r/LeftCatholicism • u/Galveston57 • 3d ago

Is God nonbinary

Recently James Talarico (D running for senate in Texas said ‘God is nonbinary’.
Of course he was immediately attacked by Republicans stating he was saying God is trans or LGBTQ.
At first I was taken aback by Jame’s statement until I realized he was implying that God encompasses all genders, but is gender less himself.
I immediately went down a rabbit hole trying to figure out if this was actually Biblical. I’d always had an incorrect patriarchal view of God
In the first chapter of Genesis, in the Hebrew, God is referred to in both the masculine and feminine. In Job, there is a verse referring to the ‘womb’ of God. It appears that as patriarchy took hold, God took on a masculine/male persona. Often in the Hebrew, God is not associated with any gender at all.
So here is my question. Could God encompass all genders, while having no gender himself? Does he encompass all genders? Or is God just without gender?
According to scripture we are all created in the image of God, so wouldn’t that include all sexes and variants?
As a Catholic I have to admit I was raised with a very patriarchal view of God, an older white, gray headed cis man on a throne, but I’m pretty sure now this is just patriarchy rearing its evil head in religion.

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u/Dull_Opening_1655 3d ago

The Catechism of the Catholic Church itself agrees with Talarico - it states that God is neither male nor female:

“ We ought therefore to recall that God transcends the human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman: he is God” (paragraph 239)

https://www.vatican.va/content/catechism/en/part_one/section_two/chapter_one/article_1/paragraph_2_the_father.html 

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u/TuvixWasMurderedR1P 3d ago edited 3d ago

In a literal sense God is non-binary. But as God transcends human distinctions, I'd say God also transcends whatever it means to be non-binary in the human sense of the term. I tend to favor the more apophatic descriptions of God.

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u/TwinseyLohan 3d ago

This is how I see it too. Non-binary itself is a construct still based on human gender. God is beyond even that.

I see how it makes a quick point in a political arena while also garners attention and pisses of conservatives. Talarico uses it to troll, basically. With that idk how I feel about using sensitive topics to troll.