A Big, Mysterious God
BECKY KROHE
I’ve tried to write this blog post multiple different ways: I used stories from my childhood. I tried statistics from books. And now, I’m sitting here with a headache and a terrible sense of impending doom that the post is due and nothing I’ve written is right.
Why — when I think about this so often — is it so hard to write?
I think it’s because the topic of gender is so loaded. It has been a point of contention since ancient times. Even in the first writings of hymns and poetry in cuneiform, there is a power struggle between a goddess and a god. So yeah, at this point everyone is tired of talking about it, yet it’s not fixed.
(He? She? They? Why can’t God be all of those?)
Why even have this conversation? Why does it matter today? Is it just another way to be politically correct, warm and squishy? Is it really important to risk offending someone by referring to God as anything other than “He”?
Probably.
I think it should matter that girls and women see themselves as reflected in the divine — see themselves as worthy in-and-of themselves. I think it changes the dynamic of the relationships within the Church (or organization, or society) when the feminine is not excluded from the aspirational level.
Modern Christianity has been pretty hard on women right from In-the-beginning. The woman is made second; She’s derivative. Eve is cast as the dupe and then the villain. That is how the story was told in the church and school where I grew up. And seriously, they told me that because of Eve, I was quote/unquote the cursed sex. Can you even imagine saying such a thing to a girl, or having someone say that to your daughter? How is a girl supposed to overcome sin she “inherits” from the beginning of time…
Didn’t Jesus say that he came to make all things new? And chronologically, Jesus comes between Eve and the women of today, so why are people still saying these hurtful things? Blaming girls for things they didn’t do?
In the world today, women are rarely perceived as valuable and powerful.
That reflects on their families choosing whether or not to send them on to higher education, what kind of job they can get, what kind of life they have, what they think and feel about their own worth — and what kind of life they are able to give their children. We like to see the Church as separate from all of this. It’s not. It’s in on the ground floor of this fight for making or breaking the cycle of poverty, abuse and inequality.
Imago Dei seems to understand this idea. We have people deeply invested in relationships with women stuck in poverty in Honduras. Many Imagoans sponsor students from that community so they can go to high school and have a chance at a better life. (If you are interested in either of these opportunities, there’s info under the Mission tab on the website.) Imago doesn’t have it all figured out, but they are trying.
This powerlessness is not just a problem for women living in other countries, with low income levels or from certain racial groups. Our society as a whole often follows the Church. So many beliefs and values are deeply ingrained in ourselves and our kids through our interactions within the Church. And, those convictions are carried with us through the rest of our lives. It’s important that the Church is active in changing the narrative of power and worth for women and girls.
Change and Progress are sometimes noticeable as big leaps forward.
But more often, they are tiny, constant, incremental steps that are easy to miss. By their very nature, they never stop moving. When we stop paying attention — and being intentional — those steps might go in a different direction.
It can be exhausting to always have to be paying attention to Change. But true Progress is never going to happen if it’s just people like me pushing; it needs to be lots of people — of every color, religion, gender and orientation. Feminists of the past have failed for many reasons, but notably because they tried to make change only for a narrow group of women. Equality has to be for everyone.
The Bible is fairly inclusive.
Name five characters from the Bible who are female: Go!
Who did you come up with? Mary the Mother of Jesus? Mary Magdalene? Mary the Sister of Lazarus, Martha the Hostess? Maybe Eve the Woman ... but what about Tamar the Undaunted, Rahab the Spy, Naomi the Bitter, Ruth the Devoted, Bathsheba the Wronged, Deborah the Judge, Jael the Warrior, Esther the Queen, Miriam the Prophetess, Hannah the Pious, Rebekah the Matriarch, Rachel the Long-awaited, Elizabeth the Mother of John, Priscilla the Theologian, Phoebe the Deacon, Junia the Apostle and more...
The Bible has a surprising number of stories about women, but in the Church they are almost never told; some of them are even almost erased. Seeing how the women of the Bible reflect God is important. And seeing themselves in the story is how girls and women have a chance to belong.
After all, our God was originally a war god. And yet, there are verses in the Hebrew Scriptures that refer to God as a nurturing mother eagle in Deuteronomy, as a fierce mother bear in Hosea, as a nursing or pregnant mother in Isaiah. In the New Testament, part of God took on human form (as a male) and radically changed God’s image to that of a loving parent — even a mother hen in Matthew.
How we refer to God matters. Representation matters.
Obviously, I would like to see Imago be a place where God can be so big and so mysterious as to include everyone, even women and girls. A safe place for all genders and all expressions of those genders, where all people are accepted as they are — strong, gentle, silly, stoic, fierce, nurturing, powerful — worthy. And a place that gives them all of the opportunities to grow into all of the images of God.
Becky the Feminist is a cis-gender woman, wife, mother, creator, graphic designer, gardener, home improver, letterpress printer, jewelry maker and opinionated pain-in-the-ass. Usually, she is happy to discuss equality, economics and politics for hours on end with very little provocation. She attends Imago Dei Church in Peoria, Illinois, where all are welcome — even her.