Cleaver, D-Mo., is an ordained United Methodist who pastored a church in Kansas City for many years. His two-minute prayer was otherwise conventional, full of biblical references and King James cadences – until the very end, when he appealed to the “monotheistic God,” the Hindu creator deity “Brahma,” and the “god known by many different names and many different faiths.”

There has been a lot of social media hubbub about Congressman Emanuel Cleaver’s recent prayer in the U.S. House of Representatives, which he closed with “amen and awoman,” apparently striving to be gender inclusive.  He omitted atransgender.

Cleaver, D-Mo., is an ordained United Methodist who pastored a church in Kansas City for many years.  His two-minute prayer was otherwise conventional, full of biblical references and King James cadences – until the very end, when he appealed to the “monotheistic God,” the Hindu creator deity “Brahma,” and the “god known by many different names and many different faiths.”

It is likely unique to Western liberal Protestants to strive for faux inclusivity in public spirituality. Jewish rabbis are not expected to pray to Christ. Imams are not expected to address the Trinity. Hindus probably won’t offer prayers to the Heavenly Father. A Methodist cleric should feel no need to pray to any Hindu deity, which likely no Hindu would expect.

Cleaver’s “awoman” prayer has been widely mocked. “Rep. Cleaver proposes increased U.S. aid to Yemen … or Yewomen,” tweeted one Methodist cleric. Another quipped: “I’m working on a new United Methodist Inclusive English Dictionary. It encourages people to alternate between words like ‘hurricane’ and ‘himmacane,’ and ‘hemorrhoids’ and ‘herorrhoids.’ Can I get an amen? How ’bout an awomen?”

“Amen,” of course, is derived from the Hebrew of the ancient Jewish Scriptures. It has no gender connection. It is simply a solemn affirmation roughly translated, “So be it.”

Cleaver’s prayer came amidst a proposal that the U.S. House of Representatives adopt new, gender-neutral policies avoiding references to “father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, uncle,” etc., in favor of “parent, child, sibling, parent’s sibling,” etc.

This current Western, secular fad for overturning gender bias has uncredited Christian roots. In Christ, “there is neither male nor female,” the Scripture affirms, demonstrating that all are equal before God. Egalitarianism is largely a Christian creation. Its insistence on universal human dignity is a great gift to the world. But the Gnostic pretense that biological reality can be surmounted by subjective thoughts and feelings leads to absurdity.

In Christian teaching, the male and female sexes are intrinsic to creation. They cosmically complement each other and are eternally woven into the metaphor of the marriage of Christ the Bridegroom with His bride, the Church. Gender-bending and gender denials are vain assaults on the created order.

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