Last week, Elaine Hamilton talked about how people have different ideas of who God is based on their experiences. I thought this week’s video would be a good follow-up to that clip.
How would you complete the sentence “God is ________.” ?
OTHER CLIPS BY: MAN ON THE STREET
OTHER CLIPS ABOUT: Who God is
PURCHASE THIS CLIP: RYF Vol. 2 | Individual clip
Updating…
God is like pi and e: transcendental. You’ll never figure him all out, and he can’t be found using some algorithm or formula.
oops–sorry!
God is My Everything …my guide, my counselor,my true love, my present, my future, my protector, my joy, my deliverer, my healer,every part of my being, my purpose for living, MY Everything.
Wow, this is a tough one. God is bigger than I can imagine and my purpose for living. But damn if I don’t have a hard time believing that it’s not all a crock of poop sometimes.
God is ever changing, NOT the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Craig,
I LOVE IT! That was fun, just light enough and totally fascinating. Awesome!
Of course inherent in the question is a statement, isn’t there? =)
My response to such a question would *tend* to go like this: “You answer first, then I’ll answer” and/or “Why are you asking me this?”
Your turn: God is ______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________? (there, I left you lots of space, see? grin)
Benjamin,
Sorry for the late reply, I’ve been working on the perfect answer all week and I think I’ve finally figured this whole god thing out
Yeah, I guess there was statement inherent in the question, though figured people could always answer “God is non-existanant.” Quite a few people did.
As for my answer (nice job spinning it to me), I guess I’d have to say something like “God is more of a mystery the more I come to know him/her.” There are some people in my life (I include you, benjamin) who are difficult for me to label/categorize. Once I think I can predict how they’ll respond to something they throw me for a loop. I really like this about these people. They seem to be not using a playbook, rather treat each situation as a different scenario with some sort of code that connects them all (not sure what that means). When I’m surprised, it usually has more to do with how their response was different than my expectations; their response is generally obviously simple and just makes sense, and though still somehow hard for me to predict. This attribute makes me want to get to know these people better, not because I want to better categorize them, but because there’s something about them that I want to embody. I guess the same is true with my experience of god.
Craig,
thanks for your honest open reply!
Perhaps … this is partially what defines the different paths our journeys took–that you experienced God as a very real, and therefore surprising person, while I experienced God as a sort of proceeding-from-myself-and-thus-not-very-surprising person.
I wonder to what extent that is true more generally about people who found that Christianity still worked for them or didn’t still work for them, as they explored postmodernism and lots of big questions?
Also fascinated at the way in which everyone defaults to the masculine pronoun, except for the one lady who answered “Female”. Patriarchy is certainly rampant. I’d be curiuos to know how many people you asked, and if anyone ever used the feminine pronoun.
Hey Ben,
I saw your post and immediately found myself agreeing with you. But, then as I watched Craig’s video again this morning, I was only able to count 4 out of 22 people in the video that referred to God as masculine. I excluded words like “master” and “lord”, because they are not necessarily masculine–in my mind. I was looking more for words like “he”, “him” and “man”.
What I found kind-a revealing is that as I watched the video again (for the 3rd, 4th and 5th time), I found myself really having to concentrate hard to actually listen to what people were saying and even then, I still think I may have missed a possible “he”, “him” or “man” somewhere. So, I’m curious as to what made you say that you were fascinated at the way in which everyone defaults to the masculine pronoun?
Jason
Jason,
yeah, you’re right–when I watched it again, I realized that there wasn’t as much pronoun usage as I originally thought.
However, all the pronoun usage *is* masculine. No one uses any female pronouns at all..
Someone also referred to humanity as “man” or “mankind”.
I was fascinated, I suppose, not so much by the default, which I already knew about, but rather but the way it stood out to me–something which hasn’t happened in a while. Of course I don’t often see this many people in a row talk about God in this short of a time period. =)
It’s easier, I think, for most people to construct “God is female” than for them to use feminine pronouns in reference to God. The patriarchy is *so* inherent in the language we use by default. (In fact, here’s one for you: I recently finished watching The Sarah Connor Chronicles, a television series, and in one of the final episodes, there’s a really powerful and elegant use of a Johnny Cash song entitled “When the Man Comes Around” in which, amazingly, Johnny Cash takes one of the obviously female references to God in the Bible–God as mother hen, and forces *even* that into the patriarchal mode by referring to God as “the father hen”. I about fell over when I heard that =). We don’t tend to think a whole lot about pronouns (well, neurotypical people don’t, anyway, in my experience).
thanks for asking!
hey Benjamin,
We interviewed 23 people (mostly in downtown Denver on the 16th street mall) and I don’t recall any of them using a feminine pronoun. Honestly, while these man on the street videos are fun and entertaining, they shouldn’t be thought of as research. It was a fair representation of the people we interviewed, but I’d be interested to know a bit more about the demographics of the people interviewed. My guess is that it wasn’t a very broad sampling. I was surprised by people’s reluctancy to answer the question on camera. Sure, people aren’t always excited about being on camera, but the number of “no” responses were far more than usual (I’ve done a ton of street interviews). I’d be interested if the “no” responders would answer similarly, and if so, would those people have been more likely to use feminine pronouns? I guess I say all this to say, I don’t think the video is completely representative of broader culture, but it gives a spectrum of answers to the question (which is what it was intended to do).
Just out of curiosity Craig….. How do you gather the courage to just walk up to random people on the street and ask them questions like this? I find that very courageous and brave. I’d be seriously scared, embarrassed and hesitant to do such a thing.
Jason
Hi Jason! Well, I actually had two other guys with me (a sound guy and someone asking the questions while I operated the camera), so it wasn’t me approaching people this time, but I’ve done it lots of times in the past. For me, it’s not too difficult to approach people on the street because the camera communicates that the question is part of a larger project and that I’m not trying to do a bait and switch. But I also ask these kinds of questions in real life (without a camera), and that’s still pretty easy for me. I think this is because I no longer feel a need to control the outcome of conversations…I can ask somewhat deep and personal questions and actually be genuinely interested, without fear that I might have some responsibility if I uncover something I disagree with. I find that people are really pretty open to talking about this kind of stuff if they feel safe. But my wife is getting a little tired of all the spiritual talk at dinner parties (and so am I for that matter:-)
“But my wife is getting a little tired of all the spiritual talk at dinner parties (and so am I for that matter:-)”
Tee hee. that’s awesome and I love it that you’ve created a space on the web where you feel safe enough to say that =)
When I first saw the question, my immediate response was “God is…silent…distant.” I ponder why I feel this way. When I was a teenager growing up in a fundamentalist pentecostal church, I’d say “These are the moments when God wants us to draw closer to Him. We must seek God even when He feels distant (sic on the pronoun usage) If God doesn’t feel close, it isn’t because He’s moved away.” Then I’d remember a sermon on how our experience with God was like white-water rapids. There are times of extreme excitement or turbulence, and then times of calm. I’d reassure myself knowing that this was a time of calm. I was supposed to enjoy it and take in the surroundings.
Now, I feel a sense of paranoia. Am I feeling distant, or like I can’t hear God because I’ve stripped away from those fundamentalists roots? Have I gone too far? Are my in-laws fears about me true? Have I, in my search for a truer understanding of God, rejected God altogether? The abused part of me says no. The abused part of me says that I’m looking at the scars I bear and feeling stockholm syndrome. The child-like part of me longs for the safety and security that I once felt in the presence of my abusers (and those who loved me and meant well…but dealt out abuse like the others) but I know I can never go back.
For me, God is…holding me now. As I feel the pain again. God is present in my suffering. God is present in my memories. God is present once again, and loving me all over.
Derrick,
Wow–thanks for sharing so openly! It sounds like you’ve had an intense experience, and it sounds like you’ve come to a fairly peaceful secure place.
I love this that you said: “God is present in my suffering”. This sort of belief is why I am attracted to the Roman Catholic Church.
Have you written much about your experience? I’d love to hear more of your story.
I’ve been through a lot in the last few years especially; I’m definitely emerging from a crisis of faith. I too have found much to love in the Catholic church, and yet, I have too much reservation over issues like ordination of women (something the denomination I grew up in voted on and turned down…again…this past month…as well as a measure preventing any more votes until 2014) and church dogma to participate fully as a Catholic. Thanks for your affirmation. I’ve been thinking about blogging…but I’m honestly scared of certain reactions. I tend to be most passionate about the issues that generate strong responses from my in-laws. LOL!
“I tend to be most passionate about the issues that generate strong responses from my in-laws. LOL”
I sort of understand that, and it makes me grin. I have the same deal going with my mother’s extended family–my aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. Some of them pretty much can’t cope with my online presence, and have unfriended and blocked me on facebook. I congratulate them for doing what they need to do to feel safe and comfortable =).
LOL…mine attempt to “correct these false teachings” I’ve “fallen into” I actually set up a WordPress blog yesterday…lets see how this goes
Gog is God…. and you are not.
Over 2,500 years ago, the Chinese thinkers had already long given up on defining the ineffable and relegating understanding to faith and living right by mother nature and treating fellowman with respect.
“The Tao (Transcendental way / truth) which can be named is not the Way/truth.”
Later on, as a political tool the institute of dogmas Taoism (religion) was built to stifle a living universal philosophy.
In Tao the only motion is returning;
The only useful quality, weakness.
For though all creatures under heaven are the products of Being,
Being itself is the product of Not-being. ”
Note: Tao 道 literally means “The way”. 道encompasses truth, life, understanding, searching, finding, losing etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao_Te_Ching
So, I suspect what Jesus might have declared was, I follow the Way. The scribes then interpreted that into the all too familiar dogmatic statement with the Jewish patriarchy notion, which was probably borrowed from the uncompromising monotheism of Amenhotep IV, 1364-1347 B.C. Amen or “so be it,” probably originated from this self proclaimed Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep who deified himself as Akhenaten – the anointed son of Ra or the Ray of the self perpetuating Light. In other words, the Son of God. Anyway I digress. http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/egypt/a/locegyptmonothe.htm
God is not your Freudian psycho-mincer, a figment of your imagination anymore than Jesus is your personal savior, perfect husband, sacred lover, best friend nor the warrior King of either a warmongering theocracy or um, a warmongering democracy.
Love, hatred, joy, fear, serenity, pain, sadness, forgiveness, envy, illusion, euphoria, paranoia, prejudice, intelligence, etc are all human attributes and intuitions, collectively too insignificant to bring light to capture the Unknowable. It’s time to de convert, die to religion and enjoy a holistic life on earth.