GOD TALK

Some time ago I was at a meeting of religious leaders where the program was a group of high school students of Muslim, Jewish and Christian background. It was a great program. Given the way the young people talked, I have much more confidence for the future. All were able to talk about their own beliefs without tearing down others. That’s exactly what we could use in the world.

My only disappointment was when one of the religious leaders remarked that all the students had talked about God as a ”man.”  What he meant was that they all used male pronouns to refer to God. This was not just an observation on his part, but a criticism. Male pronouns in reference to God are among his pet peeves. He–like a good many others–insist this is an important religious issue. Phooey, I say. And again, phooey!

When I preach, I don’t refer to God as “he” because it is problematic to some people, and I want to respect those who are might be unable to hear the Good News of Jesus because of a few pronouns. I think I am rather skilled at doing this without using obnoxious expressions like “God’s self.” Or God sent God’s Son (or it’s probably supposed to be “child,” but I won’t say that.) I do insist, however, that in worship we use the formula Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It’s what is in the Bible and the Creeds so t isn’t up to us to change it.

What bugs me, however, is that most of the fussing about male pronouns for God are a result of English having lost most of its grammatical gender. Unlike French, pens are not feminine in English. Unlike German, day is not masculine in English. Until recently ships in English were still feminine, but that seems to have been suppressed. The gender police also hunt out the word “man” when it is used for “person.” We aren’t supposed to say “chairman” any more, but “chairperson.” Actually, chairman refers to a man or a women. Read Roberts' Rules of Order where the form of address is either Mr. Chairman or Madame Chairman. The problem is that some dummy introduced the word “chairwoman” which goofed up the whole thing by assigning gender to the word chairman, hence the neologism “chairperson.” The silliest form that I have seen is “ombudsperson” for ombudsman. For goodness sakes, the word ombudsman isn’t even English. It’s taken directly from Danish. Anyway, I try to go with the flow so as not to ruffle too many feathers.

However, my feathers got ruffled when the young people were criticized for using male pronouns for God. The Muslim students referred to God as Allah. Now that’s an Arabic word masculine in gender. It would be entirely improper to refer to Allah except as “he.” The Hebrew word for God is usually Elohim which is also masculine. Even in English, the word god retains the masculine gender because we have a feminine form goddess.

The students tried to make it clear that they didn’t think of God as a male person. They were just speaking English in the natural way that English speakers do. It was bad manners to criticize them. It was intolerant, too. It is a curious thing that I note: some of the people who talk the loudest about the need to be tolerant of others are themselves intolerant of others who do not share their views. It all seems to depend on whose ox is being gored.

May the Lord bless you on your journey and greet you on your arrival.

Wayne







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