The RMS Office of the Bishop in partnership with leaders across the synod has created a community discussion guide to engage challenging topics as people of faith. Each week we will share a personal reflection on that week's featured social statement.
Learning New Language
Rev. Christine Higueria-Street
The verses from Revelation paint an image of creation restored, but it is the next verse that strengthens the fullness of what is to come. Nothing accursed will be found there anymore.(22:3a) Clinging to this vision is one of the reasons I wear black on Thursdays. It is a simple action to bring attention to the World Council of Churches Thursdays in Black campaign against gender-based violence. Our global community is a long way from ending the sins of our ancestors which are firmly entrenched and “normalized” in our lives today.
Centuries of patriarchy, sexism, racism, classism, and more are intertwined as a systemic social structure in dire need of dismantling so that healing can begin. As God’s beloved, we are called to “sin no more” and the hard work must begin with us. While sorting out the many facets of this complex issue, a good place to start is with something as simple as using inclusive language.
When I came across Gail Ramshaw’s book, God Beyond Gender, it gave me permission to think of God in much broader images than what I had learned. Today, I find that inclusive language to describe our triune God is liberating, creative, expansive, and enlightening. While the ELCA is committed to supporting developing inclusive language for liturgies, hymns, prayers, and educational materials, there are still some areas where we fall short and revert to our patriarchal and sexist heritage.
There is still much to do, and it starts with congregations willing to take steps in assuring that our children are taught who God is beyond the image of an old man in a distant heaven or that the Spirit is more like the wind and not a ghost. It takes learning new language to describe the images of God beyond human likenesses.
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