“I don’t know a whole lot of Christians who think that God has a sex (even as we describe him as male and using male pronouns), and I have a feeling that many American Christians avoid feminine language when talking about God because of connotations of feminist ideology rather than because they believe God is ‘literally’ male.”
I don’t think any serious Christians really think God has a sex in the sense that humans do, but He chose to portray himself to us as a male for some reason. The NT makes the comparison of the husband as head of the household to God as the head of the church, and I think that is revealing.
If you look at God’s interactions with man, many are things that we would associate with the male or fatherly role: God makes rules, God enforces punishments, God disciplines, and God bails us out when we get in trouble. Of course, you can say God does things a mother would do too, such as nurture us and comfort us. So, it’s not clear cut, but I think He had a reason for choosing to portray himself that way.
I agree--but that reason may have been simply that given the male-dominated culture of ancient Israel (consider that a woman's testimony was worthless to first-century Jews--and consider the fact that the first witnesses of the Resurrection were all women too), that was the best way to reach the people he called to be his chosen people.