Seems Like God…

I originally wrote this article with those who organize worship in mainline churches in mind. 

It seemed to me that we’re so creeped out by conservative evangelical use of the “Father God” stuff (and rightly so, in my opinion) that we spend way too much time convincing people we don’t see God that way. If it takes us thirty minutes to explain why our understanding of God has nothing to do with a bearded guy on a cloud, we’re going to spend all of our time talking to ourselves. This is, like it or not, a Twitter world.

Rather than deny what is arguably still the most identifiable image of God to western cultures, we’d be farther ahead to embrace the image and change the message, the way the bearded white guy in a toga has been adopted by popular culture. For instance, this clip from an episode of Family Guy:

There’s a reason that God is depicted the way “he” is in that fifteen second throwaway bit – no lengthy explanation of who they’re talking about is required.  What the writers and producers of shows like Family Guy, the Simpsons, and others have done is to take a stereotype image – “shorthand” – for God, and attached a new message to it. So God is zipping around Heaven on a rocket sled or rummaging around a record store, or whatever.

This is not the hellfire and brimstone God; the guy hurling lightning bolts and eternal damnation. It’s a very human God.

We can argue that this isn’t an accurate depiction of God either; that in fact God is indescribable, beyond comprehension, and so on. And of course that’s true. This image is not “God”; it’s “Zeus-god.” It has more in common with the head of the Greek pantheon than it does with the Creator of all Things.

But the institutional church is in a crisis of attendance (as is, it should be noted, most other major world religions). We ignore, in my opinion, this “brand” logo at our own peril.

So why don’t we take a different approach? Why don’t we celebrate it? Not in the conservative, evangelical way. Why don’t we embrace the levity? the humanity? I’ve heard it said that if we could just get people inside the church, we could show them that we’re “not like that any more.” A God who is “just a slob like one of us”, as the Joan Osborne song goes, is not only familiar but welcoming. After all, who wouldn’t want to spend a weekend power sledding with the Big Guy??

All around us, people are using old images in new ways, reinterpreting old traditions into new spiritualities.

The church should, it must, do the same.

You might also be interested in my companion piece on the Golden Rule Radical, From Dogma and Doctrine to…