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From: pat@leadsv.UUCP (Pat Wimmer)
Newsgroups: mod.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Gender in religion
Message-ID: <8491@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Tue, 20-Jan-87 02:23:00 EST
Article-I.D.: topaz.8491
Posted: Tue Jan 20 02:23:00 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 20-Jan-87 20:42:35 EST
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Summary: Gender is an important tool in Christ's teachings

Before an decision on de-gendering the Bible, consider:

(1)  God chose to send Christ into the world, to redeem all of us.  This was
     a conscious decision, planned before the beginning of time.
(2)  Christ came into the world as a male, not a female.  The gender was God's
     choice, a conscious decision.
(3)  Gender was a powerful tool in many of Christ's teachings.  Consider the
     Parables of the Kingdom, for instance the seven wise brides, and the seven
     foolish brides.  That the bride-groom is Christ, and the Church is
     represented by the brides, is a powerful symbology.  To gain a deeper
     understanding of this symbology, a study of Jewish marriage rites and
     customs is very illuminating.
(4)  Paul often compared the Church to a bride, and Christ, the head of the
     Church, to a bride-groom.  In defining the spiritual authority between
     the Church and Christ as like the spiritual authority between a wife and
     husband, again, is powerful symbology.

De-gender efforts must observe the same strictures as any translation effort.
A passage of scripture is likely to contain numerous levels of meaning, some of
which may not necessarily be revealed to the interpreter, such as passages in
Revelation.  It would be an impossible task, were it not for the Holy Spirit,
because all aspects of a passage must be conveyed into the new language.