Virtue Signaling Gone Wrong: People Saying "Awoman" After "Amen" Is Peak Cringe
Jan. 5 2021, Published 3:22 p.m. ET
If you hop onto social media, it won't take you very long to see that there are clear divides between two schools of thought. When it comes to the world of politics, it's simplified between "liberal" and "conservative" mindsets. While there are minor squabbles and "cancellations" between these two groups, generally, people take a reductionist approach to online arguments and either go the GOP or DNC route. Or "cancel culture" vs. "political correctness," which is what's happening with this amen and awoman prayer.
Yes, you read that right, someone said, "awoman" after "amen" in a prayer.
Emanuel Cleaver, while saying a prayer before the 117th meeting of Congress, ended his speech by saying "awoman" after "amen." Many took that as an attempt on Cleaver's behalf to be unnecessarily "politically correct." Pretty soon, the thread devolved into a general discussion about the pitfalls of identity politics, with many folks arguing that a long-running "liberal strategy" in securing DNC support was to focus on identity issues over policies.
But for the most part, people wanted to point out that "awoman" is not only an entirely, newly fabricated word, but within the context of a prayer, it makes zero sense.
The definition of "amen" roughly translates to "so be it." It's an affirmation at the end of a prayer that's been used in a variety of different religions and cultural traditions for thousands of years.
Friar Matthew Schneider tweeted about the origin of "amen" as well: "For the record, AMEN comes from the Hebrew root אמן ('MN) which is the verb to be firm, confirmed, reliable, faithful, have faith, believe. 1. It has nothing to do with the word 'men.' 2. Most verb roots are 3 consonants in Hebrew, the first here is a silent consonant though."
He pointed out that the word has nothing to do with gender, along with some context surrounding its Hebraic roots.
Others also pointed to other religious traditions that used the word, again, in instances that don't pertain to praising or referencing specific genders.
There were a large number of individuals who couldn't believe that Cleaver was an ordained minister with doctorates who still didn't know the meaning of "amen."
But for every person who was outraged, there were others who didn't think that adding awoman, albeit "incorrectly" to the end of the prayer, was the worst transgression someone could make.
Others thought it was just a nice gesture that was maybe wrongly injected into a situation, while others thought that it was somewhat of a tongue-in-cheek joke meant to rustle the jimmies of a few people who would most definitely get their jimmies rustled by a saying such as that.
Then there were other people who couldn't believe that a prayer was being held at Congress in the first place and that the United States should defend and respect "the separation of church and state" as much as possible.
What do you think? Is this a case of political correctness gone wrong? Or should people just lighten up and put their stock in other issues of "more significance"?
