Gender of God

Re “Our Father Figure Who Art in Heaven,” Column Right, Aug. 14:

I disagree with Dennis Prager’s arguments for continuing to depict God as a solely masculine being. If 4,000 years of Judeo-Christian morality based on accountancy to a male God has given a culture in which, as Prager notes, “boys take rules” only “from men” and men commit violent acts against women more often than women do against them (Prager, again), maybe there’s a connection.

Isn’t it possible that if we taught children to conceive of God as a creator in whom both the divine feminine and the divine masculine principles are united, they might grow up more capable of giving equal respect to authority figures of both sexes? Why not give a non-patriarchal, dual-gendered deity a chance for, say, 500 years? If by then boys are still refusing to obey their mothers, if ideas expressed at meetings are still being accepted more readily if a man expresses them (even if he’s only repeating exactly what a woman said moments earlier), if men are still justifying rape by saying, “She said no, but she meant yes,” well, then, there’s always the Goddess--she who has feminine but not necessarily “decent” ways of dealing with man’s insolence.

VICTORIA BRANCH

Encino

* Being a female but not a feminist (and coincidentally a Presbyterian), I laud Prager’s views against the re-imaging of God as a female deity, which is now the subject of a recent Presbyterian conference. I also see the rationale of Prager’s opinion that the Bible is written within a patriarchal context for the purpose of igniting moral behavior in us.

Since my childhood, my perception of God has always been in masculine terms. We grew up in the tradition that the father was the head of the family, the one who wielded power, and who made the final decision. In retrospect, when we disobeyed our father, we feared his ire and we behaved.

Masculinity, physical strength, warrior qualities and being rule-oriented make males more akin to a God who is the father and the ruler. We females should not feel discriminated against because of a male depiction of God, but consider ourselves as creatures essential to males because we complement them with our virtues of kindness and compassion.

ELOISA L. SAN MIGUEL

Hacienda Heights

* Prager is definitely from the planet Mars. Does he really believe that violent behavior among men will increase in our society if we use gender neutral or feminist words to describe God rather than the tradition masculine terms found in the Bible? If the goal of Judaism and Christianity can be reduced “to taming the evil beast in men,” then historically each religion has not done a very good job achieving its objective.

ELLIOT FEIN, Director

Religious Education, Congregation Eilat

Mission Viejo

* Prager admits that God is neither male nor female, yet he is insistent on naming God as exclusively male, thereby deifying a gender. This is idolatry.

In addition, he has the audacity to threaten women with the wrath of men and boys if they don’t have a male god to subdue them. Sorry, Dennis, your masculine pride is showing. The issue in keeping God male is not one of morality but of power.

JEAN ROBERTS

Long Beach