Zanda,

I would have to say that, GOD, being the ABSOLUTE, must be both male and female (etc.).
I agree that calling GOD "father" diminishes what GOD is.

I love the way Neale Donald Walsch states it:

"Tomorrow's God says that every church is 'his church,' and every faith is 'her faith,' and every soul is God's soul, because it shares the same soul with God! ... And no person or living thing in the universe stands outside the community of God."

Namaste,

Rev. Mark