{"id":45602,"date":"2021-01-13T10:11:03","date_gmt":"2021-01-13T15:11:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/?p=45602"},"modified":"2021-01-13T10:11:05","modified_gmt":"2021-01-13T15:11:05","slug":"a-laughable-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/a-laughable-god","title":{"rendered":"A Laughable God?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[This article originally appeared in SALVO (www.salvomag.com<\/a>) and is reproduced here with permission. \u2013 Ed. Image from C-SPAN.]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democratic Congressman and former mayor of Kansas City Emanuel Cleaver, who is also an ordained Methodist minister, has taken some heat for his closing prayer<\/a> on the first session of the new Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of the prayer, Rep. Cleaver closed with, \u201cWe ask it in the name of the monotheistic God, Brahma, and God known by many names, by many different faiths. Amen, and awomen.\u201d \u201cBrahma,\u201d for any not up on their foreign deities, is the Hindu creator-god. And “awomen” is. . . well. . . kind of dumb, as many commentators have pointed out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAmen,\u201d for those who have not the least bit of knowledge of Christian history or the Greek language, is a word derived from the Greek, and a word that can mean roughly \u201ctruth,\u201d \u201cverily,\u201d or, as is often the case in our modern usage, \u201clet it be done.\u201d It has no involvement at all with \u201cgender,\u201d as the term is now understood. Commentators ripped Cleaver apart for his misuse of the word\u2014Ben Shapiro at the Daily Wire<\/em> called it the \u201cstupidest\u201d thing he\u2019s ever heard, and Donald Trump, Jr., tweeted that the prayer was \u201cinsane.\u201d But the Representative from Missouri has responded<\/a> that he was \u201cdeeply disappointed\u201d that his \u201cprayer has been misinterpreted and misconstrued by some to fit a narrative that stokes resentment and greater division among portions of our population.\u201d He meant the closing only as a \u201clighthearted pun in recognition of the record number of women who will be representing the American people in Congress during this term as well as in recognition of the first female Chaplain of the House of Representatives whose service commenced this week.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prayer has received the most attention for the use of \u201cawomen,\u201d but there are really three things worth pointing out here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, Rep. Cleaver\u2019s invocation of \u201cthe monotheistic god, Brahma\u201d is worthy of its own critique. Hindus represent less than one percent<\/a> of religious adherents in the U.S., so Cleaver certainly wasn\u2019t appealing to a voter base. Rather, the invocation was nothing more than a woke gesture meant to imply that all gods are equal; the name of the god you pray to doesn\u2019t matter, because we\u2019re all seeking truth. It is a relativistic and even pagan impulse. The fact that Rep. Cleaver (and many before him) have gone universalist in their prayers before Congress, when most Americans<\/a> still profess to be at least nominally Christian, says much about the political elite\u2019s disdain for average Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, Cleaver\u2019s response that his prayer was merely a \u201clighthearted pun\u201d meant to honor women in Congress raises some concern over what he sees as the nature of prayer. His prayer was not solely to humbly beg God for His aid in this troubled, broken time, a time truly needing the help of the Divine, but to pat ourselves on the back for our inclusiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And third, the use of \u201cawomen\u201d is another dangerous instance of the modern American left\u2019s twisting of language to suit the interests of whatever ideology is in vogue at the time. It doesn\u2019t matter that the original word means \u201ctrue\u201d or \u201csurely,\u201d and has been called an \u201cexpression of absolute trust and confidence.\u201d<\/a>  Cleaver didn\u2019t care that the word is really an expression of faith, an affirmation of the prayer that came before it. Rather, he made it suit his own political and ideological goal. The first step for the left has always been to change the vocabulary. Think \u201csexual orientation\u201d<\/a> instead of \u201csexual preference,\u201d or \u201cundocumented worker\u201d instead of \u201cillegal immigrant.\u201d When words don\u2019t have meanings, they become useful and deadly tools in the war against truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prayer is reprehensible on a number of levels, and the correct and best response may very well be to simply laugh at it. But it may also serve as an important reminder of the underhanded ways that the left tries to manipulate both language and theological truths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The prayer is reprehensible on a number of levels, and the correct and best response may very well be to simply laugh at it. But it may also serve as an important reminder of the underhanded ways that the left tries to manipulate both language and theological truths.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":45612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"A Congressional Prayer to Forget","format":"standard","video":"","gallery":"","source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override":[{"single_blog_custom":"","sidebar":"","second_sidebar":"","share_position":"","share_float_style":"","post_date_format":"","post_date_format_custom":"","post_reading_time_wpm":"","zoom_button_out_step":"1","zoom_button_in_step":"1","number_popup_post":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"","single_post_gallery_size":""}],"trending_post_position":"","trending_post_label":"","sponsored_post_label":"","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":""},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"512"},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[805,512],"tags":[7360,547,7527,5509,7202],"class_list":["post-45602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-foreground","category-politics","tag-awomen","tag-congress","tag-political-correctness","tag-religion-2","tag-us-congress"],"yoast_head":"\nA Laughable God? - IFN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/a-laughable-god\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Laughable God?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The prayer is reprehensible on a number of levels, and the correct and best response may very well be to simply laugh at it. But it may also serve as an important reminder of the underhanded ways that the left tries to manipulate both language and theological truths.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/a-laughable-god\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"IFN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/iFamNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-13T15:11:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-01-13T15:11:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Screen-Shot-2021-01-08-at-9.56.34-AM.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nicole King\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@iFamNewsEN\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@iFamNewsEN\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nicole King\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Laughable God? - IFN","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/a-laughable-god","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Laughable God?","og_description":"The prayer is reprehensible on a number of levels, and the correct and best response may very well be to simply laugh at it. But it may also serve as an important reminder of the underhanded ways that the left tries to manipulate both language and theological truths.","og_url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/a-laughable-god","og_site_name":"IFN","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/iFamNews","article_published_time":"2021-01-13T15:11:03+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-01-13T15:11:05+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":675,"url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Screen-Shot-2021-01-08-at-9.56.34-AM.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Nicole King","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@iFamNewsEN","twitter_site":"@iFamNewsEN","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Nicole King","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/a-laughable-god#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/a-laughable-god"},"author":{"name":"Nicole King","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/35d200d06cf0beaffb53d0d1a6a8c870"},"headline":"A Laughable God?","datePublished":"2021-01-13T15:11:03+00:00","dateModified":"2021-01-13T15:11:05+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/a-laughable-god"},"wordCount":701,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/a-laughable-god#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Screen-Shot-2021-01-08-at-9.56.34-AM.png","keywords":["awomen","Congress","political correctness","Religion","US CONGRESS"],"articleSection":["Foreground","Politics"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/a-laughable-god#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/a-laughable-god","url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/a-laughable-god","name":"A Laughable God? - IFN","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/a-laughable-god#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/a-laughable-god#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Screen-Shot-2021-01-08-at-9.56.34-AM.png","datePublished":"2021-01-13T15:11:03+00:00","dateModified":"2021-01-13T15:11:05+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/a-laughable-god#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/a-laughable-god"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/a-laughable-god#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Screen-Shot-2021-01-08-at-9.56.34-AM.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Screen-Shot-2021-01-08-at-9.56.34-AM.png","width":1200,"height":675},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/a-laughable-god#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Politics","item":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/category\/politics"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"A Laughable God?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/","name":"IFN","description":"International Family News Network","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#organization","name":"iFamNews","url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Share-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Share-logo.png","width":200,"height":200,"caption":"iFamNews"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/iFamNews","https:\/\/x.com\/iFamNewsEN"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/35d200d06cf0beaffb53d0d1a6a8c870","name":"Nicole King","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/903f35ca5903fb058276f9e28fec6ab17dd5c1ae49e670dfa47483ff62c86444?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/903f35ca5903fb058276f9e28fec6ab17dd5c1ae49e670dfa47483ff62c86444?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/903f35ca5903fb058276f9e28fec6ab17dd5c1ae49e670dfa47483ff62c86444?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Nicole King"},"description":"Nicole M. King is the Managing Editor of IOF's journal, The Natural Family: An International Journal of Research and Policy, the United States\u2019 leading journal of family-policy research. In that capacity, she writes, edits and corresponds with editors and contributors to ensure that each issue provides the most relevant and accurate research and policy analysis available. Nicole holds a B.A. in English as well as M.A.s in English and Political Theory. She has contributed to The Front Porch Republic and Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture, among others. She is also a contributing editor to SALVO Magazine and a blogger at salvomag.com.","url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/author\/nkingifamnews-com"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45602"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47609,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45602\/revisions\/47609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}