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According to some people calling God 'Father', without adding that God is also Mother, unfairly exalts one image for God above all others and ignores the culturally conditioned nature of all our images of God, but Ratzinger said:

Christianity is not a philosophical speculation; it is not a construction of our mind. Christianity is not 'our' work; it is a Revelation; it is a message that has been consigned to us, and we have no right to reconstruct it as we like or choose. Consequently, we are not authorized to change the Our Father into an Our Mother: the symbolism employed by Jesus is irreversible; it is based on the same Man-God relationship he came to reveal to us.

My question is: Do Protestant churches have the same or a different perspective on this matter?

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    I'd say the answer is "yes" for the vast majority. There are, as always, fringe groups that would answer "no". There's just so much variety of beliefs out there that I don't think it'd be valid to answer "for all Protestants". As for providing an answer for "most" protestant denominations, to gather a list of all of the affirmatives would be an incredible undertaking, so it would be difficult to provide a well-sourced answer.
    – David Stratton
    Dec 1, 2013 at 22:18
  • "Protestant churches" is too wide a spectrum to provide a single answer.
    – Flimzy
    Dec 1, 2013 at 22:20
  • This is less a Catholic-Protestant thing than Conservative-whacked out, I mean liberal thing.
    – Affable Geek
    Dec 3, 2013 at 2:13

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While I cannot and would not be so bold as to try to answer your question as it asks about a generalization of protestant belief, I wish to point out that Jesus in the LORD's prayer; as translated in the King James version, used the original word:

πατήρ pater (pat-ayr') n. 1. a "father" {literally or figuratively, near or more remote} [apparently a primary word] KJV: father, parent

which can be translated as the genderless word "parent" as opposed to the word:

Ἀββᾶ Abba (ab-bah`) n/p. 1. (vocatively) father {referring to or addressing one's father} [of Chaldee origin (H2)] KJV: Abba

Which is a definitive reference to the male parent.

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  • I edit your answer to made it more readable :)
    – Elberich Schneider
    Dec 7, 2013 at 19:11
  • @ Elbrich Schneider That is ok, but do you think it is worth either an up or down vote.
    – BYE
    Dec 7, 2013 at 19:33
  • surely an upvote, as ever.
    – Elberich Schneider
    Dec 7, 2013 at 19:35

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