<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail-td-post-header"> <header class="gmail-td-post-title"><h1 class="entry-title">College denies telling students to use gender-neutral pronouns for God</h1><p class="gmail-td-post-sub-title">The Sunday Times claimed theological college Wycliffe Hall instructs avoidance of ‘he’ when referring to God</p><div class="gmail-td-module-meta-info"><div class="gmail-td-post-author-name">By <a href="http://www.cherwell.org/author/jackhunter/">Jack Hunter</a> -</div> <span class="gmail-td-post-date"><time class="entry-date gmail-updated gmail-td-module-date" datetime="2017-01-27T11:53:49+00:00">January 27, 2017</time></span><div class="gmail-td-post-views"><span class="gmail-td-nr-views-95646">181</span></div></div></header></div><div class="gmail-td-post-content"><div class="gmail-td-post-featured-image"><a href="http://i1.wp.com/www.cherwell.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/3990963_96a2d4d5.jpg?fit=640%2C430" class="gmail-td-modal-image"><img class="entry-thumb" src="http://i1.wp.com/www.cherwell.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/3990963_96a2d4d5.jpg?resize=640%2C430" alt="" title="Wycliffe Hall" width="640" height="430"></a></div><div class="gmail-page" title="Page 1"><div class="gmail-layoutArea"><div class="gmail-column"><p>The
theological college Wycliffe Hall has denied claims it asked students
to refer to God using gender neutral pronouns in an attempt to tackle
gender bias.</p><p>A report by <em>The Sunday Times</em> claimed the college’s Inclusive Language Policy told students and staff to refer to God using “the one who” instead of “He”.</p><p>It claimed that the policy intended to change phrases such as “mankind” to “humankind” in its preachings.</p><p>However
the college, a Permanent Private Hall training Church of England
priests, has strongly dismissed the claims, saying the college “does no
such thing”.</p><p>The college’s principal, the Revd Michael Lloyd, said
the policy contains “no suggestion that the traditional gender pronouns
concerning God should be altered in any way. Indeed the Hall’s policy
reaffirms that we should continue to speak of God as Father, Son and
Holy Spirit, as Christians have always done”.</p><p>The <em>Sunday Times</em>
had drawn comparisons with guidelines at two top US divinity schools
which reportedly recommend professors use “inclusive” gender-neutral
language when speaking about God.</p><p>Yet Lloyd said: “Inclusive
language is encouraged at Wycliffe Hall in our preaching and our writing
when describing people – not ‘man’, ‘mankind’, ‘every man’, but
‘human’, ‘humanity’, ‘everyone’. Therefore careful thought is required
when using older liturgy, hymnody, or Bible translations, in order to
include the whole people of God. This is common sense and is common
practice throughout the churches.”</p></div><div class="gmail-column"><p>The
article received angered responses, with comments saying: “Didn’t God
create Adam in his own image? Last time I checked, Adam was a masculine
name.”</p><p>But others expressed positivity for the initiative. Mark Woods, writing in <em>Christian Today</em>,
wrote: “Wycliffe’s inclusive language policy, in fact, looks eminently
sensible. It notes that language changes and that while once it was
common to talk about mankind, man, every man, we don’t do that any
more.”</p><p>The
college’s Inclusive Language Policy states: “The patriarchal masculine
has become a form of alienation for many women and indeed many men. It
reduces women to Other by normalizing the masculine.”</p><p>It
encourages a use of inclusive language in the Hall “not because we have
to but rather as a sign of our love for each other in Christ”.</p><p>While
acknowledging that older hymns and the Book of Common Prayer are “by
definition written in the language of patriarchy”, the policy says that
services and preachings will continue to use them in order to respect
“integrity”.</p><div class="gmail-page" title="Page 1"><div class="gmail-layoutArea"><div class="gmail-column"><p>It
states that the college expects teachers and visiting lecturers to
reflect a “gender balance” in their topics and language, for example by
using biblical passages which involve women.</p><p>The <em>Sunday Times</em>
report, which has since been removed from the paper’s website, is the
latest in a series of articles concerning the use of pronouns at Oxford
which have faced claims of misreporting.</p></div><div class="gmail-column"><p>In December, following a <em>Cherwell</em> investigation, a claim published by <em>The Sunday Times</em> that OUSU had instructed students to use the ‘ze’ pronoun was revealed to be fake. The paper published an apology in January.</p><p><br></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><a href="http://www.cherwell.org/2017/01/27/college-denies-telling-students-to-use-gender-neutral-pronouns-for-god/">http://www.cherwell.org/2017/01/27/college-denies-telling-students-to-use-gender-neutral-pronouns-for-god/</a><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
</div>