The Great (False) God, Masculinity

By Robert G. Hewitt

The world is deeply divided, theologically and philosophically, between the opposing claims of democracy and patriarchy. The question seems to be, “How much freedom and authority shall be allowed to women?” The extreme Taliban answer was, and is, “None!” In the American “democratic” state, the answer has softened since the nation's founding but, to date, continues to be, “Some, but not much!”

Authoritative patriarchal religious groups such as Roman Catholicism, Protestant Biblical Fundamentalism, Mormonism, and Islam quietly deny to women within their ranks many of the freedoms granted them under the United States Constitution. There is a serious movement among these groups, now that we have a moral cipher as president of the United States, to make changes in the Constitution designed to reduce the few freedoms and authorities that women have gained.

There is a similarly serious movement within the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion, pushed by the extreme patriarchalists among us, to return to a more patriarchal day. They bristled when women were allowed to be ordained; they went ballistic when they learned that gays were being ordained. They have, I believe, brought the worship (“worthship”) of the false god “Masculinity” into the very core of church life.

The following assumptions and commentaries are offered as a basis for communication in our theological and anthropological disagreements.

To speak of God as “He” is simply heretical, and is unfortunately understood by children as truth. Most people carry this heresy with them all their lives in their common speech, and that becomes an enormous barrier to understanding the relationship between God and humanity. It is the root of the anthropological heresies, and fictions, of  “masculinity” and “femininity.”

Four assumptions:

1. God is God, “wholly Other, and One.” Gender-specific pronouns are inappropriate when speaking of God, but if used for convenience because we have no pronouns for God, they must be understood as non-genderous, and non-sexual. In speaking of the Trinity, the use of  “Father” and “Son” does not indicate gender, but relationship. To speak of God as “He” is simply heretical, and is unfortunately understood by children as truth. Most people carry this heresy with them all their lives in their common speech, and that becomes an enormous barrier to understanding the relationship between God and humanity. It is the root of the anthropological heresies, and fictions, of  “masculinity” and “femininity.”
2. God is not male. God has no genitalia, and therefore has no partner of an “opposite” sex. God is not masculine. “Masculinity” is a fiction and a self-deception by the human male as he finds himself in the historical setting of a patriarchal culture. It leads him think and act as if he were destined to control women. Mythologically, masculinity is the result of the biblical “curse” placed upon the Man by God to rule over the Woman. Historically, it is the discovery of paternity, as opposed to the primitive understanding of female-only parentage. Soteriologically, male control of women ended in Jesus.
3. God is not female. For primitive people, God seemed female. We have their stone carvings, and myths, of “Goddesses” in evidence. But God is not feminine. Women, for our prehistoric ancestors, were the only apparent human providers of new children for the community. As with masculinity, femininity is a corresponding fiction that women are weak, addled, and destined to stay at home for domestic tasks, and ruled by men. At “The Fall,” motherhood, instead of continuing to be thought of as an attribute of God, became a patriarchal assignment from men who had suddenly learned that they were fathers of the children women were bearing. Men took upon themselves the honor of being, and the misconception that they were indeed, the sole human source of human life.
4. Men and women are made in the image of God. To look at a woman is to see an image of God. To look at a man is to see an image of God. To look at either is not to see God, but to see an image of God. In their bodies they “image” God equally. God is not better represented in one sex than in the other. Because masculinity and femininity are both self-deceptive (i.e., poses by a man or a woman to appear either superior or inferior, dominant or deferent), neither masculinity nor femininity can be an attribute of God. God does not represent himself or herself (there are those pronouns again!) deceptively to humankind.

Back to the beginning: God is God! Masculinity is every patriarchal society's favorite false god. Femininity is a subset within patriarchy of the same heresy. Unchangeable patriarchal-type leaders are, in my book, the most well-intentioned, dangerous persons in the world. That would include people like the Bishop of Rome, and James Dobson of Focus on the Family. They put the worthship of Masculinity before the worthship of the Lord Jesus. I say this not to be offensive, even to those gentlemen, but to follow the logic of my argument. The worship of the great idol Masculinity is alive and well among Christians, and in most other world religions, too.

The Rev. Robert G. Hewitt is an Episcopal priest in Colorado Springs, Col. He may be reached by email at hbobhewitt@aol.com .