Zwagmeister

Amen.
God is also “bread”, a “door”, a “light”, a “vine”.
yet no one takes those metaphors to their full ‘literal’ degree. Sarah Sumner makes some good points on the way in which we should/shoud not understand the use of metaphors/similies in the Scriptures in her book “Men and Women in the Church.
Still – it’s a major ‘sticking point’ for many complementarians that they just ‘cant’ see past!

if women, as the scriptures clearly say, is indeed made in the image of God (Gen 1:26) then how can God be ‘only’ male. although God is not a reflection of ‘me’ as a human, i am a (partial/imperfect) reflection of him. i think the problem, as you mention is that we try to constantly bring God ‘down’ to fit into our little ‘boxes’ so we can understand him. yet this is indeed idolatry. michael kruse makes some good comments that are relevant on his blog…. (dec 18th 2006 http://krusekronicle.typepad.com/kruse_kronicle/2006/12/male_and_female.html. he quotes Francis Schaffer regarding what it is that differentiates us as being made in the image of God… Gender – since the animals and even some plant life etc have gender is certainly not in itself something that distinquishes as as being made in the image of God. So how can some make such a big deal out of God being supposedly “male”?

it’s just so illogical and unbiblical to say that God is ‘male’ (and ‘not female’). it literally pierces my spirit. it frustrates me that it’s not ‘obvious’ to everyone that such claims are totally flawed! may God give us (me!) patience and love while we learn to handle the Sword of Truth to cut through the millenia of patriarchal bias around us.

(-:
kerryn