Have you Her’d?

A good friend of mine in seminary gets hymn’d out quite a bit.

It’s a condition brought on by excessive exposure to traditional hymns without an adequate balance or acknowledgment of alternative music forms.

I have a high tolerance for hymns and quite enjoy them, so I don’t feel her exact pain.

But I can commiserate.

Afterall, I get Him’d out all the time.

You know the condition… it’s brought on by excessive exposure to male language for God without an adequate balance or acknowledgment of alternative images.

My friend has a high tolerance for Hims and is quite comfortable with the imagery, so she doesn’t feel my exact pain.

But she can commiserate.

And sometimes, that’s all we need.

diving in

feminarian  noun  \fe-mə-ˈner-ē-ən\

: someone studying at a seminary who believes that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities – because that’s how God/dess created us

You may be surprised to find out how many feminarians exist out there.  I have met quite a few of them over the past year, men and women who:

• know that the ordination of women doesn’t mean the work of feminism is complete or no longer needed in the church
• are honest about the fact that Heavenly Father is an exclusively male image, and know it will take generations to rescue the name “God” from that same limited understanding
• notice that women in the bible are called prostitutes as much as junior high girls are called whores – and take exception to both
• are sick of people thinking Jesus was so marvelous for engaging with women – Jesus is marvelous, but basic respect is something we could have expected
• <the list goes on… perhaps we might continue in the comments section…>

There are a lot of feminarians, and I’m not trying to represent all of them in this blog. I just think that knowing we exist might give some people in the church, and who have left the church, a little hope.

This blog is part of a course requirement at Luther Seminary. It is a way for me to engage the course material in a public way, in light of my own journey. I don’t intend for every post to be about feminism and/or seminary, but it is the platform from which I will dive into much of what I write about.