1998-11-19 10:23:00
So you are not accepting me as the beast and are questioning the use of the word "Father" in the Song? Good for you. Now you have only one responsibility. That is you must check with your souls (the final authority) and verify any answer that I or any other teacher should give.
I thought overall Rick gave a good answer on the subject, but let me add this. What matters more than the word you use to describe God is the thought that arises in your mind and the feeling in your heart. All of us have within our inner-selves a sense of the One God, and He-She-It is the same God for all of us no matter what name we call It. In the truest sense God is "The One Who is Becoming What It Decides to Become."
For the sake of the Song you can use the name of God that you feel is the most sacred. If you are a Muslim you might want to use the name "Allah." Any name will work as long as you visualize the highest sense of God of which you are capable. "George" would even work as long as you see the same God the rest of those singing the Song see. If you are more comfortable saying Father-Mother God and seeing the duality this should not detract from the meaning of the Song.
When saying the Song in group formation all should follow the group leader and use the same term. I would suggest that for purposes of unity we use either the term "Father" or "Father-Mother God" as a group in saying the Song.
There is an esoteric reason why the Brotherhood of Light uses the male gender in terms like "brotherhood,"" Father," "Son" etc. This has nothing to do with bias because we have all been male and female in past lives. This will be covered more fully in a future book.
Copyright 1998 by J.J. Dewey, All Rights Reserved