re: #115 SixDegrees
Actually, you might be interested in various Gnostic views on this matter. Some of them held that God was female, or equal parts male and female, among other interesting beliefs.
Check out anything by Elaine Pagels at Amazon. The Gnostic Gospels is a good place to start.
If only the early church adopted a female god. Sometimes when I can see the spittle between the written lines on blogs, I’ll mock the other person by referring to god with female gendered pronouns. You may or may not be surprised how often that REALLY pisses the extremist off.