Who is your God?  Is your God a man?  A woman?  A transvestite?  Does your God have a skin pigment that matches your own?  Does your God have long hair?  A mohawk?  Does your God even evince anthropomorphic characteristics at all?  What is your God’s opinion of homosexuals?  Sexual intercourse before marriage?  What of divorce?  Stem cell research?  Does your God approve of the ongoing resistance movement in Iran?  Is your God a vegetarian?

Among the monotheistic-leaning, there is a multitude of connotations and attributes that we impute to the idea of a single “God.”  We invoke the word in a variety of ways, and in a variety of circumstances.

But is there a one true God?

Aren’t the individual concoctions of the Divine different enough that, for one taking a more observational view in surveying theological disparities, there must versions of God that number in the millions?

Even among a single religion one encounters differences.  The conception of God held by the members of Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church (these individuals are often seen displaying signs that read, among others, “God Hates Fags” as well as protesting at the funerals of American soldiers) are often seen as revolting to a majority of people, fellow Christians included.

On the opposite side of the theological spectrum, we have Jay Bakker, who founded Revolution Church.  Conceived in Phoenix, Arizona, Bakker’s often conducted his ministry in local dive bars.  The numerous tattoos and piercings further distinguish him from the traditional preachers that are often thought of as spokesmen for the Good Word.  Unlike the belief system of Westboro Baptist Church followers, Bakker has supported the civil rights of gays and lesbians, including their right to marry.  Furthermore, he uses God to argue his case.

This begs the question: which God is the one that exists?  The damning God of Westboro Baptist Church or the far more inclusive God of Revolution Ministries?  Which one is fake and which one is the real deal?

For the detached observer, it appears that these differing conceptions of God invoke the thought that there are multiple gods at work.  It’s a type of polytheism, if you will.  Some readers may think that, no, there is only one God, and that the examples of divine conceptions illustrated above are far from fitting: their God is the one true God, the one that rises above all other falsehoods.

But how can individuals justify this?  Do they possess an ability towards ecclesiastical adjudication, of which no one else can muster?  Is their God truly better than yours or mine?  Does this theological solipsism contradict, and render invalid, all other permutations and singularities of the divine that collect in the reservoir of human experience?

For the more enlightened thinker, they acknowledge that the varying conceptions of God among people are not invalid.  They are important to the individual believer and, as such, suffer from no cosmological depreciation.  If it works for you, they say, then it is good.

But even the good faith of this ecumenical outlook begs the question: how many Gods are there when we get right down to it?  Isn’t it better to acknowledge that there are a multitude of images, characteristics, and beliefs that each individual places upon the word God?  Furthermore, recognizing this polytheism do we not identify the human weight we impart upon our divine ideas and sensibilities?  It should remind us that God hasn’t one face, but millions.  And that the many unique wrinkles and freckles that we splatter upon the term (and the idea of) God are not better than those of another.  The collective singularities that perpetually accumulate upon the Divine does neither distinguish nor distance ourselves from our own unique understanding of God.

It reminds us that God is inextricable from humanity.

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