News & Views
NEWS & VIEWS Linguistic Sexism In a move to counter what it terms "linguistic sexism," the editors of the Journal o[ Ecumenical Studies have established guidelines for writers in the...
...The inquiries did not sit well with Landgrebe...
...It is clear that Israel, the...
...Landgrebe distributed "Dear Colleague" letters in August inviting co-sponsors of his bill...
...When Archbishop Samuel E. Carter of Kingston, Jamaica, suggested the possibility of a married clergy in the Western rites, the suggestion was omitted from the Vatican's press summary...
...Lester Kinsolving read: "The Feast of the Annunciation of the Translation of Blessed John MeLaughlin, S.J., from the Executive Mansion to Parts Unknown...
...Avoid referring to God with masculine pronouns...
...It is a pathetic situation," he said, "when a Hoosier truck driver like me finds it necessary to lecture all the brilliant young lawyers working in Congress on the state of the law...
...JOHN DEEDY 25 October 1974:74...
...Landgrebe would amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, and allow a tax exemption calculated "280 days prior to live birth...
...Such usage normally refleets the assumption that the feminine is inferior to the masculine, as with the feminine Church, or Israel, vis-avis a masculine God...
...Such an inference being clearly unacceptable, the only alternatives are to avoid the third person pronouns :n reference to God altogether, or to mix or alternate the use of the feminine and masculine pronouns referring to Her (Him...
...Church, etc., are subordinate to God...
...For example, 'God is all powerful, He is ~11 knowing,' might be rewritten 'God is all powerful, God is all knowing,' or 'God is all powerful and all knowing.' But to refer to Gcd always in masculine terms (while theoretically we irLsist that God has no sex) is to imply that man is rtore godlike than woman...
...But, even more important, a growing number of women rightly resent being subsumed in a term that very often means exclusively the male of the species...
...He obtained one, Delegate Antonio Borja Won Pat (D-Guam...
...He no more needs intelligence briefings than might Harold Stassen...
...Avoid other maledominant phrases when more than just males ate meant...
...NEWS & VIEWS Linguistic Sexism In a move to counter what it terms "linguistic sexism," the editors of the Journal o[ Ecumenical Studies have established guidelines for writers in the publication...
...For example: 'Sons of God,' 'faith of our [athers,' 'pray brethren,' or 'to emasculate something' (the assumption being that only the male is vigorous) ." Editors of the Journal o/ Ecumenical Studies concede that at times "non-sexist language will strike our ears and eyes strangely, or will seem to lack something of the concreteness of a particular sexist term, as, for example, substituting 'humanity' for 'mankind.' "However, they predict "that after our ears and eyes get used to the non-sexist language, the former sexist language will seem strange...
...Hear!, hear!, for Congressman John E. Moss' recommendation of Oct...
...has introduced a bill that would permit the listing of an unborn child by its father as an income tax deduction over the nine-month period prior to birth...
...Abortion and Taxes Describing the measure as a "small economic disincentive for abortion," Congressman Earl F. Landgrebe (R.Ind...
...But, upon reflec:tion, it should also be clear that the feminine-masculine imagery used in the Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and other traditions is an attempt to ex3ress that inferior-superior, human-divine relationship in language that reflected the then (and often, still) existin~ inferiorsuperior, female-male societal relationship...
...The word "live" is intended to forestall "people who would be so base as to repeatedly become pregnant and repeatedly kill the unborn child in order to obtain additional tax exemptions...
...Moss, Democrat of California, allegedly considers Nixon a security risk...
...frequently half of humankind does not know whether it is included in the statement or not...
...Hanging with Hang.Ups An Israel Shenker dispatch from the Synod of Bishops to the New York Times demonstrates how persistent are old Roman reticences about news that is fit to print...
...Henceforth, except for "specific reasons, such as direct quotation," JES writers will be expected to" "1...
...Substitutes might be 'he and she,' 'hers and his,' o r - - f o r the 'bolder' ones--the use of the as-yetungrammatical 'their,' as in 'let everyone perform their worship . . . . ' or simply a shift to the plural form...
...Avoid using feminine pronouns to refer to entities such as the Church or Israel...
...In general we recommend the former...
...3, urging President Ford to halt intelligence briefings of Richard Nixon...
...On the other hand, his staff received "several" telephone calls inquiring whether the "Dear Colleague" letter was a hoax, what the purpose of the amendment was, and how the amendment would change existing law...
...But once the position that 'all humans are created equal' is accepted, such language is rto longer acceptable...
...Avoid the use of masculine pronouns such as he or his to refer to men and women together...
...So too was the comment of Cardinal Krol of Philadelphia that films like The Exorcist and musicals like Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar demonstrated youth's "groping for the elusive, the mysterious, the transcendent...
...Avoid the generic use of the word 'man,' both by itself and in compounds such as 'mankind.' The word man is ambiguous...
...This may at times require some recasting of our wonted ways...
...2 note from religion columnist and White House correspondent Rev...
...Many substitutes can be found for the generic use of the word man: humanity, humankind, human beings, humans, persons, people, everyone...
...Odds and Ends --The presalutation line on an Oct...
...But risk or not, Nixon's no longer President, has no official responsibilities, cannot make governmental decisions...
Vol. 101 • October 1974 • No. 4
