Ben Shapiro mocks Democrats over 'amen and a-woman' prayer: 'Dumbest s--- I have ever seen'

Prominent Republicans were unhappy with Rep. Emanuel Cleaver's attempt to assign a gender to the word 'amen'

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro blasted Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., Monday for his "idiotic" closing of the 117th Congress' opening prayer in which he altered the traditional ending of "amen" to "Amen and a-woman."

"The prayer with which Congress opened is, I believe, the stupidest thing that I have heard in all my life," "The Ben Shapiro Show" host said on his podcast Monday morning.

Cleaver's prayer provoked fury among Republican lawmakers and other prominent conservatives who said he was wrong to attempt to assign gender to the word "amen."

Shapiro noted that the term "has literally nothing to do with gender," and derives from a Hebrew word that communicates affirmation or solidarity, and in the context of prayer, translates to "may it be so."

REP. CLEAVER ENDS OPENING PRAYER FOR NEW CONGRESS: ‘AMEN AND A-WOMAN’

"'Amen' is a Biblical Hebrew word: אמן. It is a word simply meaning 'may it be so.' It has nothing to do with the word 'man' or 'woman' because it is FROM HEBREW," Shapiro tweeted. "This is some of the dumbest s*** I have ever seen in my life."

Shapiro, who is an Orthodox Jew, mocked "leftists" for the "radically stupid" belief "that the word, because it is spelled a-m-e-n and includes the word 'men' somehow is gendered language."

"I mean, you would have to take the word 'amen,' take it down to the pit of despair from 'The Princess Bride,' put the torture machine on it and torture it until it tosses out some sort of gendered variant," he said.

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"Not only is that stupid on that level," Shapiro continued, "it would also then be meaningless. Why would you end any prayer and just say 'man?' It's idiotic."

The host went on to note that Cleaver's word choice comes amid a push by Democrats to remove gender-specific pronouns from House bills. The rules, if passed, would change father and mother to "parent," daughter and son to "child," brother and sister to "sibling," and aunt and uncle to "parent’s sibling."

"It turns out that people on the left don't actually believe that men and women are real concepts," he said.

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"They're malleable men and women, so what they really should say just to be tolerant is 'amen, a-woman, and a gender is a social construct that is unconnected to biological sex but also a biological imperative' and then bow their heads."

"Well done," concluded Shapiro. " That's a great way to start the year."