I am not entirely sure if this fits here properly, or if it should be merged with another thread.
In any event, as I was doing my news rounds I came across this article in which a group of young catholics were looking to add a "+" or an "*" to the word God in order to make it gender neutral... which leads me to several observations.
Not that I believe the catholic church needs my defense, but it struck me as sad to see a group of young people supposedly invested in understanding the world through a religious viewpoint, in which God transcends physicality, reducing God (the idea) to the physical existence, viewed through an ideological lens, of mere humans.
I understand that the conception of god changes through the ages, and it is adjusted to events and social moments in history, and perhaps this is what we're seeing with this type of efforts, another sing of the times. A young and confused crowd whose efforts and mental energy is being spent in finding oppression everywhere, and so since they're catholic, they'll find it in their catholic believes.
There's something rather symbolic and poetic about this situation though, and it reminded me of the story of Lucifer as most popularly understood, an arrogant and vain angel who fell from grace. If attempting to make god a gender neutral entity, not because of an understanding of existence beyond this physical realm, but because of an ideology is a vain as I have heard it in a long while.
In any event, as I was doing my news rounds I came across this article in which a group of young catholics were looking to add a "+" or an "*" to the word God in order to make it gender neutral... which leads me to several observations.
Not that I believe the catholic church needs my defense, but it struck me as sad to see a group of young people supposedly invested in understanding the world through a religious viewpoint, in which God transcends physicality, reducing God (the idea) to the physical existence, viewed through an ideological lens, of mere humans.
I understand that the conception of god changes through the ages, and it is adjusted to events and social moments in history, and perhaps this is what we're seeing with this type of efforts, another sing of the times. A young and confused crowd whose efforts and mental energy is being spent in finding oppression everywhere, and so since they're catholic, they'll find it in their catholic believes.
There's something rather symbolic and poetic about this situation though, and it reminded me of the story of Lucifer as most popularly understood, an arrogant and vain angel who fell from grace. If attempting to make god a gender neutral entity, not because of an understanding of existence beyond this physical realm, but because of an ideology is a vain as I have heard it in a long while.
Düsseldorf - A Catholic association may want to write God with gender asterisks in the future.
The spelling would then be "God *".
Another option that is currently being discussed is “God +”, with a plus sign that could also be read as a cross.
All of this should make it clear that God cannot automatically be thought of as an old white man with a beard.
"We have not yet made a decision, but we definitely want to change something," said Rebekka Biesenbach, the spiritual leader of the Catholic Young Congregation (KjG), the German Press Agency in Düsseldorf.
"The central question is: What can we do to bring the image of God, which is very masculine in many places, back into the diversity it deserves?"
Catholic youth want to gender God
In spoken language you could say the asterisk or the plus if necessary.
“We are currently still forming a judgment on this.” Decisions could be made at the next federal conference at the end of March / beginning of April in Odenthal in the Bergisches Land.
There are several large youth associations in the Catholic Church.
According to its own information, the KjG represents around 80,000 members between the ages of around 9 and 25 years.
The issue of gender repeatedly causes heated debates: For example, students at the University of Kassel were threatened with lower grades * if they did not change.
Celebrities also like to get upset about gender-equitable language, such as the literary critic Elke Heidenreich, Scooter front man HP Baxxter or comedian Ingo Appelt.