Editor's Note: Reposted from The Center for Christian Thought and Action, Regent University, at https://ccta.regent.edu/breaking-james-talaricos-consent-spell/.
James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Texas, is a seminarian working on his M.Div. at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Instead of shying away from issues regarding faith on the campaign trail, he often leads with them, claiming “God is non-binary,” or that he’ll “be giving sermons” on defending abortion care for the Trans community. Another tenet of Talarico’s progressive form of Christianity, one that he repeats frequently, is that Mary, the mother of Jesus, “consented” to her pregnancy. In a November 6, 2022, tweet on X, Talarico wrote, “We only have Jesus because a woman consented to creating him.”
A few weeks ago, while visiting the Uffizi Museum in Florence, Italy, I was in a room dedicated to the paintings of Sandro Botticelli (1455-1510). The room is dominated by two of Botticelli’s most famous works, The Birth of Venus and Primavera, both over 5 feet in height and nine feet in length. Twenty feet away from Venus, set in a corner, is another Botticelli, Madonna of the Magnificat. The painting is circular, just four feet in diameter, and much less attention-grabbing than the other two, yet my immediate visceral reaction as my eyes met this work was of James Talarico’s take on what he calls, “my favorite story in all of scripture.”
Did Mary consent to her pregnancy, and how does a 15th-century painting help us answer that question? In the second half of Luke 1:38, we read Mary saying to Gabriel, “Let it be done to me according to your word.” Commonly known as “Mary’s fiat,” fiat being the Latin for “let it be,” it is just here where James Talarico invokes the concept of “consent” as an incantation to keep hearers under the false belief that the Christian life is compatible with maintaining autonomy over personal decisions and lifestyle. The contemporary concept of consent serves as the currency which legitimizes almost any form of sex between any number of people. The dangerous and false enchantment of consent is even being employed to eliminate protections provided to children who would obviously be harmed by any form of sexual activity with adults.
In his sermon, “The Weight of Glory,” C.S. Lewis tells us, “Spells are used for breaking enchantments as well as inducing them.” Encountering Botticelli’s Madonna is to be put under a spell, and his spell breaks the modern-day consent-based enchantment Talarico is trying to weave regarding Mary by revealing two things.
First, Botticelli’s painting reminds us that one of our most important purposes as humans is to reflect God’s glory. Each of us, with our unveiled faces beholding the glory of the Lord, are to be transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to the other. (2 Cor. 3:18) In Botticelli’s Madonna, heaven meets earth as two angels crown Mary under the sun’s radiant glow. Mary is composing the first words of her prayer of praise, the Magnificat, “My soul doth magnify the Lord.” God doesn’t need us to magnify Him, but in doing so, we mirror back to Him the glory which we derive from Him.
Second, Botticelli’s Madonna teaches us that we are only our true selves, living our purpose or telos, if our wills are aligned with God’s. An ingredient James Talarico leaves out of his enchantment is that before Mary tells Gabriel, “Let it be,” she says, “I am the servant of the Lord.” Mary models the biblical discipleship posture of self-surrender and obedience, which subsumes any idea of consent. In Botticelli’s Madonna, the Christ child is seated on Mary’s lap, revealing her telos, lived out through her obedience, as the mother of Jesus.
Spells are invoked to produce a specific result or effect. In J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf spoke “Mellon,” the Elvish word for “friend,” and the Doors of Durin opened into Moria. The effect of placing oneself under James Talarico’s consent-based spell leads to a diminished view of God’s glory and a failure to follow Mary’s example to magnify Him. Even worse, the illusion provided by the spell of consent provides a soothing excuse for ignoring God’s glorious purpose for our lives.
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