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Disruptive Christian Ethics
current within the first and second century that allowed women to ques
tion and undermine” the patriarchal social order.40
In these explanations about how to interpret prescriptive first century
religious writings, a theme arises that is also present in welfare reform dis
cussions. As in many of the contemporary claims by politicians about the
sexual reproduction of poor girls and women, first century religious lead
ers also associated the task of establishing order in the society through the
control of women and their sexuality. In both periods the sexual auton
omy of women seems to represent social disorder.
Evidently, to maintain order, certain rules are needed to penalize
women. In the ancient context, the prescribed penalty for committing
adultery may have even been death.41 In our contemporary context, those
who are economically destitute will be treated punitively in relation to
their basic survival needs because they have sexually reproduced children
without being married to a man. This is supposedly done, as Congress
woman Marge Roukema (R-NJ) said, as an expression of “tough love.”
When pressing for welfare reform measures that were ultimately passed,
she explained the meaning of “tough love” for poor, single, pregnant
women utilizing public assistance. To keep their benefits from being
revoked, Congresswoman Roukema said, they “must cooperate by help
ing to establish paternity in the hospital at the time of [giving] birth. If
cooperation is not there, support is cut off for the woman.”42
Control and Resistance
Even if there appears to be overwhelming cultural consensus in the com
munity about devising ways to control women, there are contradictions
and venues of resistance. Examples of resistance in the context and text of
Luke can perhaps inspire dissent amidst the contemporary Christian sup
port for the shaming and punishment of poor mothers. In studying Luke,
it becomes apparent that even scripture produced in a setting with a strong
cultural bias for the primacy of male power and authority can carry a mes
sage supporting women’s power and authority. Varied contradictions
about women’s power and authority have been uncovered in the ancient
Jewish context inhabited by this spokesperson/mother, Mary ofNazareth.
Beyond an examination of the rules set forth by leaders, creative strate
gies are needed to recover a sense of women’s real lives in the ancient
world. Early Christianity scholar Bernadette Brooten suggests an alter
native method of doing research on ancient women that includes the use
of nonliterary cultural sources.43 Though first century Palestine is not