Well, I suppose this character really is sexless

[ErrolTheDragon]

So should God (Christian version) be described in ungendered terms?

As an atheist, I'm inclined to say sure, why not, except it seems like just fashionable window-dressing on centuries of patriarchal misogyny.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/church-england-he-him-pronoun-gender-neutral-alternatives-7n0n0sddf?shareToken=2eb5cd2b2444f48391ae631f8c754b43

For all my life, I have complained about viewing God as male. Why not female? It’s ironic they only want to go gender neutral to make men happy - would never do it for feminist reasons.

I used to be part of a feminist theology group and we spent a lot of time de-patriarchising the scriptures. a lot of the metaphors and imagery about God is female, and maleness is imposed by sexist translations.

Lots of priests prefer to use gender-neutral language not because of anything about trans issues but because well more than half of the congregation in most churches is female. however in the Church of England there are strict rules about wording for some prayers and at ordination priests have to promise to only use authorised prayers when celebrating the sacraments, so getting gender-neutral words officially authorised is a good thing.

I much prefer "Creator, Redeemer and Comforter" to describe the trinity myself, rather than Father Son etc.

I’m an atheist with no skin in the game but it’s gonna mess up the lyrics for a heck of a lot of hymns.

And how does the ‘God the Father’ bit work?

I accept that the Holy Ghost can be gender unspecified tho!

I was always angry about God being 'male', even as a child. Now I'm cross about God being 'gender neutral'.

But it's the reasoning behind it that so pisses me off, and the timing. It's about gender identity ideology and nothing to do with the truth, or evening things out after centuries of male-centredness. It's about appeasing those in certain quarters and nothing to do with equality.

Also, but rich of the CoE to be ungendering hymns and prayers when they still don’t do same sex marriage (unless one spouse is trans and it looks like a heterosexual marriage)

*bit rich.

Meh. One made up way of explaining the world co-opts another. You have to take both on faith, as neither has any foundation in reality.

I’d rather neither ‘religion’ existed, but I hadn’t realised that the CoE was THIS desperate to remain relevant.

I’m amused at the thought of hundreds of elderly vicars constantly misgendering god.

They must have so much stuff memorised that the potential for slipping back to using His dead pronouns is huge.

Also, will they be capitalising They/Them, the way god gets a capital He/Him?

They must have so much stuff memorised that the potential for slipping back to using His dead pronouns is huge.

His?

Atheist. Has always irritated me that god is assumed to be male, though.

It makes you wonder - just how powerful is this new ideology to be able to influence and change anything said about God?! What's next 'the virgin birthing person'?

Having read chunks of the bible it strikes me that the assumption that God (if he exists) is a bloke is spot on.

I was going to say that I’ll be sticking to sex based pronouns for God the Father but then I remembered… virgin birth.

Best just never to mention God again, I reckon!

This, there may have been a smidge of swearing at the tv this morning

Ridiculous of the Daily Mail to stick this on the front page, they're getting as crazy as the Telegraph in their desperation to find squirrels to point at rather than the actual government being crap.

I thought this hoary old argument was done to death in the 80s. I hope it's a step towards disestablishment because eventually, surely, rampant homophobia is going to split the Anglican communion abd the sooner the better.

Jesus has always been presented as male and let's face it a female in that area in those times? Would have been stoned to death

The most likely explanation is jesus was male

I have always hated that "god" is male. Si yes I think this is a good thing *Disclaimer I am an atheist

I'm with Marx. Freedom from religion rather than tinkering at the edges.

He definitely behaves like a violent, vengeful wanker!

God the Parent?
Parent, Child and Holy Ghost?

God is genderless in any apophatic theology, which has a long history in Christianity, and which in some sense is considered the most accurate way of describing God.

One of the things apophatic theology is meant to make clear is that any words we apply are in a sense, approximations. God is certainly not male, nor a father in the usual sense of the word. The conclusion you could draw is that in general, the image of father is seen as closer to our relation to God than the image of mother. In some part that's probably because of the lack of physicality in that relation.

The CofE gave up any intellectual seriousness decades ago though. No one looks to them any more for solid theological thinking. They're a joke.

This

Do we think that god stomps off in a strop each time they is misgendered?

Mother Julian of Norwich experiences God as both Father and Mother in her visions. Her book , A Shewing of God's Love was the first written in English by a woman.