Thursday 13 November 2014

Credit Where it's Due

People who know me know that I'm not Christian.  My ancestors were mostly varieties of Protestant but I was brought up in a secular manner.  Over the years I've attended many different services from Anglican to Catholic as I tried to understand religious people and their beliefs.

One of the major Christian prayers is the Hail Mary, which gives blessing to her for bearing Jesus into the world.  However I recently discovered the following text online, apparently propaganda for a movement that is attempting to remove Mary from her position.

"I know you don't like to hear this... but she can't hear your prayers. She's not God, she can't be everywhere at once.  God says He DOES NOT give His glory to another (Isaiah 42:8) ... that includes Mary.  He will never give her a higher position than Him or anything even close to His glory and magnificence.  Satan is trying his best to stop God from receiving His deserved worship, and redirecting it to Mary.  This is a very wicked thing to do.  Worship the creator not creation (Romans 1:25).  I used to pray to Mary, then I started to read the Bible, that's when I found out my family was teaching me lies.  I stopped praying to Mary, and confessed my sins of idolatry to God.  Will you do the same?"

From a non-Christian perspective I think this is an unfair interpretation.  God approached Mary to bear His son Jesus, and she went through many trials before and after doing so.  She deserves rightful credit, so acknowledge her and bless her.  Doesn't the Christian Rosary include prayers to both Mary and God?  Nobody said she had to be worshiped above God.

What these people are trying to do is downplay Mary's importance, probably because she is a woman.  Even Mary Magdalene, the first witness of the Resurrection - and wife of Jesus by some accounts - was for a time described as a repentant harlot.

The Bible contains stories about strong women who ran businesses and became influential in their community and in politics.  Why then, does there seem to be an effort to rub them out?  We should be praising them.


7 comments:

  1. There is so much to learn from the women of the Bible. The women play such an important role, but they are often overlooked. There's more to learn from the bad girls than the good girls.

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  2. Years ago I was volunteering at an old age home run by nuns. I asked the priest about Mary and he said, "Jesus is way up here (pointing high above his head) and Mary is down here (perhaps down to the level of the table) and we are down here (a bit lower than Mary). I've remembered this ever since that while Mary is holy and wonderful in her own right, she does not begin to approach the glory and all powerful nature of God. I do have to say, though, that I prayed to her that I become closer to Jesus (I remember the day and where I was) and within a few months, I became closer to Jesus in a new and wonderful way. Further, I think that once we pass we are able to see what goes on down here but there's probably way more interesting things going on up there. That's crudely put but it's the best I can do. Blessings.

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  3. Many people tend to overlook that the bible (or in my case the Torah) is a breeding ground for inspiration. Although one must take it all with a grain of salt, there are many lessons to be learned and many strong and inspiring women to learn from. Take a look at Zipporah. Noah's wife had to go along with her husband acting like a nut job, talking to G-D and then building a giant boat and goading animals on board. She then had to put up with said animals and just go with the (torrential rains) flow. A major lesson there. To have patience and understanding. Also, if your husband can build an Arc he can sure as heck build you a shoe closet!

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  4. Your not afraid of tough topics are you? Let me just say, there is no cohesive movement in Christianity that I know of to reduce, ignore, or shed a negative light on any women of the Bible- there is actually a move toward the contrary in many churches across the country. A move within Christian Churches that better recognizes the equal but unique contributions of women. - The first thing you must know, that while many people say they are Christians- there are many, many different ways to peruse that faith. Just as there are many ways to pursue the Muslim or Jewish or even Buddhist faiths. If you get a group of twenty Christians in a room, they are all going to have different ideas about women from the Bible. That may sound astounding but think of it this way. If you get a group of twenty parents in a room, they are all going to have different ideas of how to raise their kids. A second point would be: there is a vast difference between worshiping and honoring. - I don't know if this answers your post, but if you have any questions you can email me. :)

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    1. No worries Dana, you did explain it very well. Despite efforts to "mainstream" a religion by using only one text and encouraging one interpretation, there in fact are many viewpoints, not all of which are necessarily correct or appropriate.

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  5. I think there is a sub-section of western society that sees the power of the patriarchy being eroded, and they are attempting to win some back. They can't do it with anything genuine, so they attempt nonsense like this.

    Or maybe they finally figured out that God is actually female and it scares them.

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