Just Look What She Started!

The Gestalt of Mary’s unconditional love served as horizon-expanding proof of that to which the Gospel originally testifies. The affirmation that I was nothing less than a child of God lent credence to John Wesley’s (the founder of Methodism) notion of prevenient grace and flew in the face of somehow having to justify my worth—academically or otherwise—to my Creator. The spirit underlying the notion that “all men are created equal” is bona fide in spite of the seeming impossibility of ever practically implementing it. The social climate of questioning unquestionable authority complemented the growing rebellion within me. Jesus did not include the beatitude of blessed are the scholars for they shall be deemed superior. The scholars invented such self-serving ideology in order to promote themselves up the ladder of power and control over the common people. The priestly ability to transubstantiate the bread and the cup (among other things) was part of what the Protestant rejection was all about, but even the Protestant clergy had to devise ways of putting themselves a cut above the rest. My faith was becoming more and more at odds with the beliefs I had been taught.