22 of you participated in this last poll asking about inclusive language (Indie communities ought to use “inclusive language” both in worship and in Scriptures); here is the breakdown of how you voted:
Yes – absolutely = 6 (27%)
Yeah – OK = 3 (14%)
No – definitely not = 3 (14%)
I would prefer that we did not = 8 (36%)
I don’t know = 2 (9%)
41% of you responded with an overall positive.
55% of you responded with an overall negative.
First I should point out that in hind sight I think I would have framed the question or the responses a bit better. I had some great conversations with a couple of you on this point. I wanted to offer respondents a “strong” or “weak” position; but I also wanted the question to be broadly shaped so as to elicit your instinctual or “gut” reaction.
I confess I am surprised by the results. I fully expected a resounding result in favour of one or the other – I assumed that it would be in favour of inclusive language – in fact the opposite is true.
It also strikes me as interesting that when you look at the difference between the “strong” and “weak” responses in each answer. Again I think I expected a much stronger response in both; in fact positive “strong” responses were 50% higher than “weak” responses, and negative “weak” responses were 63% higher than “strong” responses. It may suggest that those who are in favour of inclusive language feel more strongly about it than those who are not so keen. It may also be the case that overall it cannot be said that indie folk are as passionate about inclusivity and inclusive language as we sometimes think; and begs the question in what other ways do we express our inclusivity that are perhaps more meaningful, or more important to our local communities?
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