of anthropomorphic language, but that doesn’t mean it is factual. God is not a lion. God is not a hen. God is not a wall. God is not a man. god doesn’t have hands, fingers, eyelashes, pubic hair, breath (stinky, fresh, or otherwise).

As such, it is as theologically accurate to use gendered terms as it is non-gendered terms and any spectrum of the sort in between or beyond. It may not be historically or culturally consistent to use feminine or neuter pronouns and it may “offend” our WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) conditioning, but it is not wrong to do so.

Instead, using different words to describe The Divine may help to break the tight boundaries that are inherently contradictory to a great, expansive, beyond-linguistic Ultimate Mystery.

This binary unbinding might not only affect how faith practitioners come to approach The Divine, but it can have positive impacts toward acceptance of those who do not fit squarely and easily within binary gendering as well.

*A number of years ago, Gungor came out with a song titled “God Is Not a White Man” (watch the official video by clicking the link) that presses on humanity’s inclinations to stereotype God according to our biases and preferences, showing the absurdity of such ideas. It echoes my thoughts here; maybe give it a listen; enjoy.