Mary Did You Know?

I just received my copies of The Real Mary as a part of my agreement to serve on Paraclete’s “Real Mary Street Team.” Several of us around the country have agreed to host discussion groups for The Real Mary in December. This will coordinate with the release of the new movie, The Nativity Story. In this movie Mary will be played by Keisha Castle-Hughes of Whale Rider fame. Just the other day, we were talking about unwed mothers in a bible study group, and someone said they were afraid that churches tend to accept and encourage this behavior far too often. I said, perhaps a little too facetiously, “You know there’s this story about an unwed mother in the bible. Have any of you heard of Mary?” We had to pause and rethink our conversation just a bit. I look forward to reading this work and will comment on it on the blog some as well.