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From: wmartin@brl-tgr.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.religion,net.women
Subject: Re: Deific gender question
Message-ID: <4059@brl-tgr.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 17-Aug-84 17:51:22 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.4059
Posted: Fri Aug 17 17:51:22 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 20-Aug-84 01:59:04 EDT
References: <254@siemens.UUCP>  <957@pyuxn.UUCP> <921@pucc-h> <166@cornell.UUCP>, <1250@sdcrdcf.UUCP>, <2704@allRe: Deific gend
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Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site brl-tgr.ARPA
Message-ID: <4059@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 17-Aug-84 17:51:22 EDT

er question
Organization: Ballistics Research Lab
Lines: 22

After just plowing through 20-30 postings about the gender of God,
I think it might be worthwhile to bring up a point I haven't seen
mentioned:

"He", a capitalized pronoun referring to God, is NOT the same word
as "he", an uncapitalized pronoun (which may be capitalized at the
start of a sentence, but that is a different thing entirely, being
position-dependent) referring to a male person or animal.

Same with "His" vs. "his", etc. Just because the words are spelled
in a similar manner does not mean that they are the same word. That
is why one is capitalized -- to distinguish it. Just as the "royal 'we'"
does not mean that you have some sort of symbiotic colony for a monarch --
it is a special and distinctive word, used in certain circumstances
for special purposes.

So the pronouns "He" and "His", when referring to God, have no
true gender. Of course, being the creatures we are, we naturally 
hang the gender connotations of "he" and "his" on "He" and "His".
This is a mistake. (To err is human.) 

Will