[boatbums]

What is the BIG DEAL about Mary not having sex with her husband? She was engaged, betrothed, to him wasn't she? No where does the angel or God tell her to keep her virginity after Jesus was born. Is sex between husband and wife somehow degrading or wrong? I can't see why this is such a big argument all the time. I respect and honor Mary for who she was and her amazing courage concerning the danger she was in being pregnant before actually having had sex with her husband. She could have been put to death yet she trusted God and knew He would protect her. Her being a normal wife and mother after wards in no way diminishes her.

[Petronski]

What is the BIG DEAL about Mary not having sex with her husband?

What is the BIZARRE FETISH with anti-Catholic bigots insisting--sometimes in withering, creepy detail--that she did?

[RobbyS]

The big deal was that we believe what you say is contrary to fact. One can make up stories that suit one’s theology. You think we do, and we think you do. As I see it, what happened to Joseph was like what happened to Paul. If the birth stories are true—and their differences remind us how little the Scriptures actually tell us, so that no “biography” of Jesus can be written—then Joseph’s mission in life was profoundly changed. What was normal to him before could hardly be normal afterwards. He had become the guardian of the Messiah.