Last week, Representative Emanuel Cleaver from Missouri gave the opening prayer on the first day of the session in 2021. After praying for good things to happen this year, he finished his prayer by saying “amen and a woman”. As many people know, Amen means “So Be It” in Latin. It has nothing to do with genders and is not supposed to be offensive to women. The Congressman has received a lot of backlash for saying this, but he doesn’t know why. 

Republicans and Democrats both had something to say. Representative Cleaver explained last week on Twitter that he “…was honored to deliver the opening prayer for the 117th congress”, but has yet to respond to the backlash of his prayer. Some reps thought that he said “a man and a woman” but that has not been stated from Cleaver. Even Trump had something to say about the matter. “Is this what you voted for” was the sentence the President used on Twitter last Tuesday. There were many comments to go along with Trump’s statement which caused a fight between Representatives. 

Feminists, agree with Cleaver because all women and men are equal, but that’s not the problem. Christians and Feminists have been arguing all week, but what happened at the Capitol made it worse. It seems like everyone in the country is fighting which has been affecting many people’s lives. Christians know that amen has nothing to do with genders, but Feminists can not see their side of the story. There are 144 women serving in the House and Senate, but most of them agreed that saying amen and a woman did not help the representative. Cleaver said that it was more of a pun intended for all the women, and he wanted to make the session more light-hearted. 

Even though this happened last Wednesday, it overtook the news. The attack on the capitol by rioters made many congressmen and women more aware of what was going on in Washington D.C. What else will happen on January 20th when the Inauguration happens?