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Subject: 
Re: Does God have a monopoly on gods?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date: 
Sun, 5 Mar 2000 03:24:03 GMT
Viewed: 
1091 times
  
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Ben Roller writes:
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Peter Callaway writes:
To answer your first question, Christians refer to God as "He" and "Father"
I don't mean to beat a dead horse on this issue, but I would insist that it
is "some Christians" or "most Christians" that refer to God this way.  Pete
implies that ALL do, and that is just not the case.  Calling God a male is not
a prereq for being a Christian.

In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Todd Lehman writes:
To a theist, would someone referring to God as It (rather than He) be
considered insulting, or would it be flattering since it acknowledged that
God is more than human and doesn't necessarily need a gender?

I think that most people I've talked to think of It as referring to objects
and feel that it's not appropriate for God.  It would be a lot easier if
English had a non-objectifing neutral gender pronoun, as I think a lot of
people would use that.  God says "We" in Genesis, so that suggests more than
just a plain Him or Her.

Ben Roller

I'll give the horse one more kick ;-)

To call yourself a Christian implies that you follow Christ. By it's very name
that is its meaning. Following Jesus IS a prereq for being a Christian. Jesus
called God "Father" and "He", so you draw your own conclusions.

Like I said before, the gender or lack of is not the defining aspect of God.
But since we don't have a non-objectifing gender-neutral pronoun, we use "He".
Taking the Lord's name in vain notwithstanding, I don't think He'll zap us all
to hell if we don't stick with this convention, but as previously stated, it's
just courtesy.

I think the "We" God refers to in Genesis is the Trinity. God the Father, Son
and Holy Spirit.


Pete Callaway



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Does God have a monopoly on gods?
 
(...) Jesus never called God She as far as we know. He never drove a car either. Does that mean that just because He didn't do it that we can't do it (along with the stuff that He did do) too? (...) So wouldn't "They" be more appropriate for us that (...) (24 years ago, 5-Mar-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Does God have a monopoly on gods?
 
(...) I don't mean to beat a dead horse on this issue, but I would insist that it is "some Christians" or "most Christians" that refer to God this way. Pete implies that ALL do, and that is just not the case. Calling God a male is not a prereq for (...) (24 years ago, 5-Mar-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

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