On the subject of god, gender, and music

A note about names and references to God

While language is a wonderful tool that allows us to understand and to experience many different facets of life and religion, language can also be limiting. When it comes to references to God, we have been taught that God is a man. It's not surprising in a male-dominated society.  But we are beginning to see that people can now express their view of God in many ways.  Some see God as goddess or mother.  Others see God as father, brother, friend, counselor, or teacher. No matter how you view God, our language will always be somewhat limiting.  Even the use of the word "God" implies a male gender to a spiritual being or deity, which is so far beyond our human comprehension. 

It's human nature to try to label and categorize.  It is, however, tricky when we try to define the limitless.  Spirit, as we learn in Galatians 3:28, has no gender, no nationality, no race, no identity as we know it in physical form, and yet, this does not stop us from assigning our own human attributes to an invisible, immortal, omniscient, omnipresent being. To be "in Christ" is to let go of all those labels and be one in the Spirit.  But we still fall into the limiting, finite world of language and words to describe our understanding of this indescribable being. 

As a musician and worship leader, I try to avoid gendered references to "God".  I do not remove ALL references, because our language does not permit that, really.  For some people, God is a loving Father.  I also recognize that for many souls, the idea of God as Father might be problematic, if their own earthly father was problematic or abusive.  For many who suffered abuse by others in some form of earthly authority, it can be hard to relate to "god" as Father, Priest, or authority.  So, sometimes, I will substitute gendered language in our songs with gender-neutral language, if possible.  Sometimes, I substitute male words or pronouns with female ones, e.g. for "he", I might replace it with she, they, or You.  Sometimes I leave them in.  Because we all relate to God/Goddess/Creator differently.  

So don't be offended if someone refers to this immortal being as god or goddess or brother or sister, or friend or any other name, because the "I am that I am" defies all human labels. 

As another example, in the song "Good, Good Father", I replace the words "good, good Father" in subsequent choruses with "mother" or friend", so that in some way, each person might be able to relate to the Creator in a different way.  

Whatever language you are comfortable with, in describing the indescribable, use it with joy. And don't judge those who might use other language to describe the indescribable "I am that I am", because that is just how they relate to God/Goddess/Father/Mother/Priest/Friend. 

I'll write more in the future on re-writing old lyrics to try to remove references to Christ as "king, Lord, authority" etc, as Jesus was adamantly AGAINST having power over people or abusing authority.  These references seeped into the Christian language and worldview centuries after Jesus died. And we can still see the malicious, destructive threads still working their evil in our world today: social injustice, gender inequality, ecological domination, devastation of other species and ruination (yes, I just used "ruination", mwah ha ha!), the growing disparity between rich and poor, etc.