ISSUES OF FAITH: The other, other Mary

Published 1:30 am Friday, August 14, 2026

The Lessons Appointed for Use on the Feast of Mary the Virgin (Aug. 15)

O God, you have taken to yourself the blessed Virgin Mary, mother of your incarnate Son: Grant that we, who have been redeemed by his blood, may share with her the glory of your eternal kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

WELL, THIS IS certainly not the column I was planning to write. At all. Well, there it is.

Last month’s column was about Mary Magdalene and the way the early Christian Church did her wrong by (probably, almost certainly) conflating her with the story of the woman caught in adultery, who was unnamed, got caught cheating and was just about to get stoned when Christ came on the scene. And, as you remember, he said “Let him who is without sin, cast the first stone.” And one by one, as the religious leaders of his day remembered their own pasts, they dropped their stones and wandered away. Then Jesus said, basically, “Hey, I’m not going to condemn you …” and watched her walk away.

End of story.

Or rather, end of story till I started thinking more about the problem of So Many Marys in the Christian scripture and what the fact that there were so many women named Mary meant. Then I realized that Aug. 15 (Saturday!) was the Feast Day for Mary the Virgin, aka the Mother of Our Lord, and thought “Oops, here we go again. I’ll try not to keep harping on Marys of the Christian Scriptures, but I promise nothing.” And the family out at Bethany has fascinated me for decades (so tune in next month!)

So, about the other, other Mary: this is the Mary we often think of when Christians think of Mary, and the thing is, she’s been a problem for some theologians for a long time now.

Some are mad because she seems a bit deluded and maybe even a prostitute who got herself in trouble with a Roman soldier. I can’t now remember where I first heard that, but I’ve known that rumor for what seems forever. And I want to be clear that I reject that story. It’s an entirely human way of thinking about a very human problem.

No doubt some Roman soldiers did get some women in trouble; they didn’t think much of women in general or of the people they’d conquered and so, yes, I suppose that could happen, but there’s no textual evidence for it happening in this case.

Mary has also been the subject of too much attention in the history of the Christian Church where she is not just a virgin who gave birth and said yes to God. She’s pictured as entirely obedient, though as a young woman in the first century she’d have known what saying “yes” would mean. (Compare, for instance, the story of the woman caught in adultery.) It would have screwed up everything up for her. And the idea of her being patient and saying yes without any questions whatsoever has been used for a long time as a model for women of faith, and even used to justify domestic abuse. Besides, if the version of Mary who was used by Roman soldiers is too earthly a story, this version is a swing in the opposite extreme: she’s too holy for her own good. As that side of things continued to grow over the centuries, she became co-creatrix, working with Christ to make the world. She’s not human enough.

We Christians don’t know culturally where to put her: Is she some kind of whore? Or is she so without sin that she’s barely able to be real? That’s for everyone to decide for themselves, of course, but I come down squarely on the side of the human: that she’s like you and me, able to believe in God (thus, her yes) but also able at least to be capable of sin.

Making her too holy makes the Incarnation problematic. If Christ is without sin because he’s the son of both God and also a perfect human being, then where’s the challenge for him?

So I like the Mary who was able to fight for justice. We don’t see that in the story of her birth, but one that comes before then: it’s when she sings her great hymn to God that I feel able to see her.

It’s modeled on Psalm 34, another great song, where she sings of her belief in God to reverse what was her reality living as a person in an occupied country, always at risk. She sings “The righteous cry, and the Lord hears them /and delivers them from all their troubles. // The Lord is near to the brokenhearted /and will save those whose spirits are crushed.”

Oh, wait, that’s from Psalm 34.

Mary sings “His mercy is for those who fear him / from generation to generation. // He has shown strength with his arm; / he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. // He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, / and lifted up the lowly; // he has filled the hungry with good things, / and sent the rich away empty.”

Mary lived in a tiny little town. When the religious leaders of her day heard that the savior would come from her city, they asked “What good can come out of Bethlehem?” They weren’t scornful, so much as amazed. Think of the smallest, teeniest town you know of, and then imagine the world changing from events there back in their day.

But God picked well (he also picked her husband Joseph well, but that’s another story). Meanwhile, let’s hear Mary sing: she’s a powerful voice for those without power.

Saturday is her day in the Christian calendar.

We can celebrate with her.

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Issues of Faith is a rotating column by religious leaders on the North Olympic Peninsula. A retired deacon in the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia, Dr. Keith Dorwick continues his journey with God by walking with the community at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Port Angeles; he’s also the executive director of Spiritual Directions of PA (https://spiritual-directions-pa.org), his next holy adventure.