Yesterday I did a short survey for a pair of seminary students from Korea. I’ve forgotten the name of their denomination/church but they seemed to have an interpretation of the Bible which featured a goddess figure. Whether this was alongside, or perhaps another ‘face’ of ‘God the Father’ I’m not sure. I followed my usual strategy (be honest, smile a lot, and leave quickly – it needs work, I know) so I didn’t learn much, unfortunately. I got a bit of a giggle when I circled ‘none’ for the question ‘What is your religion?’ and the guy responded, sounding surprised, “You have no religion?” Maybe he thought I’d accidentally circled the wrong thing, I don’t know.

I was surprised that my feminist side (not that I have an unfeminist side, but you know what I mean) found the idea of ‘our mother in Heaven’ quite appealing. I guess it fits in with the current gender-egalitarian ideals – seems more fitting that there would be two Gods, male and female, balance, equality, etc. So I had to remind myself that Godette is at least as implausible as God.

The two doing the survey were very friendly, so apart from kicking myself for not finding out more about their ideas (which I’d never heard before) it was, like all the chats I’ve had with Jehovah’s Witnesses and campus evangelicals, painless, interesting, and yet completely ineffective in changing my opinions.

I still say a church steeple with a lightning rod on top shows a lack of confidence. Doug McLeod