My final project in my Gospel of John class at FSU years ago was this exact section of the book. (I got an A.) And I made the same observations about Mary going to the tomb while the men were hiding and Peter and John racing to get there first.
Anyway, portraying women who threaten the patriarchy as “prostitutes” is an ancient device used to discredit women. Damn. It’s long past time to change these notions.
Thank you!! I am preaching today, and will be sure to add your response, "as the women told us", because I've always thought what you've said here to be the truth.
Father Nathan, this was less a blog post and more a resurrection in itself. You just rolled away the stone on centuries of theological mansplaining and let the women preach.
Let’s be honest: if the Easter story were a modern film, Mary Magdalene would be listed first in the credits while the Twelve Disappointments sulk in the background like interns who missed the memo. She doesn’t just break the news—she is the news. And what do the bros do? They gatekeep the pulpit and ghost her from the credits like the divine PR team decided, “Eh, let’s make this a boys’ club.”
You nailed it: Mary carried the Body of Christ before there was a body to break or blood to pour. She was the tabernacle, the monstrance, the first chalice. And what does she get for it? A 1,500-year smear campaign and a downgrade to "reformed escort" by Pope Gregory the Mansplainer.
And that bit about the resurrected saints in Matthew just casually popping up like spiritual zombies? It's wild that more people don’t talk about that. If Grandma Ruth came knocking on your door two days after her funeral, you’d remember the date and probably invent an entire holiday. But the church? “Let’s just quietly pretend that part didn’t happen. Also, women can't preach.”
Let me say this loud for the apostles hiding in the upper room:
If Mary Magdalene hadn’t preached, you wouldn’t have a damn church to exclude her from.
So yeah—let's retire “He is risen indeed” and upgrade to:
🗣️ “As the women told us. Alleluia.”
And maybe toss in: “Now sit down, Peter.”
—Virgin Monk Boy
“Blessed are the brave women, for they remembered what the men forgot: love walks toward the tomb, not away from it.”
Thank you for this! I cannot tell you how much reading this means to me. At seven years old, as I looked out at the church in front of me from the choir, I could see the hypocrisy in the way people acted during the week versus how they acted in church on Sunday. It made me a nonbeliever at a very early age, just by watching how people treated other people during the week and how pious they were, thinking they were forgiven on Sundays. Then they would just go out and do it again.
They based a religion on some truly abusive and contemptible ideas. All the while, insisting that there’s some judgmental White guy up in the sky, watching you all the time and caring what you do. It’s a huge game of “Let’s Pretend…” which is no more valid than the Greek and Roman “gods”. It is a fairy story to make you feel better about your place in the world. And it’s a hugely corrupted and twisted one at that.
Thomas Paine viewed religion as the ultimate tyranny. “Paine was critical of organized religion, particularly Christianity, which he saw as a system that was corrupt, institutionalized, and used to manipulate and control people. He believed that the religious duties should consist of doing justice, loving mercy, and trying to make others happy, rather than adhering to specific creeds.” Because of his beliefs—these Christian-based beliefs to be clear—when he died, Thomas Paine had 6 people at his funeral. The father of the American Revolution and our concept of freedom outside of the tyranny of a king had 6!!!! people attend his funeral because everyone else had distanced themselves from him because of his beliefs about “God” as the ultimate tyrant.
Keep in mind that Christianity— this supposedly loving religion—wiped out any other religion it found in its path that had anything to do with the Goddess and, instead, installed a male phallus at the top to rule over the world. Christianity is not a religion. It is an infection on this planet that so-called “missionaries” spread.
BTW When was the last time you saw a man give birth to anything alone? How can “He” be a creator without a woman by “His” side? Are you saying that your “God” is ASEXUAL? That “He” can impregnate “Himself”? Wait… I thought he made us in his image… Check your reasoning. Stop blindly following men in robes and get some critical thinking skills. Please. Before it’s too late. Bc a bunch of “Christians” right now are NOT FOLLOWING THE WORD OF CHRIST.
Christ didn’t HATE anything or anyone. Period! That was his TOTAL TEACHING summed up in one sentence: “be kind to other people no matter who they are or what they look like or how different they are from you.” What about that has been lost in translation?!
Now, the POV from people calling themselves “Christians“ seems to be, “If you do not believe what I believe, do not do what I do, and do not look how I look, you are a bad/invalid person.” Totally not what Jesus Christ was saying. Check out the movie “Godspell” with Victor Garber in it, people!
What we have today is NOT Christianity. The word of Jesus has been twisted and manipulated. And many of you are not “LIVING HIS WORD” outside of your own niche communities. It is the patriarchy, racism and othering clothed in a religious sect that has brainwashed and controlled a whole population.
It is a religion based on the idea that women carried the “original evil” into the world. What kind of bullshit is that? We are your mothers, your sisters, your nurturers and your caregivers. We gave birth to you and you wanna fuck us over like that?!
In this article, Father Nathan is basically tearing down the male apostles for their shitty behavior, while uplifting the female apostles (yes, there were female apostles and priests, including Mary the Mother of Christ) because they were the ones who found out about Christ not being dead. Whether you believe the story or not is irrelevant. They have told stories over centuries in order to control women and keep women out of the priesthood and their stories simply DON’T LINE UP.
I love this Substack and think that all Christians should read this.
Ex-RC here. I feel you my friend. You might like this story. I was in grade 8 (so 13 or so) and the nuns at my RC school distributed anti-abortion petitions for kids (KIDS!) to take from door to door and collect signatures. So my friends and I, being good little girls, took some and went canvassing. And then the magic happened. We talked amongst ourselves and realized that nobody has the right to tell women what they can do with their bodies. I shit you not - it was a truly revelatory moment in my life. We tossed the petitions, and 3 years later I told my parents that I was done with the church. Hallelujah!
Thanks a LOT, Padre. Because of YOU, this witch is now having a secret,highly illicit relationship with Jesus and the Marys. Shhhhhh....don't tell on me!
Why did people have a difficult time recognizing Jesus after his resurrection? Did he look different somehow? Was he just out of context? That guy sure looks like Jesus, but he's dead, so it must be someone else.
My final project in my Gospel of John class at FSU years ago was this exact section of the book. (I got an A.) And I made the same observations about Mary going to the tomb while the men were hiding and Peter and John racing to get there first.
Anyway, portraying women who threaten the patriarchy as “prostitutes” is an ancient device used to discredit women. Damn. It’s long past time to change these notions.
I can't love this enough. Indeed he is risen. As the women told us. Hallelujah!
Thank you!! I am preaching today, and will be sure to add your response, "as the women told us", because I've always thought what you've said here to be the truth.
Father Nathan, this was less a blog post and more a resurrection in itself. You just rolled away the stone on centuries of theological mansplaining and let the women preach.
Let’s be honest: if the Easter story were a modern film, Mary Magdalene would be listed first in the credits while the Twelve Disappointments sulk in the background like interns who missed the memo. She doesn’t just break the news—she is the news. And what do the bros do? They gatekeep the pulpit and ghost her from the credits like the divine PR team decided, “Eh, let’s make this a boys’ club.”
You nailed it: Mary carried the Body of Christ before there was a body to break or blood to pour. She was the tabernacle, the monstrance, the first chalice. And what does she get for it? A 1,500-year smear campaign and a downgrade to "reformed escort" by Pope Gregory the Mansplainer.
And that bit about the resurrected saints in Matthew just casually popping up like spiritual zombies? It's wild that more people don’t talk about that. If Grandma Ruth came knocking on your door two days after her funeral, you’d remember the date and probably invent an entire holiday. But the church? “Let’s just quietly pretend that part didn’t happen. Also, women can't preach.”
Let me say this loud for the apostles hiding in the upper room:
If Mary Magdalene hadn’t preached, you wouldn’t have a damn church to exclude her from.
So yeah—let's retire “He is risen indeed” and upgrade to:
🗣️ “As the women told us. Alleluia.”
And maybe toss in: “Now sit down, Peter.”
—Virgin Monk Boy
“Blessed are the brave women, for they remembered what the men forgot: love walks toward the tomb, not away from it.”
Thank you for this! I cannot tell you how much reading this means to me. At seven years old, as I looked out at the church in front of me from the choir, I could see the hypocrisy in the way people acted during the week versus how they acted in church on Sunday. It made me a nonbeliever at a very early age, just by watching how people treated other people during the week and how pious they were, thinking they were forgiven on Sundays. Then they would just go out and do it again.
They based a religion on some truly abusive and contemptible ideas. All the while, insisting that there’s some judgmental White guy up in the sky, watching you all the time and caring what you do. It’s a huge game of “Let’s Pretend…” which is no more valid than the Greek and Roman “gods”. It is a fairy story to make you feel better about your place in the world. And it’s a hugely corrupted and twisted one at that.
Thomas Paine viewed religion as the ultimate tyranny. “Paine was critical of organized religion, particularly Christianity, which he saw as a system that was corrupt, institutionalized, and used to manipulate and control people. He believed that the religious duties should consist of doing justice, loving mercy, and trying to make others happy, rather than adhering to specific creeds.” Because of his beliefs—these Christian-based beliefs to be clear—when he died, Thomas Paine had 6 people at his funeral. The father of the American Revolution and our concept of freedom outside of the tyranny of a king had 6!!!! people attend his funeral because everyone else had distanced themselves from him because of his beliefs about “God” as the ultimate tyrant.
Keep in mind that Christianity— this supposedly loving religion—wiped out any other religion it found in its path that had anything to do with the Goddess and, instead, installed a male phallus at the top to rule over the world. Christianity is not a religion. It is an infection on this planet that so-called “missionaries” spread.
BTW When was the last time you saw a man give birth to anything alone? How can “He” be a creator without a woman by “His” side? Are you saying that your “God” is ASEXUAL? That “He” can impregnate “Himself”? Wait… I thought he made us in his image… Check your reasoning. Stop blindly following men in robes and get some critical thinking skills. Please. Before it’s too late. Bc a bunch of “Christians” right now are NOT FOLLOWING THE WORD OF CHRIST.
Christ didn’t HATE anything or anyone. Period! That was his TOTAL TEACHING summed up in one sentence: “be kind to other people no matter who they are or what they look like or how different they are from you.” What about that has been lost in translation?!
Now, the POV from people calling themselves “Christians“ seems to be, “If you do not believe what I believe, do not do what I do, and do not look how I look, you are a bad/invalid person.” Totally not what Jesus Christ was saying. Check out the movie “Godspell” with Victor Garber in it, people!
What we have today is NOT Christianity. The word of Jesus has been twisted and manipulated. And many of you are not “LIVING HIS WORD” outside of your own niche communities. It is the patriarchy, racism and othering clothed in a religious sect that has brainwashed and controlled a whole population.
It is a religion based on the idea that women carried the “original evil” into the world. What kind of bullshit is that? We are your mothers, your sisters, your nurturers and your caregivers. We gave birth to you and you wanna fuck us over like that?!
In this article, Father Nathan is basically tearing down the male apostles for their shitty behavior, while uplifting the female apostles (yes, there were female apostles and priests, including Mary the Mother of Christ) because they were the ones who found out about Christ not being dead. Whether you believe the story or not is irrelevant. They have told stories over centuries in order to control women and keep women out of the priesthood and their stories simply DON’T LINE UP.
I love this Substack and think that all Christians should read this.
Ex-RC here. I feel you my friend. You might like this story. I was in grade 8 (so 13 or so) and the nuns at my RC school distributed anti-abortion petitions for kids (KIDS!) to take from door to door and collect signatures. So my friends and I, being good little girls, took some and went canvassing. And then the magic happened. We talked amongst ourselves and realized that nobody has the right to tell women what they can do with their bodies. I shit you not - it was a truly revelatory moment in my life. We tossed the petitions, and 3 years later I told my parents that I was done with the church. Hallelujah!
Thanks a LOT, Padre. Because of YOU, this witch is now having a secret,highly illicit relationship with Jesus and the Marys. Shhhhhh....don't tell on me!
Wow. Thank you beyond words for giving me timely and useful information. You have truly answered a prayer.
From vilification to Validation!! Therefore, we women will see Jesus First at the Second Coming. Uh, Is he out of town?
Why did people have a difficult time recognizing Jesus after his resurrection? Did he look different somehow? Was he just out of context? That guy sure looks like Jesus, but he's dead, so it must be someone else.
THRICE! (ew, Peter). Loves me some Shitt's Creek reference.