Relationship with a Father

God, in the Christian faith is often referred to as the “heavenly father”, and people of the Christian faith in America often speak of their relationship with God. Because of this the understanding of God is to some extent determined by the fictive kin relationship that they establish. In the case of the this particular relationship God does not actually supplant the father, but instead becomes more important. As with any relationship there are things that rare understood as a duty and as a privileged. The duty of a person of the Christian faith is to pray to god and devote themselves to Christian teachings, and the benefit that they receive in return is the love of god in life and admittance to life after they die. This relationship provides an important aspect of the cultural relevancy with I the Christian faith. The understanding of God as a benevolent and forgiving father, but also very demanding and restrictive creates a cultural framework for. In the words of the student I interviewed, “God is like our father when you want a hug you can get a hug, but with god you have to be patient an it’s not on your terms.” This context is important because allows and understandable contextual reference to be applied to the idea of god. With out the context of God as a demanding father it would be much harder to understand the exact relevance of God, or the relationship that many Christians have with God.