The 117th American Congress was opened on January 3rd with a prayer by a United Methodist minister, Emanuel Cleaver. He was clearly attempting to be inclusive and politically correct, because he addressed his prayer, “To any and all gods”, and ended by saying, “We pray in the name of the monotheistic god, Brahma, and ‘god’ known by many names and by many different faiths. Amen and A-woman.” The laughable thing is that the word “Amen” is not a genderist term – it has nothing to do with men – it is a Hebrew word meaning, “so be it”.
Words fail me! How ignorant and utterly ridiculous! Did the guy get his theology degree from the back of a cereal box? You can’t make this stuff up!
If we’re going to change “Amen” because of its apparent genderist implications, how about some other words as well? Instead of mental, let’s use the term ‘womental’. And instead of making amends, we should all make ‘awomends’. And we shouldn’t mention something, we should ‘womention’ it. There must be hundreds of these words that need our immediate attention! And while we’re at it, any words with “son” should be occasionally altered to “daughter”, such as person = perdaughter, reason = redaughter.
While we may laugh at the absurd inclusion of “A-woman” in the opening prayer of Congress, it appears that the minister who prayed that ridiculous prayer was acting under instructions. The United States Congress has instituted a new set of what it calls “future focused” rules, stating,
“In clause 8(c)(3) of rule XXIII, all gendered terms, such as ‘father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, husband, wife, father-in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, stepfather, stepmother, stepson, stepdaughter, stepbrother, stepsister, half brother, half sister, grandson, or granddaughter’ will be removed. In their place, terms such as ‘parent, child, sibling, parent’s sibling, first cousin, sibling’s child, spouse, parent-in-law, child-in-law, sibling-in-law, stepparent, stepchild, stepsibling, half-sibling, or grandchild’ will be used, instead.”
Yes, that’s right: Congress has now mandated that it is against the law to use gender terms in any of its official documents or in speech. Senators must now refer to a son-in-law as ‘child-in-law’ and sister-in-law as ‘sibling-in-law’ and nephew as ‘sibling’s child’.
It just keeps getting more and more ridiculous, doesn’t it?
This push for gender neutral language is a direct result of the transgender movement’s push to deny basic biology and remove any concept of the existence of two definitive biological sexes. We see this philosophy creeping its tendrils into all areas of society, from gender-neutral fashion shows to gender neutral dolls for children, and even one American beer company producing a gender-neutral beer! (What the?!)
While these changes might appear to be superficial – just changing the jargon in official documents – the next step will be to officially outlaw gender-specific language throughout general society. In fact, the first cracks in that dam have already appeared. In 2019, a Canadian man who was contesting his daughter’s desire to transition to male was forbidden by the court to call his daughter by her true female name or to use female pronouns when referring to her, even in private, under penalty of immediate arrest!
Speaking of this worrying trend, Dr. Jordan Peterson commented, in October 2016:
“If they fine me, I won’t pay it. If they put me in jail, I’ll go on a hunger strike. I’m not doing this. I’m not using the words that other people require me to use. Especially if they’re made up by radical left-wing ideologues.”
We ought to be very concerned about this. This farcical denial of the reality of the two biological genders is leading us inexorably toward the oppressive censorship of free speech and enforced conformity to ‘woke’ terminology. While we may laugh at the absurd use of “A-woman” at the conclusion of a prayer, the implications of society’s growing infatuation with woke ideology are extremely serious.
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Kevin Simington (B.Th. Dip. Min.) is a theologian, apologist and social commentator. He is the author of 12 books, and his latest, “7 Reasons to Believe”, is now available. Connect with Kevin on Facebook or his SmartFaith Blog.
