PANEL DISCUSSES SEX OF THE ALMIGHTY

Perhaps more people wonder about the existence of God than puzzle over the gender of the divine. But the topic is getting more publicity as congregations grapple with issues of women as spiritual and ordained leaders in the church.

So what gender is God?

A panel of instructors and students from the Religious Studies and Philosophy Department at Southeast Missouri State University tried to come up with some conclusions during a Common Hour presentation Wednesday afternoon.

Humans are bound by language and metaphors when they try to speak of the divine, said the Rev. Stephanie Curran.

You can make comparisons of God as father, mother, rock or sovereign. But by the use of words, we are "limiting the characteristics that we can attribute to God," she said.

God is both masculine and feminine. The divine is not specifically male or female or even genderless, she said. The images people have of God are based on how we are raised and what culture has taught us, Curran said.

She told a story of her son John who thought he had "found God" when he discovered a wooden figure of Noah hidden in the couch cushions. Curran said she wondered how her young son had come to understand who God was.

"We need to expand our understanding of who the divine is and who God is," she said.

Probably the best way to expand that understanding is to realize that "God is both sexless and sexful," said the Rev. J. Friedel.

Scripture says that when God created humans, he created both male and female images. "We need both to understand" who God is, he said.

There are feminine images of God in Scripture, but they are often obscured. History has been written by patriarchal societies, so the scriptural emphasis has been on the male leaders in the church.

"We have inherited what we have inherited," Friedel said. "Jesus as the person is not gender neutral. But the image of Christ as a figure is more cosmic and takes on all aspects of male and female."

Trying to determine an image of God could easily narrow our understanding of God, he said.

The Rev. Dr. Andy Pratt agreed. "We are bound by our anthropomorphism. That is the only way we can experience the universe," he said. The question of God's gender turns into a problem when "our language distracts from or obscures that which we are trying to illuminate." Does a female have to experience God based on male language? Does that make her experience counterfeit because she's had to separate who she really is as a female? Pratt asked.

Perhaps polytheistic religions have a better view of God because the divine is embodied in both male and female forms, said Kendra Merriweather, a Wiccan.

"The god and goddess are both polar and complementary," she said. "They fit like pieces of a puzzle. Neither is above the other."

Wiccans seek a balance in creation, she said. "Without her you can't have him and without him you can't have her."

Our ideas about God are shaped by our traditions and views, Pratt said. God is reflected in all of creations. "Everything reflects God, not just males."

The experience of God is not objective but subjective. It can't be limited to terms of male and female, but should include love, compassion, acceptance, affirmation and wholeness, Pratt said.