Father God, Abba Father, Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

It almost makes me think of God wearing a leave it to be ver sweater throwing footballs

in the yard.

It's American as apple pie.

God is so clearly a man, right?

But there's something interesting about biblical images and metaphors of God as a Father.

The ancient people in the Old Testament and 1st century had a fundamentally different

understanding of human reproduction than we do today.

You'll see very often in the Bible, it refers to a man's seed and a seed is planted where

in a garden to grow.

And at that point, what is a garden?

It's a host.

Where does a seed come from?

Well, in biblical times, from the Father.

So we use these older metaphors for God, an ancient understanding of reproduction, and

then project that on to the divine.

I don't think it's any mystery to the people in this room or even listening all across

the world that today we think of women differently than people did in biblical times.

It's almost universally frowned on to think of women as property, for example.

It would be rather unacceptable to kill someone and then take their bride as a second bride

of your own.

The way we think about the sexes and gender is changing dramatically and yet our metaphors

...