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Catholic Student Youth from Germany to write "God" in gender-neutral language


The Catholic Student Youth (KSJ) is now writing "God *" with an asterisk, in reference to gender neutral language.

How gender-neutral language is used in German:
German has third-person singular pronouns, which include: er (grammatically male), sie (grammatically female), es (grammatically neuter), man (impersonal/indefinite), jemand (impersonal) and irgendjemand (impersonal) in nominative case.

Since the 2010s, a form is sometimes used in academic and feminist circles in which an underscore (_) or an asterisk (*) is inserted just before the gender-specific suffix, as in "liebe_r Student_in" or "liebe*r Student*in" ("dear student"). This form, called Gendergap (not to be confused with the English-language term "gender gap") or Gendersternchen ("gender star") respectively, is meant to convey an "open space" for all gender identities, whether male, female or genderqueer. In spoken language, the underscore or asterisk is indicated by a glottal stop.

So, the use of Gott* (God*) with an asterisk at the end encompasses all possible genders.

A more diverse God
The KSJ announced on Friday that a new campaign is intended to promote a different image of God, "away from the punishing, old, white man with a beard towards a diversity of God". The association was founded by Jesuits in 1919 and is now part of the Federation of German Catholic Youth (BDKJ).

"To seek and find God* in all things" is the spiritual mandate that Ignatius von Loyola gave to the Jesuit order and thus also to the KSJ. "This requires us to perceive God* without prejudice, after all, God* cannot be assigned to any gender or other human categories." With the gender asterist the idea is to take God out of the sexual level, and thus avoid its relationship with it.

The campaign of the KSJ serves on the one hand to make their decisions visible and on the other hand takes a position on current church political issues that are dealt with in the Synodal Way, they said. In order to "dust off the Catholic image of God and initiate a discussion beyond the association", postcards, banners and stickers of the campaign would be sent within the association itself, in all national Catholic youth organizations and beyond, offered for ordering and shared on social media.

Source: Katholisch.de
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