We Will Not Be Erased

“Why is it blasphemous for Jesus to have a wife?” I casually asked this with curiosity as I laughed to myself for ruffling feathers before I even had my morning coffee.

I came across a video from an exceptional Episcopal Reverend informing people that Mary Magdalene was not a s*x worker and we all need to stop referring to her as such.

I was immediately intrigued and hopped into the feed to see what the humans were dishing out in response to this bombshell. A well meaning woman shared a seemingly harmless fact about how some people say Mary Magdalene was the wife of Jesus. Little did she know she had opened a cut in the middle of a pool of hungry sharks.

The devouts were devastated and reporting back. Mr. I Know the Word, said this was blasphemy and Jesus did not have a wife! I asked him why. Where did Jesus say that he did not or could not have a wife? I don’t recall that scripture.

After I pressed send, I braced for impact. I knew that the warm faces of the Christian welcome wagon would most likely soon start to morph into a table of mean girls and I couldn’t sit with them because I wasn’t wearing pink, and on Wednesdays, Jesus is celibate.

It wasn’t that bad. I got a canned response about the church being the bride of Christ and that if I wanted to know more, I should ask my pastor. I felt like a disciple getting lectured by a Pharisee so I left the conversation. No point in engaging with people who are programmed with the operating system of, “Thou Shalt Not Question Authority.”

On my morning walk, I sat with why this interaction had bothered me so much. I’ve believed stranger things in blind faith, so why should I judge them? I’m the kind of person who will watch a random reel talking about the Old Testament God not being a god at all, but a demonic demiurge hungry for power and I’ll nod, think, yeah it tracks, and move on with my day.

But this was not about Jesus’ dating history or even dissecting what being married to a church would actually entail. Sounds kind of exhausting tbh.

This was about a woman. A woman who was the Apostle of Apostles. The first person to greet Jesus post Ascension, now being boiled down to a brothel guest with fancy oils. Rude.

It points to a bigger and more unsettling picture. How the powers that be can erase anyone at any time and we just go with it.

What if it’s blasphemous to erase the equal of Christ who served by his side?

We will not forget you Mary Magdalene. We will not reduce your lineage to a foot rub and an exorcism, no matter how hard they try.

It reminds me of another woman they’re trying to erase and we won’t forget her either.

We won’t forget that Renee Good was brutally murdered by ICE. We will not forget that her final words were “That’s fine dude, I’m not mad at you” and the last words she heard from him were, “F*cking B*tch” as bullet after bullet was launched in the face of this innocent mother of three.

And now the media is minimizing it. Trying to erase her too and make us believe that she was the problem. It would have never happened if she just complied, right?

Any woman who has been face to face with that level of animosity will shudder, because it’s unearthing the deep seated fear we have as women. The wrestling between wanting to stand up to the face of injustice and the primal urge to protect our babies.

“I wish I could buy back, the woman you stole.”

— Y-Control, Yeah Yeah Yeahs

This is the time when we need to stand together as women, refusing to be silenced, erased, or minimized. We need the courage and humility of Mary Magdalene, to do what’s right, even if they paint us as the problem.

You know what they say, well behaved women rarely make history. Or at least they’re harder to erase.

Lots of love,

Meagan Maris