In a move that Members of Congress were still talking about after the close of their opening session Sunday, Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver, D.-Mo., left jaws hanging when he concluded the opening prayer by “degenderizing” the word “Amen.”
“Amen,” said Cleaver, 76, a United Methodist pastor, and then added “And A-women.”
Republican Members who spoke to Newsmax were stunned at Cleaver’s attempt to make a “gender free” word out of the traditional closing of Christian prayers.
This caused particular outrage because “Amen” is not in any way a gender-based word. Rather, it is Hebrew-Aramaic word that translates to mean “Let it be.”
“It shows you how out of touch the Democrats in the House are,” sophomore Rep. Jim Hagedorn, R.-MN, told Newsmax “They are so fixated on ‘degenderizing’ everything they even take it to prayers, and to a word that has nothing to do with gender.”
“Being that ‘Amen’ has nothing to do with gender and is actually derived from an ancient Hebrew word meaning ‘so be it,’ we never fail to impress here in the Show-Me State, do we?” tweeted former Missouri House Speaker Tim Jones, now a popular radio talk show host in St. Louis.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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