Ungodly gender

The Church of Sweden’s idea that clerics use gender-neutral language to refer to God is psychologically silly. Gender is embedded in lots of things that, strictly speaking, aren’t human. We can’t help ourselves. Ships, swords, cars and guns are instinctively referred to as women. Aeroplanes are ladies (Enola Gay), but if they carry a nuclear bomb they’re usually male (Little Boy).

Maybe that’s the point: it’s hard to separate God’s wrath in the Old Testament from our embedded ideas about masculinity. It’s also inelegant to neuter Him. What is to become of the lyrical trinity of father, son and holy ghost? The gender-neutral alternative doesn’t scan: “Thing, Thing’s progeny and Holy Thingummy”. As for what will be done with Adam and Eve and all that “hetero-normative” begetting in Genesis, well, the mind boggles.