This evening on the way home from a child-swap rendezvous with my ex-husband, I was told by a complete stranger - via one of six stickers adorning the rear bumper of their vehicle - that "If Mary were Pro-Choice there would be NO Christmas!"I took great exception to these words, so much so that I tweeted about them to my friends at the very next red light. -- Don't harass me about texting on the road, dorkling. I was stopped for a full two minutes during which my vehicle couldn't legally move.
Exception wasn't taken for the reason you might think, though. Oh, no. My objection to these words was neither religious nor political. I fully support the right of an individual to hold to whatever spiritual belief structure makes their existence understandable to them and to spout whatever opinion, on any topic, that they might calmly and rationally put forth. What offended me were the poorly chosen words for the message this person, so clearly, wanted to share.
Let's break it apart, shall we?
PRO-CHOICE
The phrase itself means "I approve of an individual's right to choose the action they will take". In the day-to-day world in which we live, this can mean many things. It can mean "I don't care, choose what makes you happy.", or it can mean "I approve of your right to become a Darwin Statistic." In political jargon, it's understood as a woman's right to choose whether or not to prematurely terminate a pregnancy. These words DO NOT, on their own, mandate that termination. They represent a choice - to have and keep, to have and give away, or to end that biological process.
So, if Mary were Pro-Choice, she could have made the choice we are told she made ... to have and keep the conceived-outside-the-marriage-bed child.
CHRISTMAS
Did one choice made 2000 years ago by a young woman to not abort an unplanned pregnancy dictate the holiday list of our modern calendar? Obliquely, yes. It was not a matter to which she likely gave consideration while the Great Event was happening, however. It's equally doubtful that she was ever consulted for her opinion on the future calendar placement of her child's birthday.
There is much discussion, and more than a little question, on the matter of Dec 25 being the exact day that Christianity's Sacrificial Lamb was born. More consideration was given to holiday placement by Pope-types that needed to corral wayward peasantry with differing (pagan) belief systems - and, in time, by the merchant class of the developing socio-economic world - than the young woman herself is sure to have given. Blame them for this holiday, not Mary.
Don't believe me? Wonderful! Don't take my word for it.
Educate yourself on the facts ...
MANKIND's HUBRIS
Taking the Christian viewpoint as a granted fact for sake of this conversation, the statement on the bumper sticker borders on blasphemy. Are we to assume belief that the All Mighty can not redirect his effort? That the Great Plan could be disrupted by the action of a single member of the human race? That He would be unable to find a way around the willful nature of, what is surely to Him, the equivalent of an ant?
Right. I'm pretty sure the Christian God intuitively gets what every Game Master has to learn on their own. IE, plots are perfect until players interact with it and a good GM must plan for flexibility when the characters, inevitably and against all good reason, turn left. In this case, Creation itself would (in all probability) have bent to His Will and Mary's hypothetical attempt at abortion would have failed, or Some Other Virgin would have been Blessed and we'd be singing praises about "Susan" as the "Holy Mother of God" instead.
AND FINALLY
If you're going to make a public statement, and you're not purposefully ignoring them for colloquial or literary effect, please make use of proper punctuation. If-Then statements need commas.
It isn't hard, but the little things really do make a difference when you're trying to chastise the world. ;)
