Is God male? The Episcopal Church debates whether to change its Book of Common Prayer.

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

Is God male? The Episcopal Church debates whether to change its Book of Common Prayer.

By Julie Zauzmer
July 3 at 6:00 AM

The terms for God, in the poetic language of the prayers written for centuries, have almost always been male: Father. King. Lord.

And in the Episcopal Church, the language of prayer matters. The Book of Common Prayer, the text used in every Episcopal congregation, is cherished as a core element of Episcopal identity.

This week, the church is debating whether to overhaul that prayer book — in large part to make clear that God doesn’t have a gender.

“As long as ‘men’ and ‘God’ are in the same category, our work toward equity will not just be incomplete. I honestly think it won’t matter in some ways,” said the Rev. Wil Gafney, a professor of the Hebrew Bible at Brite Divinity School in Texas who is on the committee recommending a change to the gendered language in the prayer book.

Gafney says that when she preaches, she sometimes changes the words of the Book of Common Prayer, even though Episcopal priests aren’t formally allowed to do so. ...

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/07/03/is-god-male-the-episcopal-church-debates-whether-to-change-its-book-of-common-prayer/

[vercetti2021]

1. God is an entity

God can be whoever and whatever it wants to be.

[Lordquinton]

7. So we should stop referring to this entity

until they come down and tell us their preferred pronouns?

[vercetti2021]

8. Maybe?

I'm not religious at all.

[Major Nikon]

2. If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.

-- Voltaire

[SCantiGOP]

3. Years ago, one of my nephews

Was picked up after Sunday School. His Mom asked him what they learned and he ended up describing God as this old guy with a long white beard.
Mom asked how he knew that God wasn’t a woman. The 5 year old laughed and said, “Oh Mom. You know God is a guy’s name.”

[NeoGreen]

4. In the world as it is today...THIS... is worthy of a modicum theological debate?!

Theological Fail (yet again).

[nil desperandum]

5. Lord Ganesh

is not amused with your heresy....

[Voltaire2]

6. Abrahamic religions are the definition of patriarchal religion.

Their gods are male.

Of course the Episcopalians are free to redefine their religion anyway they want.

From my perspective this is a debate about the specific qualities of nonsense.

[The Genealogist]

9. God talks to Jim Bakker all the time. Maybe the Episcopalians can call him up and have him ask?

[Major Nikon]

10. If god isn't male, how did the holy poltergeist manage to knock up Mary?

Someone has some splainin’ to do.

[edhopper]

11. Does God have a penis?

or a vagina, if neither, how is a gender determined?