A committee in the Episcopal Church (EC) met July 4 to begin the process of revising the denomination’s Book of Common Prayer. (Because nothing celebrates Independence Day like a church committee meeting). According to the Episcopal News Service, the committee heard fervent testimony from individuals who believe it is time for the EC to produce an inclusive-language revision “to correct the overwhelming use of masculine language to refer both to God and to human beings. . . .”
In all fairness, The Book of Common Prayer is not the Bible. But it includes Scripture and uses readings from the Bible. So, the call to revise the Book includes calling for revisions of the biblical passages contained in the Book.
This move by the EC serves as a cautionary tale for all Christians and all denominations. Two issues stand out:
First, capitulating to culture always pulls us away from biblical truth. Always. The EC’s move to revise its Book is fueled by the cultural climate and not a desire to stay true to Scripture.
But second, the real question is, how does God want to be envisioned? How does God want us to know Him and speak of Him? (Yes, my pronouns are a hint).
The ENS reports that, “Most of those who testified in hearings on prayer book revision resolutions called for new ways of talking about God that don’t rely on masculine nouns, pronouns or imagery.” Within the EC, the conversation away from masculine and “binary” language to speak of God is driven by a minority of loud voices who impose cultural values onto the denomination’s conversation.
For instance, Rowan Pantalena, a postulant from the Diocese of Connecticut, who defines himself as a “nonbinary trans person,” called for new liturgical language that doesn’t erase existing images from scripture and liturgy but expands upon them.
And Kathleen Moore, a seminarian from the Diocese of Vermont, said that in her work to evangelize young people, she tries to help them see that God is bigger than any human construct, but, she complained, gendered language gets in the way. “Let’s let God be God,” she said.
That’s hard to do when you won’t let Him be who He says He is.
The EC conversation is only possible because they have already downgraded the Bible. But if we still regard the Bible as God’s Word and its meaning as truth, we learn that God has defined how we should speak of Him: As our Father.
Yes, that is a masculine image. But God directly established that, in the created order, there are two genders, male and female (Gen. 1:27), and then He established our relationship with Him as that of children to a loving Father (for instance, Matt. 6:9). This is no small thing. If we believe Scripture is truth, then we see that God wants us to know Him, and He wants us to know Him in a particular way.
But, you might say, doesn’t the Bible picture God as a woman, such as in Luke 15:8-10? Yes, there and elsewhere Jesus uses that image to illustrate God’s love for the lost. But when He does so, He uses similes to show what God is like, but He addresses God as Father. That is, God the Father is like a woman looking for a lost coin. But He is our Father. Jesus always addresses God as Father and teaches us to do so as well.
Wait, you might say. Jesus was the product of a patriarchal culture. Of course He would have addressed God in male terms. Right?
Yes, His earthly life was influenced and impacted by His culture. But that is not the same thing as capitulating to the culture, especially in His message. He elevated women above cultural mores on several occasions, including pronouncements of His resurrection. Everything He did was already revolutionary. If He wanted us to address God as a gender-neutral Being, He would have said so. After all, what’s the worst that could have happened—that He be arrested and executed?
To be clear, the point is not whether God is male or female in the human sense. He is not. Instead, the point is the way our Creator made us, how He wants us to know Him, and what the Bible says about Him. When we turn our backs on that, we turn our backs on Him.
Jesus clarified why this happens, “You are mistaken because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God” (Matt. 22:29).
Whether it is a denomination at an official meeting, or it is you and me in the break room at work, when we capitulate to culture we always demonstrate our distance from God and His Word. Always.
After all, in His Word God tells you who He is. How can you “let God be God” when you won’t take His Word for it?
Well said! No problem following your thoughts.
Paul, Thank you!
First the book of common prayers, then what??
The Lord’s Prayer ???
Our “non binary being”, which art in “Eutopia”……
Well-put, Ritter! The slow slide away from truth ends in things that are just more and more bizzare.