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The use of feminist language and imagery in Christian worship is especially dangerous because it places a further obstacle in the way of an appreciation of the theological meaning of gender. Such appreciation is necessary if we are to begin to overcome the feminization of Western Christianity. Masculinity plays a central role in Judaism and Christianity, and men can be shown that Christianity does not want to convert them into pseudo-women, but help to fulfill the deepest meaning of masculinity. In Christ men should be able to see what it is to be a man.
Ecce homo, et ecce vir. The powerful currents of masculinity, especially the admiration that verges on eros that men feel for the exemplars of masculinity, the athlete and the soldier, can be directed away from crime, violence, and quasi-fascist nationalism into a relationship with God in Christ. The Church will benefit, men will benefit, and society as a whole will benefit. A key to beginning this work is to use the language of Scripture rather than a language constructed by feminists, because in the religion of the Word made flesh words can be both creative and destructive.
more.from God has no daughters
I read that and thought, “Huh?”
Jesus came as a man, yet what did he do? He washed feet…in other words, he did what the holy *women *would have done without thinking twice about it. He taught an authority that serves. He did not hold himself apart from women, but conversed freely with the woman at the well in a way that was unthinkable in his time. She became his ambassador, straight away. She, who was both feminine and notorious sinner, spread the news of Jesus Christ and the love of God. That totally turned everything upside down that the Jews understood about not just men and women, but about saints and sinners. Look, too, at his relationship with his Mother. It was not a separation that distanced him from her influence. Even after the Finding in the Temple, he was not above obedience to his parents. His was true masculinity. His mother’s was true femininity. She was no wilting violet, that one. Her
Fiat! could have gotten her stoned. What God asked, she did, and without delay or equivocation, nor after consultation with humans. What she needed, she asked of God; then she trusted. She was a brave woman. Totally brave, totally docile to the Holy Spirit, and rightly called the Model of Christians. All Christians, not just the ladies!
The athlete and the soldier are not the exemplars of masculinity. The priest is, and the apostle. And who is Queen of Apostles and Priests? His Mother; that is who Christ set over them as their guide to conformation with His masculinity. That is why I think that Jesus chose only men as priests. It is because of the particular way in which masculinity and masculine authority are in need of transformation by the Gospel.
I think the use of the emphatically female pronoun is to be avoided because it is reactionary. It makes the same mistake too many people make in interpreting the masculine pronoun as emphatically male, and just points it the other way.
In God, the masculine and the feminine are perfectly reconciled. There is neither male nor female. Therefore, it is nonsense to say we are all made sons and none made daughters. That gets it exactly backwards. In Heaven, all are like the angels, who neither marry nor are given in marriage…male and female aren’t along the lines we who are fallen think they are. If you say “all are made sons”, you have to mean it in the same way that you mean when you use “he” to describe God. The Holy Spirit is not male, and neither will women who attain Heaven become men. Our Blessed Mother is still a woman!!
God, who has all, did not disdain poverty and need, for our sake. God, who is three Persons, does not need to submerge personality in order to dominate. That is not the way the authority of the Father or the obedience of the Son or the fellowship of the Holy Spirit work. Likewise, male and female are not intended to be at odds. We are made in the image and likeness of God…we, the Body of Christ are intended to be the knitting together of that image broken by original sin. Marriage is a foreshadowing of this. That is where we learn what God meant the male and female to be: not on the sports field or the battle field, but from our parents, who give all that love demands, for both children and spouse.
It is a huge mistake to try to re-make fallen men into fallen women, and think that accomplishes something. Our model should not be the opposite sex, but Christ, and his Mother.
It’s almost as if I wrote the above post!!! 