Forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they do. Literally. In their rush to eliminate “gendered” language in the House of Representatives, Democrats have signed onto nonsense bowdlerization of language, and we can only hope that yesterday’s opening prayer will prove to be the nadir of this impulse.

Note to Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) — the word “amen” doesn’t have anything to do with masculinity, champ:

Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat, delivered the opening prayer on the first day of the 117th Congress on Sunday that started with a hint of yearning for less political division.

“Eternal God, we bow before your throne of grace as we leave behind the politically and socially clamorous year of 2020,” Cleaver said. “May we model community healing, control our tribal tendencies, and quicken our spirit.”

But at the end, Cleaver injected a political statement.

“Amen, and a-woman,” he said.

Good Lord. The word “amen” comes to us from ancient Semitic, passing through Greek and Latin nearly unchanged. Its cognate in Aramaic/Syriac, amin, testifies to its relatively unchanged nature. In none of these languages did the “-men” part of the word have anything to do with gender. Its actual meaning and use is in testimony to agreement or concurrence almost exclusively in prayer or religious ritual, although that has also crossed over into slang for obvious reasons.

In effect, Cleaver exclaimed at the end of his prayer, “I agree — and also, a woman.” It’s an idiotic non-sequitur, one that’s obvious to anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of English, Greek, Latin, or just common sense. Clearly, Cleaver doesn’t qualify in any of these categories. Rather than “control [his] tribal tendencies,” Cleaver let his run rampant as a clueless virtue-signaling exercise.

Let’s just pray that the rest of this session spares us from similar idiocies in House Democrats’ attempt to pretend that genders don’t exist. Can I get an amen to that?