Church of England apologizes for treatment of LGBTQ people
NBCNov 25, 2022
Church of England to Explore Gender-Neutral God
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Image copyright: Getty Images [via New York Post]
The Facts
In what could lead to changing thousands of years of history of prayer and teachings, the Church of England has launched a project to explore whether to use gender-neutral language when referring to God instead of solely using terms such as "He" or "Our Father."
This comes as some priests have already begun changing their language by simply using "God," "they," or "them" rather than "he" or "him," as well as rewriting the "Our Father" prayer to say "Our Father and Mother."
The Spin
Progressive narrative
Though the Church's history of abuse scandals, homophobia, and misogyny has most likely led it down an inevitable path toward obsolescence, at least it is trying something to show it's more inclusive than the regressive values it was formed under. In the end, the synod will probably vote to keep its patriarchal language intact — and how surprised should we really be if progressive reforms don't take place?
Conservative narrative
There is no way to change the language of the Lord's prayer or other aspects of Church teaching without completely altering the foundation of the Church. Beyond the liturgical aspects, this is just another example of a formerly great institution cowering to liberal, "woke" ideologues who don't care about religion in the slightest. The end goal is really to erase gender differences in their totality, which is why they've already captured academic and governmental institutions.
