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The Cost Of Assigning A Gender To God

Writer: Kerry Morris
Kerry Morris
5 minutes ago
5 min read

The God Of My Team

Years ago a book told us that “Men Are From Mars And Women Are From Venus,” making the point that our innate differences make the genders feel like they are from different planets.


Now, it feels like men and women are not just from different planets, we also live on different planets. Men and women have dramatically different education levels, incomes, suicide rates, voting habits, social habits, and social lives.


In a society that is increasingly divided, no division may be more severe than the division between genders.

For those that hold the possibility that God exists, this raises a question: “What is God’s gender?” Which is another way of saying, “Is God on my team?”



The Gender of God

God’s gender might seem obvious. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all make frequent references to God in male terms. The Psalmist wrote “The Lord is like a father to his children.[1]” Jesus referred to God as Abba, which is Aramaic for “papa.”


But the same scriptures also describe God in female terms. Isaiah wrote, “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.[2]” Deuteronomy refers to “the God who gave you birth.[3]” The Hebrew word used is chul, which means labor pains. The Hebrew word ruach, used to describe the Spirit of God, is grammatically feminine. Two of Islam’s most common names for God, Al-Rahman and Al-Rahim, are based on the root word rahm, which means womb.


The Hebrew scriptures go even further. Proverbs 8 describes an eternal wisdom that was present at creation and rules over kingdoms, and that wisdom is personified as a woman. “Listen as Wisdom calls out! Hear as understanding raises her voice! On the hilltop along the road, she takes her stand at the crossroads… Common sense and success belong to me. Insight and strength are mine. Because of me, kings reign, and rulers make just decrees. I was born before the oceans were created, before the springs bubbled forth their waters.[4]”

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God Beyond Gender

But gender may be the least complex aspect of God to understand. Not only is God described as both masculine and feminine in scripture, God is often not described as human at all.


God is described as animals: an eagle, a hen, a lion, a bear, a lamb[5]. At other times, God is described as forces of nature: fire, a whirlwind that speaks, a cloud[6]. God is even described in metaphysical terms: love, spirit, the word[7].


The visions people have of God are even more remarkable. Ezekiel describes God as somewhat resembling a man, but also having the appearance of fire and of pure light[8]. Daniel and John had similarly perplexing visions of God as a complex combination of human and natural elements. Isaiah did not even try to describe the appearance of God. “It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord…Then I said, ‘It’s all over! I am doomed’…[9]” Isaiah was surprised to the point of being terrified.



All of The Above and More

The descriptions above are not contradictions. They are examples of humans trying to describe something that is beyond human description. Paul wrote, “All things are from him and through him and for him.[10]”

Other traditions echo this sense that the true God cannot be described in human terms. “The Tao that can be named is not the eternal Tao.[11]” Buddhism resists naming ultimate reality because naming it would shrink it. Jewish mysticism describes Ein Sof — the infinite God that defies and transcends all human description. Hinduism embraces different aspects of the Divine, not as contradictions, but as completeness.

Every form we use to describe God is at best a metaphor for one aspect of God.



God in a Box

When I choose one aspect of God to describe God, I am not incorrect. But I also am not complete. Is God male? Is God female? “God created human beings in his own image…male and female he created them.[12]” Is God fire? Is God light? Is God wisdom? Is God love?


Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And yes to a million other things not yet revealed.


Finding ways to describe God is noble work and a worthy debate. But there is a constant temptation to shape God in my image, to limit God to something that matches my politics, my world view, my gender.

When I read the accounts of people who claim to have encountered God, one reaction is consistent: an almost terrifying sense of awe. Isaiah, Job, Ezekiel, John… “I am undone!”, “I am unworthy”, “I fell facedown”… Imagine standing before the God of the Universe and asking which type of genitals God might have. The absurdity is piercing.


But it is also tragic.


There may be no more insidious way to attack my faith in God than to tempt me to definitively define God. Reducing God to a gender strips away the awesome complexity revealed in scripture. A God I can describe is a God with limits. A God I understand must be no bigger than my own mind.


When Moses first encountered God, he wanted to be sure God was with him. He wanted to know God was on his team. He asked God to provide a description, a name. “God replied to Moses, ‘I Am Who I Am’.[13]”

That response raises a host of other questions, but Moses offered no follow up. Standing in the presence of God, this statement was enough. God is so much bigger than our teams. The divine overflows our definitions and fills up our questions.


Sometimes awe and the unknown go hand in hand.

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FOOTNOTES

[1] Psalms‬ ‭103‬:‭13‬ ‭NLT‬

[2] Isaiah 66:13

[3] Deuteronomy 32:18

[4] Proverbs‬ ‭8‬:‭1‬-‭2‬, ‭14‬-‭15‬, ‭24‬ ‭NLT‬‬

[5] Eagle stirring her nest — Deuteronomy 32:11. Hen gathering chicks — Matthew 23:37 (Jesus again). Lion standing over prey — Isaiah 31:4, Hosea 13:7. Bear robbed of her cubs — Hosea 13:8. Bird covering with feathers — Psalm 91:4

[6] Burning bush — Exodus 3:2. Pillar of fire — Exodus 13:21. Consuming fire — Deuteronomy 4:24, Hebrews 12:29. The whirlwind that speaks — Job 38

[7] God is love — 1 John 4:8. God is spirit — John 4:24. The Word/Logos — John 1:1 (a Greek philosophical concept the text deliberately borrows)

[8] Ezekiel 1

[9] ‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭6‬:‭1‬, ‭5‬ ‭NLT‬‬

[10] Romans‬ ‭11‬:‭36‬ ‭CEB‬‬

[11] Tao Te Ching, chapter 1

[12] Genesis‬ ‭1‬:‭27‬ ‭NLT‬‬

[13] Exodus‬ ‭3‬:‭14‬-‭15‬ ‭NLT‬‬

[14] Men are 21% less likely to go to college. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/hsgec.htm

Men are four times more likely to commit suicide. https://afsp.org/suicide-statistics/

Women are three times more likley to be victims of sexual assault. https://www.cdc.gov/sexual-violence/about/index.html

 
 
 

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