1. Gender is an issue with reference to the relationship between god and women, who constitute over half the population and yet who may feel they are neglected given the tendency to see human beings in male terms. Women are to be included in the family of God's children, but from the beginning of the Church they have been given secondary status. They are vitally important in terms of the transmission of life and values. This can be a conflict for the individual woman, however, aware as she is of the duality of her role as mother and wife, of giver of life and caregiver to life as well as of one with a subordinate role to the male. The duality can be difficult to reconcile. The ancient idea of the Mother as Creator gives away over time to the idea of Mother as recipient of the Father's power and as protector of the creation of the Father, but the Mother's role is so central and essential that there is still some sense of her as giver of life, creator of life, and as having more directly to do with the creation and giving of life than does the Father. In human terms, we are left with a Mother doing all the work and the Father taking all the bows, and on a spiritual and social level this becomes ingrained as something almost questionable in the tradition as it is in life.
The question of the goodness of God in the face of starvation, economic exploitation, and political disenfranchisement raises the issue of how a benevolent God can allow such things to be. This tests the faith of those who love God and follow the commandments as best they can. They may question the necessity of their actions or question their faith in light of the seeming inconsistencies in God's place in the world.
This is related as well to the question of the power of God in the face of the fact that a few men hold the state and exploit others in God's name. Yet God is not responsible for the actions of the few--human beings are responsible for their ...