God is not a white man
Posted: August 11, 2010 Filed under: Gender | Tags: gender, god, music, politics 8 CommentsI love this song “White Man” and the music video by the Michael Gungor and his band. I love the idea of a God who is not the exlusive property of any gender, race, class, political party, religion, or sexuality . . . but is just love. Lyrics below the jump.
Perhaps someone should tell this guy that God isn’t a straight man, either! (Hint: God isn’t a man at all! Check your own Bible, John 4:24).
“Jesus is coming back for a bride. He’s coming back for a woman.” Uh, no. The Church as Christ’s bride is a metaphor, dude. (ht JoeMyGod)
God is not a man
God is not a white man
God is not a man sitting on a cloudGod cannot be bought
God will not be boxed in
God will not be owned by religionBut God is love, God is love, and He loves everyone
God is love, God is love, and He loves everyoneGod is not a man
God is not an old man
God does not belong to Republicans
God is not a flag
Not even American
And God does not depend on a governmentBut God is good, God is good, and He loves everyone
God is good, God is good, and He loves everyoneAtheists and Charlatans and Communists and Lesbians
And even old Pat Robertson, oh God He loves us all
Catholic or Protestant, Terrorist or President
Everybody, everybody, love, love, love, love, loveOh, la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la
Yeah, I say God is love, God is love, and He loves everyone
La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la
Stop the hating, please just stop the hating now cause God is love
Oh, whoa, la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la
Are Women Human? 
I don’t know if you’ve ever read the book “The Shack”, but I always find it funny that part of its huge controversy is that God is portrayed as a black woman. I find it especially hilarious when people argue, “It’s wrong because it’s not Biblical! God has no gender! He’s a *he*!”
Um, last I checked, “he” would denote a gender.
Sometimes I feel like calling God “It” – not disrespectfully, but accurately, to conjure up the image of God as a genderless spirit – but I know I would offend most Christians to the point that they would never listen to anything I had to say again.
If God is just a man who looks and acts exactly like American Christian culture would say he does – then he is a very small, meaningless God, and I have no real desire to worship him.
I just started reading it and was actually thinking about blogging through the book. I remember all the pearl-clutching and hysteria that folks like Al Mohler and Mark Driscoll were doing when it first became popular.
Sometimes I feel like calling God “It” – not disrespectfully, but accurately, to conjure up the image of God as a genderless spirit – but I know I would offend most Christians to the point that they would never listen to anything I had to say again.
These days I generally try to avoid using any pronouns. Just “God.” Though I quite like the idea of calling God “she,” partially ’cause, I won’t lie, it gets complementarians’ panties in such a bunch.
If God is just a man who looks and acts exactly like American Christian culture would say he does – then he is a very small, meaningless God, and I have no real desire to worship him.
Bingo. I think many American Christians are really oblivious to – or in some cases frankly don’t care – that what they think of “Christian” is really spiritualized Americanism. As with so much of our provincialism this is something that would be significantly addressed by being more knowledgeable about other cultures and spending more time in other countries.
I still have too much conditioning in my head to be able to refer to God as “she”. The idea of “she” within the context of anything spiritual or powerful still makes me wince with the automatic thought of “heresy!” Slowly (and painfully) I’m getting that out of my head, but it’s surprisingly hard to realize femininity can be revered just as much as masculinity.
It’s something I’ve always found interesting – Christianity was birthed inside a culture that is so far away from American culture; and yet so many Christians believe that present day beliefs and practices are absolutely correct and have never altered since the beginning of the religion. I can understand why – I’ve found it really hard to find books about early church history that doesn’t have such a bias one way or another that I’m not certain how much of the information is accurate. But for how much American Christians place their absolute, unwavering faith in current religiosity, so little actually know where these beliefs originated from and how long they’ve actually been around.
Hehe, I didn’t say I was able to refer to God as ‘she.’ ;) I’ve done it maybe a handful of times, and my reaction to it is pretty much yours. I think this is one of the more subtle kinds of damage traditionalist Christianity does to women, making it impossible for us to identify any part of our gender identity with God. That’s, well, evill.
But for how much American Christians place their absolute, unwavering faith in current religiosity, so little actually know where these beliefs originated from and how long they’ve actually been around. Indeed.
Oops, that last comment was me – I typically go by a nickname online, but sometimes forget. Sorry about that! :)
No worries, I’ll just edit it to use your usual handle!
Oh, I just loved that first video. It made me smile. I’m glad they included Pat Robertson. And everyone else.
Thanks for posting it :)
Thanks for the comment and welcome to the blog, Lindsey! Glad you enjoyed the video; it makes me smile too.