GOP Gospel: The Annunciation
Feb. 22nd, 2021 10:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tealinDay 5 of my Lent project. For background, please read this.
A week of Christmas readings starting today, because if we're asking What Would Republican Jesus Do, it sure isn't 'be born to an unmarried teenage mum in a garage and then seek asylum in a foreign country'!
A reading from the Gospel according to the GOP:
Luke 1:26-38
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, "Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you." But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" The angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called the Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God." Then Mary said, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her.
I find it interesting that, culturally, the Annunciation is often presented as God asking Mary to bear his son, and her agreeing to do so. In Catholic services in Canada, in the early 2000s, an extra pro-life prayer was often added at the end of the service, which contained the line "Like Mary, may we always say 'yes' to your gift." As someone who had not been given a motherly inclination by a supposedly omniscient God, this always grated, as though motherhood was something I ought to welcome gladly whether it fit or not, like an ill-considered Christmas present.
There is, in fact, no choice, explicit or implied, offered in the text. It is perfectly valid to read this as raising uncomfortable questions about consent. The traditional way to square the circle, I've gathered, is the rationalisation that God gives purposes to the people who he's made to fulfil those purposes, who he knows already would say 'yes'. The skeptic in me raises an eyebrow at this; on the other hand, from my own life experience and everyone else I know who's discerned a vocation, when you finally let go of the pretence of control, and do the job God has made you for, you never look back. My vocation is, thankfully, nothing to do with motherhood, and rather one that uses the gifts that have been given to me. Turns out, God does know what he's doing, and being born with a uterus does not predetermine one's higher calling, whatever his representatives on earth may want you to believe.
Consenting, whether offered the choice or not, to be the unmarried mother of a child of dubious provenance, is not the decision of a meek and biddable ingenue as Mary is so often depicted. Just like the woman in the first GOP Gospel, she would run the risk of public execution for evidence of sex outside of marriage. Taking that on was a rather punk thing to do. Young Catholic girls are encouraged to adopt Mary as an ideal example, given prayer cards with Victorian paintings of a demure, petite young woman, with large downcast eyes and open hands, a model of passivity. I hope I do take Mary as an example, but instead as someone unafraid to give the finger to social norms, and challenge the status quo from within my place in the power structure, with the tools given to me. As a teenage girl in first-century Roman-occupied Palestine, Mary had practically no power to do anything, but what she could do was radically transgress the established order and overturn everything by bringing the Messiah into the world. Girl power, eh?
Anyway, for all that Republicans fetishize Individual Liberty and Self-Determination, they do not extend autonomous free will to childbearing, so I have left the lack of consent untouched from the original.
A week of Christmas readings starting today, because if we're asking What Would Republican Jesus Do, it sure isn't 'be born to an unmarried teenage mum in a garage and then seek asylum in a foreign country'!
A reading from the Gospel according to the GOP:
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, "Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you." But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will exalt him above other men. He will do everything right, and so will never die, and of his authority there will be no end." Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" The angel said to her, "God has made clear through the Law and the Prophets that for a woman to conceive out of wedlock is abhorrent, and God would not go against his own word. Therefore, after your marriage to Joseph has come to pass, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Thus the child to be born will carry no shame, and will be holy; he will be the son of Joseph under the law, but will be called the Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren, but who has been released to achieve her highest calling. For nothing will be impossible with God." Then Mary said, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word. My soul delights that I have kept myself pure, to be a pleasing vessel for the Lord." Then the angel departed from her.
Luke 1:26-38
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, "Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you." But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" The angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called the Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God." Then Mary said, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her.
I find it interesting that, culturally, the Annunciation is often presented as God asking Mary to bear his son, and her agreeing to do so. In Catholic services in Canada, in the early 2000s, an extra pro-life prayer was often added at the end of the service, which contained the line "Like Mary, may we always say 'yes' to your gift." As someone who had not been given a motherly inclination by a supposedly omniscient God, this always grated, as though motherhood was something I ought to welcome gladly whether it fit or not, like an ill-considered Christmas present.
There is, in fact, no choice, explicit or implied, offered in the text. It is perfectly valid to read this as raising uncomfortable questions about consent. The traditional way to square the circle, I've gathered, is the rationalisation that God gives purposes to the people who he's made to fulfil those purposes, who he knows already would say 'yes'. The skeptic in me raises an eyebrow at this; on the other hand, from my own life experience and everyone else I know who's discerned a vocation, when you finally let go of the pretence of control, and do the job God has made you for, you never look back. My vocation is, thankfully, nothing to do with motherhood, and rather one that uses the gifts that have been given to me. Turns out, God does know what he's doing, and being born with a uterus does not predetermine one's higher calling, whatever his representatives on earth may want you to believe.
Consenting, whether offered the choice or not, to be the unmarried mother of a child of dubious provenance, is not the decision of a meek and biddable ingenue as Mary is so often depicted. Just like the woman in the first GOP Gospel, she would run the risk of public execution for evidence of sex outside of marriage. Taking that on was a rather punk thing to do. Young Catholic girls are encouraged to adopt Mary as an ideal example, given prayer cards with Victorian paintings of a demure, petite young woman, with large downcast eyes and open hands, a model of passivity. I hope I do take Mary as an example, but instead as someone unafraid to give the finger to social norms, and challenge the status quo from within my place in the power structure, with the tools given to me. As a teenage girl in first-century Roman-occupied Palestine, Mary had practically no power to do anything, but what she could do was radically transgress the established order and overturn everything by bringing the Messiah into the world. Girl power, eh?
Anyway, for all that Republicans fetishize Individual Liberty and Self-Determination, they do not extend autonomous free will to childbearing, so I have left the lack of consent untouched from the original.
