CeeLo Green says 'God is a woman', but is it the feminist statement we think?

"God is a woman, although this idea's untraditional, I think God is a woman making each one of her children original. I stare at the sky until the stars start to fall; if there's a God at all, it's a woman," CeeLo Green sings in his latest track, appropriately titled 'God is a woman'.

Released to coincide with International Woman's Day on March 8, Green – who shot to fame in 2006 when his collaboration with Danger Mouse, Gnarls Barkley's 'Crazy', topped the charts around the world – posted the song to his SoundCloud. A caption reads: "A song of praise to echo forevermore / And always. From my own mothers womb here I stand as a witness that.. / GOD IS A WOMAN."

Other lyrics from the song include: "God's still a woman. She has made everything including history, so exalt her high above you, beyond the brightest star."

Raised a Baptist in Atlanta – his parents were ordained ministers – Green first began singing in church as a boy. He's spoken publicly about religion a number of times, though he's clearly moved away from the conservative Southern Baptist tradition he was raised in. In 2012, he changed a line in John Lennon's 'Imagine' to "and all religion's true", and a year earlier told US Magazine: "I don't have an opinion on people with different religious, sexual or political preferences. I'm one of the most liberal artists that I think you will ever meet, and I pride myself on that."

So what's his latest foray into theology about? Is Green making some grand feminist statement?

It seems unlikely. He's been roundly criticised regarding his attitude to women in the past following some controversial tweets regarding rape and consensual sex.

Green pleaded no contest in August 2014 to supplying ecstasy to a woman. She had claimed that she woke up naked in Green's bed in 2012 following an evening with him at a sushi restaurant the night before, and had no memory of what had happened. Green's lawyer argued that the two had "consensual relations", and no rape charges were filed due to lack of evidence.

Two days after his sentencing (three years probation and 360 hours of community service), Green reportedly posted a number of tweets including one that read: "People who have really been raped REMEMBER!!!"

He also wrote: "When someone brakes on a home there is broken glass where is your plausible proof that anyone was raped," and "If someone is passed out they're not even WITH you consciously, so WITH implies consent."

He later deleted the tweets and apologised, saying they had been "highly irresponsible". "I'd never condone the harm of any women," he added.

The message of Green's latest song might therefore come as a surprise. But he does, at least, highlight an interesting point.

There are countless think pieces discussing whether or not God could be referred to as female. Though it's a practice that has been denounced as heresy by some, others believe it helps us to widen our understanding of God's nature. The Bible explicitly refers to God as both father and mother, and most would agree that God is neither male nor female; using exclusively male pronouns runs the risk of creating God in the image of man, rather than the other way round.

As US blogger Rachel Held Evans writes: "On the very rare occasion that I refer to God as She, I do it with a lot of intentionality and with the goal of reminding myself and my readers that God is not merely some elevated, deified version of ourselves. God is not a man. God is not white. God is not American."

Rev Kate Bottley made a similar point in a Guardian article last year: "God is not a woman. And God is not a man. God is God," she said. "But we can only describe God in the terms we can easily comprehend, comparing God to something we know better."

Theologian Elaine Storkey, co-author of Conversations of Christian Feminism, previously told Christian Today that "God is always bigger than our language, and the Bible itself gives us permission to address God using many metaphors".

In fact, said Storkey, insisting on male-only metaphors "repudiates biblical practice".

"Some of the metaphors are inevitably gendered, but any single one only ever gives us a glimpse of the breadth and majesty of God," she said.