This archive Sunday post by emeritus blogger Lisa B (not fMhLisa) was posted on August 20, 2005. To see the original post and comments, go here.
I don’t have the time I probably need to devote to this significant a topic, but feel the need to get it out there for discussion anyway.
One perplexity I have faced as I work through some of my “church issues” is the following: the family proclamation declares that gender is eternal and an essential characteristic of our identity and purpose. Ostensibly, my eternal identity is to become like my Heavenly Mother. But Jesus Christ, our Savior and Exemplar, is male.
Initially I felt more resistance to the Savior idea. The scriptures emphasize the importance of Jesus’ mortality: that he experienced the hurts, pains and losses common to humanity seems essential to his ability to atone for us. Modern church leaders have gone so far as to say that he bore the pains of every man, woman, and child. I do not mean to be disrespectful, but–Really? Menstrual cramps? Miscarriage? Rape? Labor and birth?
Initially, my response to my angers about the abuses of patriarchy is to simply ditch the whole institution. Let men have their inspiring brotherhood. Let women create their own sisterhood. The early Relief Society was much more along these lines (even into the 40s), with their own life-long leadership, publications, programs, and curricula, but even then still not as autonomous as I would like.
Throwing out the baby with the bathwater sounds good on paper. But there’s one problem. I have been converted by Christ. I was filled with the Spirit when I took upon myself the name of Jesus and was baptized. I have felt the power of redemption since then. I have called upon his holy name and felt immediate and powerful effects. I have been, as a country/bluegrass gospel song declares, been “touched by Jesus.” So actual experience trumps theory on the question of salvation for me, but that still leaves the question of the Exemplar problem.
Recently I’ve considered the way some of my personality, strengths, and traits have shown up in both my son and my daughter and thought that surely Jesus represents both of our Parents for us. In this way, I can look on the scriptures wherein Jesus uses maternal or otherwise womanly imagery to describe godly behaviors less critically and with greater acceptance. But that still doesn’t completely answer the question if gender is an essential characteristic and all, how can Jesus, a glorified Man, represent a glorified Woman (Heavenly Mother) for all the Daughters of God for whom female god(ess)hood is their destiny? This is the area that is the stickiest for me still. The question of which aspects of gender are essential, or what that really means. And how this can be the case at the same time that there is “no male or female” in Christ. Any thoughts?