Gender is already used more frequently in Germany. The Catholic Church is now committed to this and wants to gender God.
Düsseldorf – A Catholic association may want to write God with gender asterisks in the future. 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 Congregation (KjG), the German Press Agency in Düsseldorf. “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?”
Catholic youth want to gender God
In spoken language you 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.
There are several large youth associations in the Catholic Church. According to its own information, the KjG represents around 80,000 members between the ages of around 9 and 25 years. (dpa)
The issue of gender repeatedly causes heated debates: For example, students at the University of Kassel were threatened with lower grades * if they did not change. Celebrities also like to get upset about gender-equitable language, such as the literary critic Elke Heidenreich, Scooter front man HP Baxxter or comedian Ingo Appelt. * hna.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.
