God * or God +: In the future, gender asterisks? "More and more believers alienated from the current image of God"

Will God be gendered soon?

Young Catholics are considering a gender asterisk because “more and more believers” are “alienated” from the current image of God.

Munich - What gender is God?

In Christianity, God is mostly depicted as an older man with a white beard.

The Italian painter Michelangelo, for example, chose this method of representation in his famous ceiling fresco in the Sistine Chapel.

Most Christians have this picture in mind when they think of God.

God * or God +: Young Catholics are considering gender asterisks

In the recent past, however, there have been repeated debates about whether God could not also be a woman. A Catholic association is now going one step further and may in future want God to write with gender asterisks. The spelling would then be "God *". Another option that is currently being discussed is “God +”, with a plus sign that could also be read as a cross. All of this should make it clear that God cannot automatically be thought of as an old white man with a beard.

"We have not yet made a decision, but we definitely want to change something," said Rebekka Biesenbach, the spiritual director of the Catholic Young Community (KjG), the German press agency.

“The central question is: What can we do to bring the image of God, which is very masculine in many places, back into the diversity it deserves?” In spoken language, one could say the asterisk or the plus if necessary.

“We are currently still forming a judgment on this.” Decisions could be made at the next federal conference at the end of March / beginning of April in Odenthal in the Bergisches Land.

Video: For more diversity: God should get a gender star

"More and more believers are alienated from the idea of ​​a male, patriarchal, white image of God"

On the website of the Catholic Young Congregation it says: “The KjG is committed and diligently looking for names of God that encompass more than the male white conception of God.” That the fact that God is spoken of also shapes the image of man , don't be new. "What is new, however, is that more and more believers are alienated from the idea of ​​a male, patriarchal, white image of God and are saying it out loud."

The Catholic Young Community itself changed.

This is also clear in the statement on the considerations regarding the image of God.

It says: “The concept of God falls short theologically and makes access to God difficult for many young people.

On the other hand, for many Catholics, the use of the concept of God in the traditional sense is associated with religious homeland. ”The gender asterisk is not resolved by God, but it is“ sensitively prepared within the association ”.

A final judgment is expected at the association's next autumn federal council in 2022.

Then the concrete spelling of a possibly gendered god should be decided.