Episode 83: They/Them
Lemuel: I am Lemuel Gonzalez, repentant sinner, and along with Amity Armstrong, your heavenly host, I invite you to find a place in the pew for today’s painless Sunday School lesson. Without Works.
Amity: During a 2021 floor debate in the Texas legislature, state congressman and Presbyterian Seminarian James Talarico declared that God was non-binary. He cited scripture translations to show that God is described, biblically, using both male and female terms.
Since becoming a Senate candidate he has walked back those comments. Talarico now says that his comments were, ‘intentionally provocative,’ and he made them to show support for the LGTBQ community. He also claims that clips of his original speech have been edited to fit his political rival’s narrative.
Lemuel: Is God is non-binary? As the definition of that term is a gender identity that does not identify as exclusively male or female, absolutely.
God does not have a gender because God is above it. God does not reproduce, so God does not need reproductive organs. God is transcendent. God does not indulge in stupid mortal gender games.
To support this point we present the following evidence.
Amity: “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor the son of man, that he should repent; hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and it shall he not make it good?” - Numbers 23:19
Lemuel: The Sadducees, an important sect in the Hebrew council of Jesus’ time, did not believe, among other things, in a life after death. Some of their number tried to publicly embarrass Jesus with what amounts to a thought experiment. They present a situation where a man dies, leaving no issue. According to Moses law, in this situation the dead man’s brother marries the widow as to father children that inherit dead their father’s goods and property. In this construct seven brothers all marry the widow woman in succession, leaving no issue. If there really was a life after death, who would be her true husband in the afterlife?
Like all of the, ‘gotcha,’ moments directed at Jesus, this one failed. He replied:
**Amity: ** “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures of the power of God. At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.” -Luke 22: 29-30
Lemuel: This story appears in all three of the synoptic Gospels. It suggests that after death we will become genderless ourselves, and operate on the level of purely spiritual beings.
The most devastating blow to the notion of a gendered God comes from a conversation in the Gospel of John. Jesus speaks to Nicodemus, a Pharisee, member of the Hebrew council, and secretly, a supporter of Jesus. This gospel describes a private conversation where Jesus shares with Nicodemus, where he makes the following declaration:
**Amity: ** "God is a spirit, and they who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth;" -John 4:24
Lemuel: Don’t be confused by the use of, “him,” in that citation. That is the failure of the English language to capture the size, the breadth, the glory of what God is.
Amity: There is a difference between sex and gender - I think it’s important to the discussion as well.