The bridal gown had been selected. The new home decorated. The bridal party booked. The invitations sent. She was getting married to the town carpenter. A respectable entrepreneur who worshiped the ground she walked on. She was destined to live happily ever after.
But………Yes, there is a but!
There was one major problem.
SHE WAS PREGNANT!!!!
Even worse, THE BABY WAS NOT HIS…
(Yes, I know the baby in question was God’s Anointed One, but that is not the topic here. The focus here is on the Injustice and scrutiny she faced from her community and her peers.)
What would she tell her fiance?
What would her family say?
What would her friends, church brethren and community think?
I could just imagine the plight Mary faced as a pregnant unwed young lady. How could she face her community without feeling like an outcast, a let down and a shame to her orthodox Jewish community.
Sadly, many women in our churches are living Mary’s experience. What baffles me is as the church rallies to make her life a “fiery furnace”, there is always one detail that remains unaddressed.
WHERE IS THE FATHER?
It’s funny that the very church that preaches about the “Injustice” faced by Mary, is the very church that is now delivering this injustice to hundreds of young women in our churches. Unwed mothers are put through the grind and stripped of the joy of bearing a child.
AND THE FATHER? NOTHING!!!!
HELLO!!!!!
The immaculate conception ONLY HAPPENED ONCE!
The church has been fostering a double standard that is driving many young women out of the church and right into the enemy’s courtyard. We as a church need to eliminate this double standard and hold the fathers just as liable as the mothers in these premature pregnancies. Until we do so, we are giving men the license to strip women of their dignity and get away with it.
Yes it’s a two way street and I understand that she willingly indulged in the act. However, since they both indulged they both should face the “fiery furnace”.
Sin is sin!
There is no sexism in sin.
There is no respecter of persons in sin.
Therefore, everyone should be held accountable for their sins no matter who they are, what leadership role they hold, or what societal class they are part of.
In God’s eyes, we are all the same and that should also be the churches point of view.
Once we start addressing both sides of these issues, we will stop seeing our churches in the 10 O’clock news. We will stop seeing our Ministers, Bishops, Priests and Elders in the courtrooms. Most of all, the wonderful Gospel of Jesus Christ will cease to be under fire and scrutiny due the cover ups and failures of the church.
Remember, Whatsoever is done in darkness will come into the light.
Think about it!
Hi,
I happened to come accross with people who declare themselves catholics and are totally hostile to any form of abortion: this is a good starting point for a catholic but it cannot be the end of the trip. Someone else points the finger at the missing fathers as the main cause of unwanted pregnancies: incouraging them to come up and take their responsabilities would be a good thing to do but what if they don’t want to respond? and what about the many other situations in which a couple simply doesn’t want a pregnancy at a point of their life? Well a catholic answer to this has been proposed by the cardinal of Genova long ago with little response as it is very difficult to be a catholic, but it is possible: the anwer is that catholic families should be encouraged to be much much more open than they really are, meaning that if a neighbor girl is pregnant and doesn’t want to keep the baby then the true catholics, if any, should welcome that child in their homes and his/her mother too, some with financial help, some allowing space for them in their own house, perhaps sharing the burden among many households in deep love, with the joy of helping a young mother keep her baby, making them a part a new wider family. It makes no sense for us the catholics to tell the other ones what their duties are and not moving a finger to help them carry their heavy burdens. It is a duty for the catholics to love each other. This is exactly the teaching of the Church: this teaching can be put into practice only by giving the example, otherwise it would become again the usual circle”telling the others what to do and not doing anything”. Our Lady, Mary, is the mother of the Church; she doesn’t like closed hearthed families who think just of themselves, she wants the doors of our homes to be open. The mother who doesn’t want to keep the pregnancy isn’t more guilty than those who don’t help her carry the “burden” of the baby initially and then the child and later boy/girl with love. Prayer is very important in these situations to be inspired for the good and to try to do things for love for the nighbour, otherwise (with no love) it won’t work. In my personal life I have tried to put it in practice the best I could when I came accross with those situations. There are anyhow many abortions which take place inside affluent or non poor families and in full agreement with the partner: almost inevitably the would be mother is harmed by her own free decision for very long time after the abortion, sometime for the whole life, many of those involved contrarily to the opinion of many enlighted politicians regret that is far too easy to abort without any proper warning about what they will feel whenever they see a child after their abortion. Reality is more complex and would be fathers who would like to keep the baby are unprotected against mothers who don’t want to keep the pregnancy. It is more common than people think. As you can see the situations are very different and there is an answer of Holy Mary for each of them.
Comment by Francesco — June 27, 2007 @ 8:25 pm |