Why Use Inclusive Language?
The reasons are many!
Make your
message clearer. Roughly half (more in
most churches) of the people in your pews are
female. If you want EVERYONE to hear the brilliant
theological points you carefully wove into that
sermon or lesson plan and feel drawn into the
presence of a God who loves and accepts them as
they are for who they are, then you want to speak
to EVERYONE who's there. And half of them don't
answer to 'he'.
Help every person connect with
God. If you continue to use exclusive
language, there are going to be some people sitting
in front of you feeling disconnected from God's
presence and trying to 'translate' what you're
saying to fit their own situation as women/girls.
They're going to miss whatever else you're saying
as they perform this amazing feat of 'listening for
something they can hear'. It will also make some of
them angry and frustrated and excluded in God's
House and that is not the response you want people
to be having in worship. If both women and men are
created in the image of God, then our images of God
and our talk of humanity should be gender-neutral
or gender-balanced.
Introduce your listeners to a bigger God
than they know right now. Being inclusive
does not mean removing all gender from God or
people, though there are many rich gender-neutral
metaphors for God. It also means balancing gender
language, using MORE metaphors! You can still call
God "Father". But now you'll call God "Mother",
too. You can preach or liturgize about the faith of
Abraham and David and Daniel. But you'll also talk
about the faith of Rahab and Sarah and the
Shunnamite woman.
Increase Biblical literacy. What
percentage of your congregation knows who Rahab was
and what she did? How many know that she appears in
the genealogy of Christ? How many know the story of
the Shunnamite woman or Hagar? Emphasizing the
faith of the women along with the men in the Bible
means that your church or group will become more
Biblically literate.
Increase Biblical Role Models. If
roughly half (or more) of your congregation is
female, then providing both them and their brothers
with strong, faithful, female role models is
crucial. Give girls and women faithful, vibrant
role models like Hagar, Sarah, Rahab, Deborah, the
Shunnamite woman, Mary Magdalene, Martha and Mary,
Mary the mother of Jesus, and many more! Balance
these role models with Abraham, David, Solomon,
Peter, Paul, John, and the like. The men may
discover they have many things to admire about and
learn from biblical women, too!
It's easier than you think! If you
use inclusive language well, the people who don't
care about inclusive language won't care or miss
all those 'hes' and 'hims'. But the people who do
care will feel at ease, welcomed, 'seen', and
respected! To the rest, your worship will simply
seem richer and more accepting and your messages
will seem much clearer. So why not try it?
Inclusive language invites everyone into God's
story and ensures that no one is left standing
outside God's circle of acceptance, welcome, and
joy.
