Tuesday, February 26, 2008

God the Man



You will often hear the claim that God is neither male nor female, as God, being a spirit, can have no sex. The trouble is that Christianity refers to God as a Father (male) and when he became human as Jesus (the Son or second person of the Trinity) he chose to become a man. Jesus will, according to the faithful, have his body forever, and so will always be a specifically male deity. The whole idea of God as a man with a human (or human-like) body is a pagan one, which is why Muslims find the notion repugnant. Their God is truly sexless, Christianity's is not. This of course reflects the inherent sexism of Christianity (not that Islam is any less so, after its fashion) which is displayed in the writings of Paul with prohibitions on women teaching men or having authority in the church, etc.

But think of a God that decides to become one of its creatures but when it does so leaves out one half of the species and incarnates only as a male. Is this truly to become fully human when the other sex is not represented in the Godhead? Why not have the Holy Spirit incarnate as a woman, for example? A whole third "person" going to waste when it could have joined the party and experienced the sufferings of the weaker sex. Catholicism tried to compensate by elevating the Virgin Mary to near goddess status, but it's just not the same thing. A God who really wants to become human has to become both sexes, but Christianity doesn't portray it that way. The reason it doesn't, of course, is clear. Christianity, like all religions, is a man made story, and no gods, human or not, were involved in its creation.

1 comment:

  1. I prefer to call the Abrahamic god "it." Not only does it dispense with the issue of gender, but it very often pisses off the theist. Serves them right, believing in a deity who is so shameless and arrogant it not only makes god a proper noun, but its own name. Their god is a real bastard, or bitch... or it.

    ReplyDelete

If the post you are commenting on is more than 30 days old, your comment will have to await approval before being published. Rest assured, however, that as long as it is not spam, it will be published in due time.

Related Posts with Thumbnails