To stop using words such as  “man” and “mankind” because those words aren’t sufficiently “inclusive”, reports indicate that this is what leaders at Bethel University in Minnesota, an evangelical Christian university is telling their professors. 

It appears to be an attempt at radical campus reform, The Daily Caller reports on Bethel University sending out a document asking faculty members to avoid using masculine terminology entitled “Language is a Powerful Tool.”

“To be clear in our Christian witness, the Bethel faculty encourages the use of inclusive language,” the document explains.

So what does inclusive mean in this case? One would expect that a Christian college uses quotes from The Bible and there are many using “mankind” and “man”. Well, the document sent out asks professors at 6,000-student Bethel University to “avoid using masculine terms to refer to people who may be either male or female.”

“Use a substitute for words like ‘man’ or ‘mankind’” when making general references to people, the guide says. “English is sometimes awkward” but “words like ‘humans,’ ‘humanity,’ ‘beings,’ ‘people” and ‘all’ are often adequate substitutes.”

In most versions of The Bible both Old and New Testaments references to mankind are made. In Genesis 1:26, for example, the New International Version of the Bible reports God as saying, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.”

In Genesis 1:27, the New International Version relates this information: “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

The older King James Version of the Bible presents even more problems for “inclusive” language. For example, that Bible’s version of Genesis 1:25 reads, in part: “And God made the beast of the earth after his kind.”

And what will they do when it’s time to talk about Jesus? Matthew 18:11 reads: “For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.” In any case, Bethel University’s faculty language guide also urges professors to avoid several phrases including “man and wife.”

The document stresses that its advice is voluntary and not mandatory.

The Daily Caller article / TRUNEWS summary.

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