MOVIE: The [Revised] NATIVITY

Should the Lord tarry, what shall be said of the current day? We have moved beyond “all things are relative” to an age of anarchy. There are even Christians who support a “live and let live” attitude that would have been unimaginable 50 — even 30 — years ago.

I sometimes come off as preachy and reactionary — especially when I lack facts and am consumed with emotion. Given this, I’ve often reflected the truth in the saying, “You preach most what you most need to learn.”

Being mindful of this, my own shortcomings, when I read that New Line Cinema was producing a new movie about the Holy Family — from a strong feminist perspective — I had hoped to ignore it. Maybe it would just go away. I mean, what does it have to do with me, or any Christian?

Well, there’s the rub. Many Christians, no matter their “brand,” participate in one thing on Sunday and a whole different thing Monday through Saturday. By that I mean to say, we live in an age of weak faith and superficial values.

Consider the Body Worlds exhibit. This show is currently on display here in Houston. Guess what? I’ve spoken with a handful of Christians who’ve seen it and are raving about it — a few more who are hoping to go. Call me dense — maybe even a fuddy-duddy — but I find this hard to believe. Would this have been the case 30 years ago?

More recently I linked to Dawn Eden’s site where it was revealed that Planned Parenthood’s Teen Wire was offering advice, from teens, on the best time to lose your virginity. Virginity! Now there’s an old-fashioned word.

Which brings me back ’round to the subject of this mild rant.

It is truly a sign of our times that a movie is in the works wherein the Most Holy Mother of God is to be portrayed as a feminist. (At this point, I confess, I paused my typing and filtered through several inappropriate words. Forgive me.)

As someone commented on Amy Welborn’s openbook:

For some reason I shudder at the thought of a Hollywood film portraying the Blessed Virgin Mary as a pregnant, confused thirteen year old, manipulated by the old man to whom she is in an arranged marriage (Joseph), with a religious fanatic cousin (Elizabeth), forced to be an illegal immigrant in Egypt. She overcomes all this to be the Queen of Heaven, and first among the disciples of her son. Roll credits.

The film is set to begin production in May and is, of course, set for a December release date. Remember when Madonna released “Like a Virgin” just in time for Christmas, 1984?

Maybe “The Nativity” will reveal a Mary who is comfortable with the revised image of the Rosary prayed by one feminist blogger:

In my meditations over the Rosary, I focus as well on a less famous Annunciation from the predella of Duccio’s Maestà in Siena. In this painting there is the presence of darkness, as if mystery were made visible, given a reality, as a tone rather than an idea. Duccio’s Mary uses her arm to shield her breasts from the angel’s importuning; her hesitation, her reluctance are unmistakable. And the angel keeps his distance, bides his time. He does not impregnate Mary by ravishment, as Zeus impregnated Danaë or Leda in the Greek myths. He waits for her consent. That is why I use this mystery of the Rosary to pray for women who have been coerced by men, whose pregnancies were the result of force, whose consent was not asked for, not waited for. And I also use this mystery to pray for the work of pro-choice Catholics who insist on the primacy of a woman’s unequivocal consent in the decision to bear a new life, so that every child will be a child brought to birth with the full willingness of its mother, as Jesus was.

I dunno.

Having suffered through some experimental liturgies in the Episcopal Church, one can only (unfortunately) imagine. But, I’m hard pressed to see how they could feminize this:

And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord,
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name.
And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation.
He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.
He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.
He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy;
As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever.
(Luke 1:46 – 55)

One shudders to think.

But in the age of The Da Vinci Code, Body Worlds, and the like … as someone said:

Without God, anything is possible!

Thanks to blog reg, Lucas.