Who was Mary Magdalene? One of the first followers of Christ, the last who remained with him when he was nailed to the cross, and the first who saw his empty tomb and his resurrection.
Who Mary Magdalene was never? Reformed and received the forgiveness of a prostitute.
However, on Easter Sunday — the day most important holiday of all Christians — in some of the sermons again called her a prostitute. Moreover, this is the way it is often portrayed in popular culture.
The woman in the Bible called the “Apostle of the apostles,” for the past two millennia constantly belittle, considering the seductress. In a sense, the story of Mary Magdalene is a reflection of the history of many modern women around the world.
From the endless discussions of the appearance of women leaders to photos of naked women — Marines circulating on the Internet: women brave enough to work among men on equal terms, often sexualintercourse and pushed away into the background.
In the case of Mary Magdalene we are talking about two thousand years of shaming, and a group of Christian women currently trying to put an end to it.
California group Junia Project, preaching egalitarian theology, uses social networking to reach people with his call: “Reading the sermon this Sunday, please note: Mary Magdalene was NOT a prostitute. Thank you.”
They have to act proactively.
Even in the popular Easter message, published on the website Sermon Central, once again repeats the myth. “Mary Magdalene was granted the forgiveness of a prostitute,” reads the second line of this Easter sermon.
Hollywood also loves to portray Mary Magdalene as a worker in the sex industry. She became a prostitute in the rock Opera 1973 “Jesus Christ superstar”, the film 1988 “the Last temptation of Christ,” in the 2004 film “the passion of the Christ” and even in the movie “the Rebels”.
This is a very nice story: Jesus is so kind that he even forgives a prostitute. A kind of “Beauty” in the era of tunics and sandals.
Gail Wallace (Wallace Gail), one of the founders of the Junia Project, are very much portrayed Mary Magdalene.
“We are very tired of women’s stories from the Bible retold so that overly sexualize women, despite the fact that in the biblical texts there is no evidence for such interpretation,” she said.
Biblical scholars and historians are trying to convey this idea to people for decades. The Catholic Church has recognized and tried to correct this widespread mistake in 1969.
However, somewhere in this game of broken telephone that is the history of Christianity re-emerged label prostitutes.
“Women who turn to the Bible for inspiration, it’s quite a limited selection of female role models, the nun wrote, and Professor Barbara Bowe (Bowe Barbara) shortly before his death in 2010. “When we humiliate Mary Magdalene and turn it into vicious pervert, we deprive men and women, especially women, the figures for which they can follow.”
Kate Wallace Nanli (Kate Nunneley Wallace), another founder of the Junia Project, said that the myth of Mary Magdalene is contained in modern textbooks for the seminaries.
But that’s okay. Now the Team of Mary there is the Internet. Every year they distribute information about Mary Magdalene in social networks, and parishioners of different churches misleading them about what they heard in sermons.
“The Easter period is one of the few periods during which Evangelical sermons mentioned women, said Nanni. — After we first launched our social advertising, the vast majority of women told us that in the Church they again heard this common myth. One woman even said that she sent this information to his pastor, but in his sermon, he still called her a prostitute.”
All this is part of a much wider debate about how to treat women and how women are portrayed in other areas.
Take, for example, women Marines who serve their country in one of the most male types of troops. The guys who failed to come to terms with their successes relate to them? They spread pictures of women without clothes. And even the punishment doesn’t stop them.
Nanli considers it a modern reflection of the history of Mary Magdalene.
“As we have seen in the case of women Marines, no one pays attention to their personality, while men focus only on their sexuality,” she said.
It’s an old story. And many she is already tired. It’s time to end it.
