Cheryl

To claim that God is male is idolatrous. Why? Because it would be making God in our image and bringing God down to our level is idolatrous. While God is not male, he can choose to relate to us as a Father relates to his children. Relationship must have a point of relating. That means that God as our Father must of necessity be “Father” in the realm of relationship and only relationship. God is our source and our ever present help and our caregiver. These are only a few ways in which he fathers us. To put “Father” in any other realm (such as God’s character or His essence) is to bring God down to our level.

You are right in that those who wish to stop women from ministering in the body of Christ often see God as male. If God is male then somehow males represent him more accurately than females do. If this were so, then how could men and women be equals? They couldn’t. We are told that men and women are equal in God’s eyes, not men’s eyes. But that wouldn’t follow. If men are the only ones to truly represent God because God is male, then females aren’t equal in God’s eyes either.