“Even when David wrote to God as Father, God was already Mother. God was already both. God was already neither,” one church leader said.
QUICK FACTS:
- A video shows the worship team at Austin New Church in Austin, Texas altering the chorus of the Housefires’ “Good, Good Father,” a Christian worship song featuring Pat Barrett, instead singing “Good, Good Mother.”
- In addition to using feminine pronouns during worship, the church’s Mother’s Day service also featured female pronouns being used for God in readings of Psalm 23 and the Lord’s Prayer.
- Creative Pastor Samantha Beach Kiley said about Psalm 23 that King David, the author of the psalm was writing “as if God were Father. How could he not?… That was the outermost tree ring of revelation during his time, but now we know better… We get to read our Scripture with a more expansive method of interpretation.”
- “Even when David wrote to God as Father, God was already Mother. God was already both. God was already neither. Even if David couldn’t see it yet,” she added.
- Lead Pastor Jason Morriss said that we should have always understood the “God-as-Mother” idea because “God is not contained in the binaries of our linguistic symbols.”
- “We have always known that God is relentless in pursuit…and unconditional in love. These are the hallmarks of mothering,” Morriss went on to say.
WATCH THE BAND SING “GOOD, GOOD MOTHER”:
WHAT ELSE KILEY SAID:
“We profess that we all bear the image of God,” Kiley said during her message, asking, “how can we see God in ourselves if we don’t see ourselves in God? If God is only male, if God is only white, what possibilities does that limit for those of us whose identity markers are different?”
