Now, the "Lord's Prayer" Is Gender-Biased!

According to a high-ranking Church of England official, Jesus’ sample prayer—commonly called the “Lord’s Prayer”—is dangerously biased toward patriarchy. The Guardian quoted the Archbishop of York when it reported that the “opening words of the Lord’s Prayer, recited by Christians all over the world for 2,000 years, may be ‘problematic’ because of their patriarchal association” (July 7, 2023). Although he does not speak for the whole of the Church of England, the archbishop’s comments reflect increasing moral confusion in the organization and beyond. Those who claim to lead others in Christ’s name should understand the foundational principles of the Bible, but many religious leaders today are increasingly influenced by the moral degradation of society.

The Bible clearly says that God is a Father, and Jesus punctuated this fact when He taught His disciples to pray (Matthew 6:9). Christ did not teach us to pray to “the great deity” or to some intentionally vague sense of God. Rather, He taught us explicitly to pray to “Our Father in heaven.” Although this clear reference to a father figure is uncomfortable to a growing number of people in Western society, it is a clear Bible teaching, and it relates to God’s plan to build a family! He desires children—“godly offspring” (Malachi 2:15). God is the Father, Jesus Christ is the Son and the groom who will one day marry His Bride, the Church (Revelation 19:7–9). And Christ, in the role of husband, is “head over all things to the church” (Ephesians 1:22).

A clear family structure is laid out in the pages of the Bible, and that family structure has as its highest authority God the Father, the head of His family (Ephesians 3:14–15). The Bible warns about those who profess to be wise and of God, yet have become fools (Romans 1:22). We are also warned in the Scriptures that if those who claim to be of God but “speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20). The Bible reveals what God’s family looks like and how it should function. To learn more about this important subject, read or listen to Successful Parenting: God’s Way.