For those who get their theology from Letters to the Editor in the Johnson City Press, here is the lesson for today:
God is masculine
There was an ambivalent feeling as I read two articles on the Opinion/Editorial page of the Johnson City Press edition of April 16. Since I am a Christian, I read with interest “Direction of America” (by J.G. Daniel) and I believe kudos should be extended to the writer.
On that same page however, there was an article by Cokie and Steve Roberts which included a questionable paragraph (with a nonbiblical statement). The gist of my objection is in the following excerpt: “Even though God clearly created baseball ... she clearly made some mistakes.”
In my opinion, every Biblebelieving Christian would claim that the pronoun should be masculine, not feminine. A reference to our heavenly father should not be distorted or be made in jest.
The preceding paragraph was not written to be captious, but instead to rectify an inaccurate assertion.
JAMES M. ARNOLD
Johnson City
At the risk of being captious, Mr. Arnold may need to connect with his Inner Goddess.Parvati nursing her son Ganesha.
Does it make a difference who the person who holds the pen..is?
ReplyDeleteHi John:
ReplyDeleteI have studied the Satras(Puranas,Upanishads..etc.) extensively. It is accepted that we are all ultimately feminine in relation to God (capital G) because we are all subservient to God and in most ancient cultures subservient=feminine.
Demi-gods like Parvati, Ganapati, Indra- all are viewed as Administrators in the Material world. Like our own Angels, they are due all respect, but not worship. (AC Swami Prabhupada).
To say God is masculine is allright, except that the thought of masculine implies there must be feminine in order for creation to take place. That is why Hindu Temples usually have a "couple" (Laxmi-Vishnu, Siva-Uma, Radha-Krishna).
OK- a bit off topic, forgive me! Ultimately our limiting conceptions of masculine and feminine are just silly when applied to an absolute being:)
Jim (posting on Scott's acct)
Fly,
ReplyDeleteI guess for some, God's a guy regardless of who holds the pen.
Thanks Jim!
Any cultures (past or present) regarding the subservient thing regarding the gender of the gods?
I guess I'm just confused as to why you are discussing gods and goddesses in reference to the Almighty God....
ReplyDeleteHey Aurora! Welcome! If you are confused, you have come to the right place. We don't even know if god is a boy or a girl over here!
ReplyDelete