This feminist crap should have no place in the referance to God, as He is the Father and Mary is the mother of Jesus, how can The Father be a woman?Jacks said:When I say God I just mean God...I believe in God in a similar way that muslims do, or at least to the extent to which I understand it. I've never believed in Jesus as being God as I believe that Jesus was on Earth to teach us how to better serve God, as a creation of God, but not God.
As far as what Jesus looked like goes the pictures of him are representations...to make it easier to comprehend the concept, since he was a real person Christianity isn't against having representations of Jesus. I understand that muslims reject anthropomorphic concepts of Allah and any notion of incarnation, and that it is a sin to do so, since the 112th Sura of the Qur’an expresses the unique nature of Allah “…there is none like unto Him.” Christians now are adopting the same idea, the only reason some Christians refer to God as anything specific such as male is because our religious texts are written and interpreted from a male perspective. Though we are now beginning to understand that limiting God to ‘male’ denies the fullness of God and diminishes God. Feminist theology deals with these ideals, though you'd probably have to study it to understand what I'm saying. While we may seem to have models of divinity (representations of God) we do still understand that God isn't male, can't be represented by anything or anyone...similar to what Muslims believe...younger children may be confused by references to Him etc...but if you really look into the religion many are trying to move away from such representations of God.
We celebrate the rising of Jesus from the dead...that is the idea of new life, rather than his death. Easter eggs obviously represent new life, you know. Though I agree Easter has become a lot more about eating chocolate than anything else, same goes with christmas, it's more about getting presents than the birth of Jesus...a lot of things have become commercial these days...it's good if you like presents and chocolates...but I don't eat chocolate :|
As for women in the ministery, i can see why its acceptable