drr@ihopa.UUCP (D. R. Rueckheim) (04/27/84)
The following is an article taken from the Chicago Sun Times
on 4/26/84. It is being reproduced without permission.
I thought it would be appropriate to this news group
because of all of the recent articles on sexist language.
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EDINBURGH (AP) - God is not necessarily male, a committee of
the Presbyterian Church of Scotland says.
In fact, the characteristics attributed to God in the bible
resemble "everything that is best in the female way of being
human," a panel of seven women and four men said in a report
presented this week at the annual meeting of the Woman's Guild
of the Church of Scotland.
The report does not represent the church's official views.
It will be debated May 19-25 at a meeting of the church's
1,600 delegate General Assembly.
The 11-member panel, including a female cleric and three
male clerics, represents the 76,000-member Woman's Guild and
the church doctrine panel.
The panel was divided on whether "the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ" could be addressed as "God our Mother."
A minority asserted that "although they acknowledge
gratefully the motherly qualities of this Father, they believe
that to call god 'Mother' would be illegitimate, and cause hurt."
The panel was appointed by the General Assembly in 1982 to
study "the Motherhood of God" after the phrase "God our Mother"
was included in a prayer at an official meeting of the Woman's
guild that year.
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I wonder what the conclusion of the 11-member panel would have
been if there had been 7 men and 4 women.
Personally, I think it is a waste of time and energy to attempt
to assign a sex to God.
--
D. R. Rueckheim
..!ihnp4!ihopa!drr
AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, Il.smann@ihu1g.UUCP (Sherry Mann) (04/30/84)
"Personally, I think it is a waste of time... to try to assign a sex to God." Too late - MANkind already assigned a sex to HIM. Sherry Mann ihu1g!smann