Her Church
As requested, I reviewed this article on HerChurch.org and then I took it a step further and investigated the site itself. As might have been predicted, I am not as alarmed by this as either the poster or commentor who pointed me in this direction were.
This appears to be a similar concept to that which birthed some sects of Wiccans, such as the Dianic tradition. Self avowed feminists, HerChurch seems to act in direct opposition to the patriarchal standards of mos Christian faiths, and the doing of such is my only concern. One cannot build their beliefs based simply on contrasting an existing belief. Doing so does not separate them from the system in question, but in fact ties them just as strongly to it. If, then, this is what they are doing, I would be concerned for their ability to grow spiritually.
As for the question of choosing one or the other, my friend, I have to disagree. This isn't a matter of whose God wins. It is a matter of living as the Lord and the Lady would have you live, and giving honor and praise as best we can. Seeing as how I recognized myself that the Divine Feminine as missing from Christian practice, I obviously don't object to the attempt to reassert Her. That is, if you are doing that and not just making a show of it out of spite.
Just my two cents on religious life, or something close to it.
This appears to be a similar concept to that which birthed some sects of Wiccans, such as the Dianic tradition. Self avowed feminists, HerChurch seems to act in direct opposition to the patriarchal standards of mos Christian faiths, and the doing of such is my only concern. One cannot build their beliefs based simply on contrasting an existing belief. Doing so does not separate them from the system in question, but in fact ties them just as strongly to it. If, then, this is what they are doing, I would be concerned for their ability to grow spiritually.
As for the question of choosing one or the other, my friend, I have to disagree. This isn't a matter of whose God wins. It is a matter of living as the Lord and the Lady would have you live, and giving honor and praise as best we can. Seeing as how I recognized myself that the Divine Feminine as missing from Christian practice, I obviously don't object to the attempt to reassert Her. That is, if you are doing that and not just making a show of it out of spite.
Just my two cents on religious life, or something close to it.
posted by Wanderer at 3:39 PM
3 Comments:
Hey.
This reminds me of a version of the Bible that came out a while ago where they had gone through and removed all masculine pronouns and other masculine qualifiers, making "God the Father" "God the Cosmic Parent" (sound familiar? :)) and Jesus became the "Child of God" and all he's were ommitted. I never read this particular version, but it seems that the producers of it weren't as concerned with political correctness (which was there supposed goal) as undermining the basic tenants of the Christian faith. They weren't concerned with including women in our theology. After all, just because we call God our Father doesn't mean he is exclusively there for men, does it? Don't women have father's too? But I digress. My point it this. You are right to say that simply promoting a goddess because you don't like the Christian concept of a male God is counterproductive and brings you no closer to whatever actual diety is out there. Allow me to speak hypothetically for a moment. If I happen to find the Hebraic and Christian concept of God as a person offensive, why don't I just make him into a monkey or a spiderplant in order to distance myself from Christianity? Am I serving any one or anything other then myself and my own hatred for Christianity in doing so? Not really. There are those who genuinely believe in the goddess, such as yourself, and those who create a goddess just to thumb their noses at what they consider to be a masculine religion.
As for the your statement that the feminine divine is missing from Christianity, maybe so, but remember what the Bible says. "God created man in his own image. Male and Female, he created them." Some go overboard with this statement and start reading things into it that simply aren't there, but I believe that there are aspects of the male and the female in the God of the Bible (He often describes his love and longing for the people of Israel as birthpangs) and both sides of the parental equation can be satisfied without blasphemy or creating a new God, or a goddess counterpart to him. I say this cautiously, knowing that I can easily be attacked.
But I call God my Father because I believe that is what he told me to call him. That is how I believe that the God of the Bible, regardless of gender (which he created, by the way) wants his people to deal with him. Just a thought. I'll stop bothering you now.
BTW Thanks for the link. I like being known as one of "The Christians" It beats some of the other names I've been called.
God Bless.
ABR (Call me)
i guess this 'church' reminded me of way back when I was invited to join "the committee on the status and role of woman in the church" for the UM denomination. i recognized in the literature and liturgy put out by that group of United Methodists, some strong Wiccan ~ goddess worship traits, having been in that place before my reconversion to Christianity. my comment on it was, if that is how you see the divine, and how you choose to worship, then good for you, but don't call it Christian. Like Arthur R. says, simply promoting a goddess because you don't like the christian concept of a male God is counterporductive.
now how does this silly blog expect me to copy THAT word verification at so late an hour?
Apparently you succeeded at the word verification. To stroke my own mild ego, Arthur's comment that you referenced was actually in agreement with my own, so we are all on the same page on that one.
As I said, not knowing more than the website offers, I can't formulate a better opinion. In truth, if I could say (which I can't) that I totally disagree with them, I still wouldn't "bash" them for their way. Ultimately it is up to them to find the truth as they can, just as it is with the rest of us.
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