9.19.2006

But first...a question.

I was going to go off about my own views on the following matter, but I decided that first I wanted to throw the question out, to see where people are coming from, and just get some other ideas. Though I come from a decidedly Christian perspective, and will be going at the topic from that worldview, everyone is welcome to throw their hat into the ring (Christian or not). The question is this:

What pronoun(s) do you use for God? Why? And does it matter to you?

Here are some answers, feel free to pick from them, or make up one of your own.

1) I always "He" and I feel strongly this should be the case because God is male.
2) I always use "He" but it's more out of habit/culture/community than because I think God is gendered.
3) I always use "She" and I feel strongly this should be the case because God is female.
4) I always use "She" but it's just to piss off those patriarchal bastards who always use "He," because I don't really think God is gendered.
5) I rotate between "He" and "She" because God is not gendered, but I want to use pronouns when referring to God.
6) I avoid the use of all pronouns when referring to God, and always just reuse the word "God."
7) What the hell are you talking about?
8) You [fill-in-the-blanks] are all alike, always getting bogged down in these meaningless issues when there are poor, needy, and unloved people out there to love and befriend! Stop writing xanga entries about pronouns and get out there and love someone!

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm generally a six with touches of five and two.

Six gets difficult just because of how repetitive I sound, and I tend to pay a lot of attention to the flow of my words.

But it's probably not surprising that I struggle with pronouns for God when I struggle just as much with pronouns for myself.

9:03 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

2 + 6 + 7 + 8 = 23

10:23 AM  
Blogger Dancing with God said...

I'm a 6 with some 2 creeping in. In corporate prayers, I add variety to 6 by addresssing God by a different name in each paragraph (Loving Lord, Gracious God, Holy One, etc.)

But in general I think language does matter. So while I do believe that most people that use "He" don't see God as a larger than life male in the sky, some people do. Our limited stammering after God should reflect some accuracy and should not be an anthropomorphic gendered description.

7:56 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i use god more often than not, and try to avoid sounding like the CTS prayer formula ("god of ____, god of ____, we give you thanks..."). i'm stuggling b/c "he" is what my teenagers have grown up using, as well as the majority of my church, and "he" is what they expect, so it's jarring sometimes when i avoid a pronoun, and they lose the point of what i'm saying. good question.

8:56 AM  
Blogger TheNeedyMother said...

I use he cos that's what a Father is - I have no problem when people use She, but I can see how it stops a conversation in its tracks unless you already know that the person has that practice(like yourself!)

4:09 PM  

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