Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat from Missouri, opened for the 117th Congress with a prayer. The prayer ended with “Amen,” as one would expect. But then two unexpected words followed, “and Awoman.”
This blew up on the internet, and for good reason. It is nonsensical. Amen is not a misogynistic word excluding the female gender. Instead, it originates from the Hebrew language. It means “certainty or truth,” it is used at the end of a prayer to mean, “it is so.”
Rep. Cleaver claims his pun was intended to honor the record number of women in Congress. He remains disappointed that his prayer’s main message calling Congress to peace was ignored. It is indeed hard to ignore because the irony is so compelling.
The political left often touts their exceptional inclusivity and tolerance. The following line in his prayer is a good example of this, “We ask it in the name of the monotheistic God, Brahma, and ‘god’ known by many other names by many different faiths.” Here we have a former United Methodist pastor referring to other gods besides the Only True God to appear inclusive of all religions. Therefore, it makes sense that he would add a gender-inclusive statement as well. The irony is that by doing so he accidentally admits that there are only two genders.
Source: Rep. Cleaver’s Prayer
