Mary Daly

Mary Daly, self-described "radical lesbian feminist," died this week at the age of 81. To say she was controversial would be an understatement of mammoth proportion. As I often do when reading news accounts, I viewed comments left with stories announcing her death. It appears no one has middle-of-the-road views about her, and I think Dr. Daly would have liked it that way.

The single most important thing written by Daly, in my view, was "If God is male, then male is God." I can still remember how that single sentence jolted me when I first read it in my 40s, just prior to my sojourn to divinity school. Having grown up in a Southern Baptist church which had already told me that, as a female, I could not be a pastor, I found in that one sentence the key which unlocked a door to the pain I had felt as girl called to ministry, and to the pain I had experienced as a lesbian trying to cope in a world that wanted me to express my femaleness only in particular ways.

To be sure, Dr. Daly wrote words that were painful to the experience of some womanists and transgendered persons. We are all products of our particular times and experiences, which makes writing thoughts down for posterity a dangerous endeavor. As a friend once remarked about the legacy of sermon manuscripts, "I'm not sure I still believe what I believed then!" But Dr. Daly was undeniably at the headwaters of a stream of feminist theo/thealogians who have continued to unlock doors for women - and ultimately for all persons - as they help us imagine and re-imagine our concepts about God.

Through Daly's words, I was able to uncover and recover an image of God that included me. Those words have no doubt changed countless lives, and for that we owe Dr. Daly our gratitude.