Rep. Emanuel Cleaver Concludes Opening Prayer for 117th Congress: 'Amen and Awomen'

A Democrat member of Congress concluded his opening prayer for the 117th Congress with the phrase “Amen and Awomen” on Sunday.

The opening prayer was led by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, also a pastor at St. James United Methodist Church of Kansas City, Missouri.

Cleaver prayed to “The God known by many names and faith,” before concluding, “Amen and Awomen,” appearing to ascribe gender to the traditional “Amen” conclusion of a prayer.

The word Amen is derived from Greek and Hebrew used by Christians and Jews in prayer. It means “truly” or “it is so” and has nothing to do with gender.

Cleaver shared a video of his prayer on social media.

But he was quickly ridiculed on Twitter.

Even comedian Larry the Cable guy weighed in on the absurdity.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was already widely ridiculed on Friday for eliminating gendered terms, such as “father, mother, son, and daughter” in the Congressional rules for the 117th Congress.

According to Rule XXIII, terms such as “father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, first cousin, nephew, niece, husband, wife, father-in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, stepfather, stepmother, stepson, stepdaughter, stepbrother, stepsister, half brother, half sister, grandson, or granddaughter” will be replaced with “parent, child, sibling, parent’s sibling, first cousin, sibling’s child, spouse, parent-in-law, child-in-law, sibling-in-law, stepparent, stepchild, stepsibling, half-sibling, or grandchild.”