More than twenty years of teaching high school religious studies – twelve in all girls’ schools – combined with my own spiritual/intellectual/emotional/professional evolution, make me more eager than ever to advocate for changes in the way we teach and talk to girls about God. Most children and teens are given the impression that God is an old white man. The message is transmitted indirectly in many ways: Catholic school religion classes, youth ministry programs, Church life, masculine pronouns and metaphors used for God, the almost exclusively male images of the divine, the depiction of heavens filled with male whiteness, and the masculine language dominating Church doctrine.
Girls don’t just have a hard time seeing themselves in God’s image – many find it hard to see themselves in the Church at all. There’s a lack of meaningful roles for them. Their voices and visions aren’t cherished. Their needs are not prioritized. This consolidation of white male power goes back a long way but it was consolidated during the Reformation which “enforced the need for apologetical theology and a closed system of power and authority. The clergy were trained in such an environment, giving rise to an elitism, as if their well-honed philosophical arguments and theological methods gave them private access to God over the hoi polloi.”(Ilia Delio) The absence of women in the institutional Church – and the embedded ideology/imagery of white maleness can shift. At Carondelet we may think that because we empower our students inside and outside the classroom and are fully committed to their liberation, that they wouldn’t be vulnerable to this religious oppression, but that’s not true. Inspiring our students to activate a new Christian culture is possible but it will take a lot more intentional work.
Yes: Christianity developed in a patriarchal society.
Yes: the historical Jesus was male.
Yes: Jesus used male analogies when describing his relationship to God.
Yes: only men – almost all white men – have held leadership positions in the Church.
Yes: our theology was developed by men who wrote the gospels & letters, and the early “Fathers of the Church” who explained scripture, and male theologians interpreting that tradition.
Yes: Catholic scripture and tradition have contributed to this misconception by systematically referring to God in masculine terms.
But God is Spirit – the Spirit who created the universe 13.8 billion years ago – God is Being/Consciousness Itself – God is “I Am Who Am” – God is Mystery – God is Love. God is the Christocentric Energy who took on flesh 2000 years ago in a remote region of the Roman Empire in a male body. However, the maleness of Jesus is not a “revelation of the maleness of God nor of the divinity of males – but a free self-emptying by which he participated in the oppressor class of humanity, thereby definitively undermining not only patriarchy but all forms of oppression derived from it”. (Sandra Schneiders)
God has no gender, race, ethnicity, color. And Catholic education can’t keep perpetuating the same ideology/aesthetic/sensibility. Our understanding of God, humanity, creation, and religion has evolved – but the structures of the Catholic Church and the way we talk and teach about God haven’t. We need to shift what is passed on through our social, cultural, religious especially educational institutions to reflect this change. Our girls deserve it and need it.
What are the consequences when girls are inundated with messages that God is old, white, and male? What is the impact when girls don’t feel valued in the institutional Church? I’ve observed that they can lose the inclination to see themselves as God-like – holy and sacred – and they lose interest in participating in Church life. I’ve been asking students for years and it always makes me weep. Below are some of the responses I got last week from my sophomores (I can share the full peardeck responses with you if you’re interested). See for yourself.
I don’t want to perpetuate the transmission of this old paradigm. I do try every day to talk and teach and pray and engage differently. I believe we are creating a different culture at Carondelet. Edie and the Campus Ministry team have taken a huge step this year by emphasizing inclusive language in our prayers and liturgies – and in our embrace of the “Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier” formula for prayer (which does not substitute female imagery for the divine). Our programming celebrates the CSJs who advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion. In the Religious Studies department we are revising our curriculum to empower out students to explore God’s love and consciousness in fresh ways, interpret scripture, critique patriarchal designs, zoom out to see the bigger cosmological view of Salvation history, and envision themselves as change makers in herstory.
All of us can contribute to this shift. When we pray, teach, and worship we can and should use a variety of sacred images and symbols so that one (the old, male, white one) is not prioritized over others. We can also be more aware of the symbolic nature of language and our use of male pronouns referring to God, perhaps calling God other names such as, Holy God, Creator God, Divine Mystery. I’m curious to hear your ideas – your thoughts – your perspective …
I live with the hope that God is doing new things in each of us, in Christian communities, in the Catholic church, in all wisdom traditions – in creation itself – calling us to unitive creative action and life and love and justice and healing and joy.
