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So, what is God’s gender?

Catholic Church says gays are fuelling the controversy

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Catholic Church says gays are fuelling the controversy
 
NEW DELHI: Thou shalt not refer to God as He. The Church of England’s rethinking on the gender of God, and its new guidelines for bishops and priests blaming “uncritical use of masculine imagery” for encouraging men to behave violently towards women, have not found acceptance by the mainstream Catholic Church.
 
Stridently sticking to its stand that feminity cannot be ascribed to God, the Indian Catholic Church feels the controversy over the gender of God is inspired by the gays who stand to gain by erasing gender divide. It also suspects that the Church of England may be trying to ordain gays as priests.
 
Father Babu Joseph, spokesman of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI), the apex body of Catholic Church in India, told DNA, “The whole controversy is inspired by the gays. They are against traditional understanding of family and marriage and are trying to erase gender divide.”
 
“They (gays) challenge the heterosexuality concept,” he said adding that their “challenging of the understanding of social structure and concept of God is to legitimise their claim that gays are normal (people).”
 
“Church of England may be trying to ordain gays as priests,” he added.
 
But the gays are not amused. Hitting back at the Catholic Church, Rahul Singh, a gay activist and coordinator of Naz Foundation, called it Catholic Church’s “blaming agenda”.
 
 “Even if what the Catholic Church is saying is true, I don’t find anything wrong. They should look first at what is happening in the Catholic Church. What’s wrong if two persons from same sex are living together,” Rahul Singh said. “There are many concepts of family. Catholic Church should be in a position to accept all of them,” he added.
 
Father Joseph said “goal of sexuality is not just for self-indulgence. It is the central principle to build family relations. The purpose of life will be lost if there are no children.”
 
“The controversy is redundant. We cannot ascribe a gender to God. God is beyond categorization. For human’s categorization of understanding we ascribe gender, it is basically Judeo Christian tradition that speaks of  ‘Our Father….’
 
Asked if God is not He, what will be the gender of Devil, the CBCI official said, “We are not gendering the concept of devil. It is  personification of the evil that is present and operative in human life.”
 
“No religion definitely says God is male or female, you may have female deities,” he said.
 
 “All that is legal is not necessarily ethical. You can legalise abortion, euthanasia etc. but it is not morally acceptable to us,” he said.
 
Reacting to the controversy, the Church of North India general secretary Rev Dr Enos Das Pradhan admitted that a debate has begun over the gender of God but was not sure whether gays were behind it.
 
Pradhan said, the CNI does not endorse Church of England’s guidelines (on God’s gender) “but a debate has begun and I don’t know who initiated it.”
 
Women activists rubbish the charge. Ms Kirti Singh of left-wing All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) said, “Feminists also do not refer to God as He. God is a neutral entity, our patriarchal set up is behind attributing male concept to God.”
 
His story
 
In countless references to God in the Scripture, there is a consistent pattern of Him being referred to with masculine titles, nouns and pronouns.
 
Later, this practise permeated into everyday usage and humans began referring to God as ‘He’.
 
The most famous example being the painting by Michelangelo depicting God creating Adam
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