Why do some christians refer to god as a male (him, he)?

Because the bible refers to him as “the Father.”. Many of us see the Holy Spirit as the female side of God.

Indeed the Father.
We won’t be humans after death. [ spirits or entities ] Just like the angels have to gender.

Lack of imagination?

I’m sure there are plenty of feminist Christians wondering the same thing……. What a pickle!
:-/

Probably stems from the myth’s origins in a patriarchal society.

Patriarchy.

The early church did not support patriarchy ..they embraced equality. Eventually, a bunch of righteous men mucked it up by misinterpreting the scriptures of christianity to suit them; over time, many books were taken out of the scriptures as well (some were much less patriarchal). The merging of church and government also played a role. As did the merging of christianity and other religions/cultures.

Because that is the traditional teaching of the Christian Church; that god is male. But you might want to look into the Pistis Sophia; here is one translation of the full text to get an idea of the expression of female divinity in early Christianity. It is a Gnostic scripture.

Maybe it’s because he seems to be cock sure of himself ;¬}

@PluckyDog My comment said society, not church.

Either way, how do you know that the early church embraced equality? I’m honestly curious.

@AdamF There is no real thing as “the early church” because the early parts of Christianity were more secret sects all over the place than anything resembling an organized institution. However, they did have women as deaconesses and women were generally prominent in the Christian community. However, c.60 AD Paul the Apostle goes around and writes his various epistoles (letters), in which he says in 1 Timothy 2:11–14, KJV:
Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.
But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
This was then used as the main justification for keeping women out of positions of power within the church, and promotes some seriously anti-women thought.

Now, how those letters changed Christianity from the reform Judaism early on to the disorganized version it was in a little bit later up until 324 when the Council of Nicea met and formed what we would call “The Church”, I don’t know – but there is evidence that before Paul came along, Christianity (or rather a movement to reform Judaism, as the case may be) was more egalitarian.

@AdamF I wasn’t posting to you specifically. I was answering the original question.

In regards to church, I wasn’t meaning an actual church. I meant church as a group of believers. I took a several religious studies courses in college. I do not remember which texts/teachings off hand.

@AdamF Maybe this wiki link will help explain better than I can.

@MyNewtBoobs gave some good examples and points.

I should be in bed ..lol.

@MyNewtBoobs You know I love you but I don’t think you need to single @AdamF, whoever he may be, for mentioning “the early church.” Several of us have referred to it, including myself (“Early Christianity, I think I said) and I believe “The early church” is a valid scholarly construct, but please correct me if I’m wrong.

@lillycoyote Oh, I was only saying it directly to @AdamF because he asked how people know women were more prominent. I think nuance in general is good, and brings a more full understanding of a subject. But my point with correcting the “early church” is that we tend to think of any “church” as more of this monolithic thing, when it’s much more of a mosaic and much more comparable to, well, what “atheists” believe – other than a lack of belief in a god, there’s no way to know and beliefs various rather widely due to the disorganized nature. I personally believe that if one is referring to pre-Constantine Christianity, the “early church” is only a valid construct until you get past 101 college classes, but that’s just me. But the point is, I didn’t want to say that an early church embraced anything when I don’t really believe in an early church in the first place.

@MyNewtBoobs I suppose I should have been more clear too. Any understanding of the “early church” in Christianity should include the knowledge that there was a tremendous amount of diversity of belief and scripture and understanding of what it meant to be a follower of Jesus. Early church was far from solidified, far from being of one mind, far from being “a church” where everyone believed the same thing.

@AdamF By the way, I was agreeing with you about patriarchy. I just wanted to clarify, somewhat, where patriarchy came into play in christianity (that it wasn’t always that way). :)

@PluckyDog, @MyNewtBoobs, @lillycoyote Thanks for the helpful clarifications!

Winner of the Grawemeyer Award, She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse by Elizabeth Johnson (nun, teaching at Fordham) gives a different view of the Trinity.

Cause no female could f*** things up this badly.

I had a theology professor who taught from Harold Bloom’s commentaries on the book of ‘J’, the backbone text of the old testament.

There exist serious thinkers who believe the old testament was mostly written by a woman in the court of Solomon, who made God out to be a typical powerful and childish male, and was written in an Ironic tone.

Because if we said god was female than we’d call her Mother and this would very lead into us calling her Mother Dearest and no one wants to worship Joan Crawford… except maybe the Opus Dei, they don’t seem to mind the pain.

The Bible and everyone in it refers to God as Him, He, the Father, etc. I’m not really sure, though. Jesus is God’s son and He called God His Father. Jesus doesn’t sin and if He lied then He would’ve sinned, which would not make Him Jesus and I know that He has never and never will sin. God Himself says He is our Father. That’s why.
@Judi Are you Catholic or something? Just wondering ‘cause I’m Baptist and nobody I know views the Holy Spirit as female. I don’t know I might have just misunderstood or something sorry if I did.

@leopardgecko123 ; I don’t know for sure either. It just seems, that the attributes of the Holy Spirit are more feminine than that of God the Father and Jesus. I Should have said, “many of us wonder if the Holy Spirit is the female side of God.”
The recent “it” book in Christian circles, The Shack proposes the possibility. It is pure fiction, and the author states that, but it makes you wonder if God might be bigger and more than we can fit into the Bible, our heads, or this planet. All we know i what he has revealed. I believe that he is so big that my little mind could never comprehend. So I trust that he loves me and that he has revealed to us all we need to know at this point.

Ever notice in the picture of “The Last Supper,” Jesus has a woman on his right?
Some say it was Mary Magdelene

Rock on Jesus!

Bible says “God is Love”
What sex is Love?

Gen 1:1 “And God said, Let us make man in OUR image….”

When I see the word “Our” it means more than one to me.
So, if Gen 1:1 suggests more than one god planning all this stuff out, I also tend to believe it is more than one sex.

Do you see this physical world as a Macrocosm of a Macrocosm?
Is the physical world, the 5 sensual world, representation of something we can’t sense with our bodies or understand with our minds?

In this 5 sensual world I see the feminine getting equal billing.

When did we as humans start killing the feminine?

I could go on and on but I don’t care for reading long posts so don’t want to create one (but my “ramble-on” fingers usually do) so I’ll end with…

We would do well to do homework, and that with an open mind.

We would do well to look within ourselves
Are you exclusively Male or Female inside?

Researching outside the box of whatever particular belief we have can help us from having an inbred mind.

Any religion or belief that thinks theirs is the only right way is a “Cult.” (Check out the definitions of that word)

Back to your original question Blackberry, “Why do some christians refer to god as a male (him, he)?”

The majority of what we learn in America is from Judaism & Christianity

Judaism & Christianity are religions Patriarchy’s professing theirs is the only and right belief.
Many other religions think THEY are the ones possessing the only correct belief.
They all have great stuff to share, but they are not “right.” No one is.

Most world religions, ancient and modern embrace the feminine as well as the masculine.
Patriarchy has always tried to kill the feminine
Why? For political control reasons? Maybe?

If nature everywhere celebrates feminine and masculine principals
Why shouldn’t we?

P.S.

Back to your question Blackberry (see, I told you I ramble)
I call what Is commonly called “God”
God/dess…... both God & Goddess in one.
I use the term “S/he” referring to it

;-)

@BeckyKytty How about just Shim?

Why not!?

giggle…