A church in a Swedish city has defended its choice of gender-neutral pronoun ‘hen’ in reference to Jesus in an advertisement. The church insists the word gives “new perspective.” In November, the largest religious institution in the country, the Church of Sweden, advised its clergy to avoid terms like ‘Lord’ and ‘He’ in worship services in order to not highlight that God is male, in the new version of a handbook on how to conduct services. The move has triggered a backlash, with critics saying the change
undermines the Christian concept of the Holy Trinity and politicizes faith. The issue became even more heated when a church in the Swedish city of Vasteras referred to Jesus as ‘hen’ in an advertisement for a Christmas worship service. The pronoun is used as an alternative to gender-specific words when a person’s gender is not known or not relevant. Some Twitter users rushed to ask whether it is now an official stance of the church. Susann Senter, the church’s dean, and Bishop of Vasteras Mikael Mogren were forced to come up with explanations. READ MORE
