"Why our preferred pronoun for God should be ‘they’" - w/Mark Silk

If you are a person of faith, especially a monotheistic faith, you probably have always thought of God as singular, and have even referred to God as a "He/Him", but is there another, more accurate pronoun to use? Mark Silk, Director, Leonard Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life and Professor of Religion in Public Life, recently wrote an article called, "Why our preferred pronoun for God should be ‘they’" where he explores this topic in detail. We had a chance to chat with him and learn why his article seemed to strike a nerve among those who have commonly considered God's pronoun to be, well, less vague. We also talk about why he felt compelled to write a follow up article to his first one.

Here are the article we referenced:

Why our preferred pronoun for God should be ‘they’

Why calling God ‘they’ shouldn’t upset you

Guest Bio:

Mark Silk graduated from Harvard College in 1972 and earned his Ph.D. in medieval history from Harvard University in 1982. After teaching at Harvard in the Department of History and Literature for three years, he became editor of the Boston Review. In 1987 he joined the staff of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where he worked variously as a reporter, editorial writer and columnist. In 1996 he became the first director of the Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life and in 1998 founding editor of Religion in the News, a magazine published by the Center that examines how the news media handle religious subject matter. In June 2005, he was also named director of the Trinity College Program on Public Values, comprising both the Greenberg Center and a new Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture.

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