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	<title>Comments on: beliefs</title>
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	<link>http://belovedschurch.org</link>
	<description>Called out of our isolation and into community, fumbling into God's grace, daring to listen deeply to the Spirit and each other, and freed by Christ to work, rest, dream, and play in God's kingdom, mysteriously engaging with the Trinity in healing the world.</description>
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		<title>By: Ryan</title>
		<link>http://belovedschurch.org/about-us/belief/comment-page-1/#comment-381</link>
		<dc:creator>Ryan</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sat, 18 Sep 2010 05:13:48 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description>Hey folks commenting about God and gender - take a look at our service archive called &quot;Our Mother Who Art In Heaven&quot;:  &lt;a href=&quot;http://belovedschurch.org/2009/05/11/our-mother-who-art-in-heaven&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://belovedschurch.org/2009/05/11/our-mother-who-art-in-heaven&lt;/a&gt;/&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;A point that&#039;s not included in that service is this - our scriptures do not have this debate in mind when it&#039;s writing to it&#039;s audiences - it&#039;s unfair to try and make it say that is does... even when uses male pro-nouns.  The scriptures are not saying, &quot;Hey, We are intentionally using male pro-nouns in order to weigh in on your gender debate.&quot;  Even the feminine example that Dubayd sites, which I really want help symbolize a point for the femininity of God, I&#039;m not sure that&#039;s what it&#039;s intended to say - rather it says, &quot;God wont forget you!&quot; and the prophet asks, &quot;How can I ignite the imagination of my hearers around this promise? I know, God is like a mother... even more than a mother.&quot;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;But we can certainly have a modern conversation about gender and language and power... but, for christians, you know exactly what God thinks about power because Jesus loves/serves his enemies and dies for them.  That&#039;s a good word to men who want to put women down and raise themselves up... and that&#039;s a good word to women who want to put men down and raise themselves up.  Christ is the great equalizer of persons who calls us to raise up the Other.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Hey folks commenting about God and gender &#8211; take a look at our service archive called &#8220;Our Mother Who Art In Heaven&#8221;:  <a href="http://belovedschurch.org/2009/05/11/our-mother-who-art-in-heaven" rel="nofollow">http://belovedschurch.org/2009/05/11/our-mother-who-art-in-heaven</a>/</p>
<p>A point that&#39;s not included in that service is this &#8211; our scriptures do not have this debate in mind when it&#39;s writing to it&#39;s audiences &#8211; it&#39;s unfair to try and make it say that is does&#8230; even when uses male pro-nouns.  The scriptures are not saying, &#8220;Hey, We are intentionally using male pro-nouns in order to weigh in on your gender debate.&#8221;  Even the feminine example that Dubayd sites, which I really want help symbolize a point for the femininity of God, I&#39;m not sure that&#39;s what it&#39;s intended to say &#8211; rather it says, &#8220;God wont forget you!&#8221; and the prophet asks, &#8220;How can I ignite the imagination of my hearers around this promise? I know, God is like a mother&#8230; even more than a mother.&#8221;</p>
<p>But we can certainly have a modern conversation about gender and language and power&#8230; but, for christians, you know exactly what God thinks about power because Jesus loves/serves his enemies and dies for them.  That&#39;s a good word to men who want to put women down and raise themselves up&#8230; and that&#39;s a good word to women who want to put men down and raise themselves up.  Christ is the great equalizer of persons who calls us to raise up the Other.</p>
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		<title>By: Dubayd</title>
		<link>http://belovedschurch.org/about-us/belief/comment-page-1/#comment-380</link>
		<dc:creator>Dubayd</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 15 Sep 2010 21:05:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://bestlives.net/wpress/?page_id=85#comment-380</guid>
		<description>I don&#039;t agree with lavali I think our earliest texts are pretty clear, but sister barbara...I understand your point.  The verse from Isaiah that tells of God saying &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;14But Zion said,(A) &quot;The LORD has forsaken me;&lt;br&gt;   my Lord has forgotten me.&quot;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt; 15(B) &quot;Can a woman forget her nursing child,&lt;br&gt;   that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?&lt;br&gt;Even these may forget,&lt;br&gt;   yet I will not forget you.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;but Jesus called God Father...and also I have some sensitivity to it I will do the same.  We should not judge our Father in heaven by the behavior of our own fathers, we should judge our own fathers by the love and compassion of our heavenly Father.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I don&#39;t agree with lavali I think our earliest texts are pretty clear, but sister barbara&#8230;I understand your point.  The verse from Isaiah that tells of God saying </p>
<p>14But Zion said,(A) &#8220;The LORD has forsaken me;<br />   my Lord has forgotten me.&#8221;</p>
<p> 15(B) &#8220;Can a woman forget her nursing child,<br />   that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?<br />Even these may forget,<br />   yet I will not forget you.</p>
<p>but Jesus called God Father&#8230;and also I have some sensitivity to it I will do the same.  We should not judge our Father in heaven by the behavior of our own fathers, we should judge our own fathers by the love and compassion of our heavenly Father.</p>
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		<title>By: lavali</title>
		<link>http://belovedschurch.org/about-us/belief/comment-page-1/#comment-316</link>
		<dc:creator>lavali</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 03 Jun 2010 20:30:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://bestlives.net/wpress/?page_id=85#comment-316</guid>
		<description>Also it&#039;s important to know that translations of the bible have removed (either through translation error or otherwise) many references to the feminine qualities of God, as in God giving birth to us and so on. Have you read John Crossan&#039;s discussions of the Apostle&#039;s Creed? Interesting stuff. In the meantime I think it helps to acknowledge the feminine qualities of God in our prayers and worship services ... but I agree we have some way to go ...</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Also it&#39;s important to know that translations of the bible have removed (either through translation error or otherwise) many references to the feminine qualities of God, as in God giving birth to us and so on. Have you read John Crossan&#39;s discussions of the Apostle&#39;s Creed? Interesting stuff. In the meantime I think it helps to acknowledge the feminine qualities of God in our prayers and worship services &#8230; but I agree we have some way to go &#8230;</p>
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		<title>By: sisterbarbara</title>
		<link>http://belovedschurch.org/about-us/belief/comment-page-1/#comment-205</link>
		<dc:creator>sisterbarbara</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 20 Aug 2009 01:20:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://bestlives.net/wpress/?page_id=85#comment-205</guid>
		<description>When the Apolstle&#039;s Creed is revised to include the feminine side of God, as in God the Mother as well as God the Father, perhaps God the Parent, as weird as it sounds, I will feel fully welcome in the church that is called Christian.  I believe that Jesus would approve of his Beloved taking the bold step to envision and speak the true equality of men and women that would reflect the truth of God&#039;s full embodiment of all that is Good in the male and the female aspects of God&#039;s divinity.  Just some food for thought as you grow... this issue is brought up so many times when I talk to people about why they have walked away from the organized practice of Christianity.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>When the Apolstle&#39;s Creed is revised to include the feminine side of God, as in God the Mother as well as God the Father, perhaps God the Parent, as weird as it sounds, I will feel fully welcome in the church that is called Christian.  I believe that Jesus would approve of his Beloved taking the bold step to envision and speak the true equality of men and women that would reflect the truth of God&#39;s full embodiment of all that is Good in the male and the female aspects of God&#39;s divinity.  Just some food for thought as you grow&#8230; this issue is brought up so many times when I talk to people about why they have walked away from the organized practice of Christianity.</p>
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		<title>By: sisterbarbara</title>
		<link>http://belovedschurch.org/about-us/belief/comment-page-1/#comment-127</link>
		<dc:creator>sisterbarbara</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:20:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://bestlives.net/wpress/?page_id=85#comment-127</guid>
		<description>When the Apolstle&#039;s Creed is revised to include the feminine side of God, as in God the Mother as well as God the Father, perhaps God the Parent, as weird as it sounds, I will feel fully welcome in the church that is called Christian.  I believe that Jesus would approve of his Beloved taking the bold step to envision and speak the true equality of men and women that would reflect the truth of God&#039;s full embodiment of all that is Good in the male and the female aspects of God&#039;s divinity.  Just some food for thought as you grow... this issue is brought up so many times when I talk to people about why they have walked away from the organized practice of Christianity.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>When the Apolstle&#39;s Creed is revised to include the feminine side of God, as in God the Mother as well as God the Father, perhaps God the Parent, as weird as it sounds, I will feel fully welcome in the church that is called Christian.  I believe that Jesus would approve of his Beloved taking the bold step to envision and speak the true equality of men and women that would reflect the truth of God&#39;s full embodiment of all that is Good in the male and the female aspects of God&#39;s divinity.  Just some food for thought as you grow&#8230; this issue is brought up so many times when I talk to people about why they have walked away from the organized practice of Christianity.</p>
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