To open and close every prayer when I was little I was taught to say "in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit" while touching my right hand to my forehead, then my heart, then the left shoulder then the right shoulder. These words and movements were suppose to connect me to God by placing the three forms of God on different parts of my body. Now that I'm older this practice is now only practiced in front of my parents to show them I haven't forgotten my years of Catholic education. What I didn't realize until I was older was how my Catholic schooling exposed me to a male God. They never said God was a man but they told me he was my Father and he had a Son that was him too but in human form. We always said he when talking about God and anyone who said she was received with chuckles. I got to know this omnipresent force as a man because God was always described to me in masculine terms.
I see this understanding of God as a patriarchal society's conception of divinity and things inexplicable. They need to describe God as male because in those societies men hold the power, and God is all powerful. To understand something as complex as God societies had to understand it and explain it to themselves as something more concrete. Man is what they came up with. This used to bother me until I was exposed to the Quran.
Through reading the Quran and seeing the use of feminine pronouns and feminine words, the holiest book of Islam is able to paint a fuller picture of God. God in Islam is a father to no one but the creator of all. This idea of a genderless or "genderful" God allows me to better understand God's presence in all life.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSerafina’s point that God is portrayed in the Catholic church as a male and his teachings in the church seem to be catered to males matches what most people think. However, this can create a toxic environment for women. It does not necessarily allow for proper open-mindedness in women in Catholicism as more than simply secondary beings.
ReplyDeleteYou're right that women are secondary beings in the Church. Its evident in the fact that only men can receive holy orders. Women make Catholics and that is their role. In my experience making Catholics takes a lot of devotion and this is why I believe I see a lot more women at mass when I go with my family than there are men.
DeleteI think the concept of gender-full-ness is very interesting, because traditionally couples are viewed as halves that complete each other. If, then, gender is on a spectrum, then the half model does not work, and each individual is a reflection of the Creator's wholeness.
ReplyDelete