ELCA's Living Lutheran Christmas edition: "Mothering God" and the "rut" of referring to God mostly as Father

(The following article was written by Rev. Tom Brock of pastorsstudy.org. You can follow Pastor Brock on Facebook - here and Twitter - here.)

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America continues to push for a feminist understanding of God and a diminishing of God the Father in its December, 2021 edition of Living Lutheran, the official magazine of the ELCA. In an article entitled "A Gift of Ministry: Embracing mom–pastors and a mothering God" the magazine quotes from ELCA Pastor LeeAnn Pomrenke's book "Embodied: Clergy Women and the Solidarity of a Mothering God". She writes "When I began recognizing the mothering behavior of God in my own experience, it made me feel less alone...We have fallen into a rut in referring to God mostly as "Father" in the church..."

One must ask: Was Jesus in a rut when He taught us to refer to God as Father? Never once did Jesus refer to God as "Mother."

Are we in a rut praying regularly "Our Father", the prayer our Lord taught us to pray? Do the people running the ELCA know more about God language than Jesus Christ?

Another article in Living Lutheran written by Karoline Lewis, preaching professor at Luther Seminary, talks about God revealing "God's self". It is normal to talk about God revealing "Himself," but that is too patriarchal so now a new phrase has been invented. Living Lutheran magazine regularly eliminates masculine pronouns for God, using "God...God...God.." instead of "God...He...etc."

This de-sexing of God language has been going on for a long time in the ELCA, the Presbyterian Church USA, the Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church, and the United Church of Christ, but at its last national assembly the ELCA voted to officially declare itself in favor of more "expansive and inclusive" language for God.

The liberal mainline Protestant denominations are shrinking, and they should. Any denomination which is embarrassed by 'Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" language and desires to "expand" beyond it does not deserve to exist.

Sincerely in Christ,

Pastor Tom Brock

See here.