{"id":1431,"date":"2013-05-11T22:19:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-11T22:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/05\/why-god-is-a-mother-too.html"},"modified":"2013-05-11T22:19:00","modified_gmt":"2013-05-11T22:19:00","slug":"why-god-is-a-mother-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/05\/why-god-is-a-mother-too.html","title":{"rendered":"Why God Is a \u2018Mother,\u2019 Too"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-bottom: 1em;margin-top: 1em\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif\">Long before I became familiar with the academic debates concerning calling God \u201cMother,\u201d debates that I am now currently a part of as a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, I was being raised in a household where I instinctively understood that the divine presence was manifest in the loving hands and arms of mothers, and most especially in the life of my grandmother who raised me. My grandmother\u2019s kitchen was a theological laboratory where she taught me how to love people just as naturally as she taught me to make peach cobbler and buttermilk biscuits. I watched and listened as she ministered to the sick and the lost, with a Bible in one hand and a freshly baked pound cake in the other, despite having no official ministry role.<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-bottom: 1em;margin-top: 1em\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif\">I knew that if God was real, if God truly loved me as a parent loves a child, then God was also \u201cMother\u201d and not only \u201cFather.\u201d Only years of dogma and doctrine force you to unlearn what you know to be true in your own heart, demanding \u201cFather\u201d as the only acceptable appellation and concept for God.<\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-bottom: 1em;margin-top: 1em\"><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif\">Read the rest <a href=\"http:\/\/ideas.time.com\/2013\/05\/11\/why-god-is-a-mother-too\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">here<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size: 16px\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Long before I became familiar with the academic debates concerning calling God \u201cMother,\u201d debates that I am now currently a part of as a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, I was being raised in a household where I instinctively understood that the divine presence was manifest in the loving hands and arms of mothers, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2251,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why God Is a \u2018Mother,\u2019 Too<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Long before I became familiar with the academic debates concerning calling God \u201cMother,\u201d debates that I am now currently a part of as a professor at\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/05\/why-god-is-a-mother-too.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why God Is a \u2018Mother,\u2019 Too\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Long before I became familiar with the academic debates concerning calling God \u201cMother,\u201d debates that I am now currently a part of as a professor at\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/05\/why-god-is-a-mother-too.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rhetoric Race and Religion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-05-11T22:19:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andre E. 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