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{"id":40594,"date":"2018-12-25T05:00:10","date_gmt":"2018-12-25T09:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=40594"},"modified":"2018-12-20T21:20:45","modified_gmt":"2018-12-21T01:20:45","slug":"today-we-celebrate-a-pregnant-middle-eastern-teenage-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2018\/12\/today-we-celebrate-a-pregnant-middle-eastern-teenage-girl.html","title":{"rendered":"Today We Celebrate a Pregnant Middle Eastern Teenage Girl"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

It\u2019s Christmas! You know, the holiday where a pregnant middle eastern teenager gives birth in unsanitary overflow conditions and subsequently flees threats of violence on foot, walking hundreds of miles to take asylum in another country.<\/p>\n

I find myself continually amazed at what conservative Christianity has done to a story that on its face seems so subversive. Certainly, the history of Christianity is complicated, and there is much in the Bible that defends the status quo. But consider how the story goes\u2014God chose a young girl from Nazareth. Mary\u2019s family wasn\u2019t rich. Nazareth wasn\u2019t well known. Young girls had very little authority or space, even over their own lives.<\/p>\n

Sometimes it feels like conservative Christianity has become little more than a label tacked onto a set of political beliefs. When there would seem to be conflict between evangelicalism and political conservatism\u2014Jesus healed all, rich and poor, but Republicans have fought universal healthcare tooth and nail\u2014it\u2019s the political position that wins.<\/p>\n

Take refugees and asylum seekers, for instance. Mary and Joseph fled threats of violence and took refuge in Egypt. There are verses throughout the Bible calling for kind treat meant for strangers and foreigners. I honestly do not see any way to take the Bible and the Bible alone and come to the conclusion of today\u2019s evangelicals, who overwhelmingly oppose<\/a> accepting refugees and asylum seekers into the United States.<\/p>\n

Politics, it would seem, are the primary shaper of evangelical belief.<\/p>\n

A friend of mine, who went to a Christian college but now has pagan leanings, has spent the month of December posting photos of the madonna and child, in color. Black, brown, Hispanic, Asian, Native American. While such portrayals have historically been steeped in colonialism\u2014frequently rendered by Catholic missionaries seeking to spread Christianity\u2014they also serve to subversively broaden the too-often exclusively white lens of Christianity. Take this one, for instance:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Images can be powerful. What would it mean if Mary were consistently portrayed as a middle eastern Israelite woman, in period clothing, rather than as a white skinned, blond haired woman wearing pale blue? What if portrayals of the nativity scene had the grime of refugee camps, rather than the cleanliness of its typical depiction?<\/p>\n

Perhaps nothing would be different. But perhaps, even in small ways, some things would.<\/p>\n

I have a <\/b>Patreon<\/b><\/a>! Please support my writing!\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"