At the beginning of 2024, many Russian bloggers outraged the news that the large British Christian community allegedly forbade priests and parishioners to use the words “husband” and “wife” in communication due to their gender coloring. We checked how justified such statements are.
"Orthodox life","Russian seed","The Union of Orthodox Journalists"And some other Russian -speaking media reported that the UK Methodist Church has issued a" inclusive language guide ", which contains an indication not to use the gender -colored terms" husband "and" wife ". "Crimean newspaper»I added that instead it will be necessary to use the words" parent "," partner "or" guardian ". Then dozens of Telegram channels shared this news, the posts of which, according to the TGSTAT service, scored more than 680,000 views. Among them "Militarist"(127,000 views at the time of writing this analysis),"Pool N3"(100,000),"Petya the first"(90,000) and"Tsargrad-TV"(61 000). They also wrote about the ban Bloggers And Users social networks.
At the beginning of January 2024, the Methodist Church of Great Britain really Published On your site, a post written by London pastor Michael Youngson. The publication was dedicated to the next version "Inclusive language guidelines", Which this religious community updates about once every six months. On the blog of Youngson Explainsthat the document approves the use of traditional concepts and terms, while giving people freedom to express their thoughts with any words comfortable for them.
The terms “husband” and “wife”, which some Russian media and Telegram channels have been defended, are mentioned on the third page of “leadership” in the subsection of human relationships:
There is an endless variety in how God's creation is expressed in human life. It is worth remembering this when we speak and write. Terms such as “husband” and “wife” can sound harmless, but nevertheless contain assumptions about family or personal life, which may not correspond to reality for many people. You can start with the words “parent”, “partner” and “child”. The word "guardian" is also a neutral, but at the same time understandable designation of a person who raises a child, but perhaps not his parent.
This paragraph is the only place in the document where the words “husband” and “wife” are mentioned. It does not follow from the text of the leadership that among the methodologists their use is prohibited. In addition, the church calls on to use these words with caution not because of their gender coloring, but due to the fact that they can be mistakenly applied to couples that are not husband and wife.
In his post, Youngson also mentions these words when he speaks of marriage ceremonies, which in the UK are often held in the church: “Church figures who help people prepare for special events, such as baptism, funeral service and marriage, should use the inclusive language and turn to the participants as they would like to call themselves. Along with the traditional phrase "husband and wife" it will be appropriate to use such words as "partner" or "spouse". " Youngson immediately explains that this refers not to “the rejection of any terms, but the expansion of our language, so that it corresponds to the comprehensive nature of God's love.”
About the same explanation gave the agency Reuters Michael Ivatt, senior specialist in the media relations of the UK Methodist Church: “Our leadership actually approves traditional terms, but at the same time admits that they may not reflect the reality of all we serve, for example, same -sex couples or those who are not married.”
In addition to family status, the “leadership” recommends that with caution to talk about many other characteristics, the mention of which can accidentally offend people. Among them, for example, age, racial affiliation, sexual orientation, religion, mental disorders, disability, migration status, and even the level of ownership of the English language are listed.
Gender-neutral terms in the document are devoted to a separate paragraph. The “Gender” section indicates that you should not use the usual phrases that can be incorrectly interpreted as the preference of one gender to another. For example, Guys (“Guys”) and Fellows (“Friends”), which in English are often applied to a group of people regardless of their gender, are proposed to be replaced with neutral Friends (“Friends”), Colleagues (“Colleagues”) or Peole (“People”). The leadership also offers to abandon the gender-painted verb to man in the meaning of “protect” or “work”, for example, in the expressions to Man the Entrance (“protect the entrance”) or to man the Front Desk (“work on the registration rack”).
There is a section in the “leadership” about representatives of the LGBT+community. In general, the recommendations come down to the fact that they should contact them as they prefer to call themselves: “If Gary calls T -shirt with his husband, you should also talk about the T -shirt in this way. If Gary and Mike prefer to be called partners, then call them that. ”
It is noteworthy that the news of the allegedly introduced ban on the use of the words “husband” and “wife” among British methodologists appeared in the Russian information field only in January 2024. The first version The “guidelines for the inclusive language” of this church was published in February 2022, and the sections about the terms “husband” and “wife”, gender-neutral vocabulary and LGBT+ community have practically not changed since 2022.
Thus, contrary to the fact that Wrote Some bloggers, the Church of Great Britain, did not declare the word “husband” and “wife” offensive, and even more so did not prohibit their use. In the “inclusive language guide”, which the authors of publications in the media and Telegram channels refer, are not discussed at all: all examples are recommendatory in nature. In the text, it is repeated 12 times that it is important for the clergyman to listen to how the parishioner says about himself: “The way a person identifies and calls himself is always more important than any manual and recommendations.”
Photo on the cover: Pixabay
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