Conversion: The Feminist Impasse

Gospel reading: John 1.29-42
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"It was the false purity of ideology that I had to reject, in order to move toward the realistic give-and-take of community."
- Kathleen Norris

In seminary we fought over pronouns. I imagine that every group of specialists has its own arcane fields of battle. At Morning Prayer there was an ongoing battle between those who edited out the masculine pronouns for God in their responses, and those who took great offense at the practice. Interestingly, people from both camps were convinced that those from the others were shouting their theological preferences during worship.

Some of us milquetoast sorts never actually heard any yelling in chapel. Maybe an increase in aural sensitivity accompanies increases in other sensitivities.

The debate was over 'inclusive' language. If it weren't among a bunch of seminarians - a group that takes itself far too seriously to begin with - conversation about how we talk about God could have been really fruitful.

The interesting and important notion at the bottom of the debate is that words both stand for things and do things. If I say, "Gingie" the word may mean nothing to you, but conjures the image of an aquaintance for me. That's how words stand for things, or better, how words stand between us and the things we're trying to identify or describe or address.

But words also do things. If someone named Gingie punctured your tires, another Gingie passed you a hot check, and your mother, Gingie, forced you to eat liver weekly, well, the next Gingie you meet has a little psychic baggage to deal with before she wins your favor.

When we're talking about God we should remember that words work in both of these ways. And that seminary tiff over language was about something important. The first thing we have to acknowledge is that our language isn't up to the task. The words, God, or Father, or Holy Spirit don't capture God. They just stand for God or point us in God's direction.

But it's just as true that the words we choose shape us. There was an experiment with elementary school children in which groups were asked to draw pictures. Girls in groups that were instructed to draw "firefighters" and "police officers" were much more likely to draw a female in these rolls than were girls who were told to draw "firemen" and "policemen." The words we use affect the images we carry. And if the words we associate with God are all masculine it affects the image of God we carry, no matter what we say we believe about God and gender.

The trouble is, that we can't flippantly change every name that we stumble over. If Gingie changed her name every time it offended someone because of an unfortunate encounter with one of her namesake we would soon lose all track of who it was we were talking about. People would have to just grunt and point in her direction. Which, come to think of it, might not be helpful to Gingie in the end.

These are the tensions that we need to explore in our language about God. Unfortunately, too often in seminary we let our language simply place us in a particular camp. We forgot that language is a tool we share with one another for exploring the mystery of God.

Kathleen Norris's phrase "false purity of ideology" is helpful. When we talk about language in the abstract we forget that it's meant for the "give-and-take of community". We get closer to the mystery of God when we struggle with our language together. If addressing God as 'she' gives me the willies, why is that? There's nothing in the Bible or the creed about using only pronouns of a particular gender. If addressing God as "Father" offends me, why is that? Is vaguer language always better?

The false purity of ideology is the notion that I can think of the best term for God all by myself. Which is not language. It's babble. The power of language is in its shared meaning. The power of language is in the way other people can join us in our musings. Language is about give-and-take. And the surely the most powerful changes feminism has worked in our world have had to do with placing women, too slowly and too seldom perhaps, but placing women persistently in roles where they have long been excluded. Placing women more fully in life's give and take where we are all changed at a deeper level.

Mercifully, I didn't stay in the ivory tower that is seminary forever. I don't find as many "ists" and "isms" among worshiping people out here. I find people just as passionate about the rights and roles of women. And people just as passionate about using our language faithfully in our search for God. But maybe there's a little less staking out of ideological territory. More room for give and take. Maybe even more room to be changed.