To the unbeliever, a virgin birth means an illegitimate birth. Nothing more. The story of Mary and her esteemed child appears to be a story of an unwanted birth, certainly unwanted in the eyes of Joseph, the fiance of Mary. It took an angel of God to convince Joseph to stay with the pregnant girl.

Mary and her 'fatherless' child: a miracle, or simply a
social disgrace. Sacred or sinful; divine, or just 'human.'

To the believer, the virgin birth means a miracle, and represents the supreme testimony of the divinity and identity of Jesus. In the beginning, God created Adam, and from man, made a woman. But in the story of the virgin birth, God took a woman, and from her made a man. Twenty-six chromosomes of the seed of Abraham, and twenty-six chromosomes of the divine--in human form, transformed into human cells. This is Jesus Christ, Son of Man, Son of God.

In contemplating this story, I have reconsidered the Rudy "Youngblood" story. This young man, who has not been willing or able to identify himself normally, who has claimed adopted names, lately claimed real names, and confused names, has somehow brought up some interesting parallels to the story of Jesus.

Rudy presents himself to the world without knowing who he is, without the most basic protocols of communication. He begins with a false, "Hollywood" name, then gives adopted Indian names; then his legal name comes to light, and it is found to be an adopted name itself; then he professes to be the son of a dead man, whose closest living relatives know nothing of Rudy, and he doesn't look like them in any way. His race is mixed, and to all appearances, Mexican (typical mestiso) and Negro (black). He has involved himself in Indian culture to a professional degree, to the point of landing a movie role as an Indian, at first claiming to be Canadian Indian (Cree), American Indian (Comanche), and Mexican Indian (Yaqui). These claims have been found false, denied or explained otherwise. (BadEagle.com has most recently learned that a living son of Preston Tahchawwicka completely denies any knowledge of Rudy, and denies any validity to Rudy's claim to Preston Tahchawwicka.)

But the matter of claiming to be the son of Preston Tahchawwicka, that is the crux of the matter now. To make such a claim is a outrageous affront to the Tahchawwicka family, for it means that Rudy was an illegitimate child which no one knew about but Rudy's mother--whoever she actually is. (BadEagle.com was told it is Roberta (Rangel) Gonzales. This is probably the black mother, married to a Gonzales. BadEagle.com was told that Rudy was adopted by Mr. Gonzales.) Otherwise, the claim to be Indian is a criminal lie, for which he can and should be sued. To claim the Tahchawwicka name, two years after Preston died, is too suspicious. This is not the way Indian people behave at all, even if Rudy were an illegitimate child of Preston's.

Now, the Christman spirit certainly requires a careful reconsideration of this whole matter. Jesus Himself was, in a very real way, an unidentified child. No one but his mother knew with absolute certainty who Jesus really was. (Joseph had been told by an angel, but, still, he had to believe that. It took faith.) The mystery is this: Mary and Joseph did not announce to the world that Jesus was a miracle child. It would come to be understood, if anything was known of it, that the child was a premarital, "out-of-wedlock" child. A "had to get married" situation, although Mary and Joseph were engaged.

Throughout the story of Jesus, in all four gospels, and in all the writings of Paul, not once is the virgin birth cited as a testimony to the divinity of Christ. (Please read that again). Indeed, "his mother kept all these saying in her heart." "Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart." Luke 2: 51; 19. This means that everyone later assumed Jesus was the son of Joseph, one way or another, before or after marriage. Whoever knew the couple in Nazareth during their engagement would have to assume it was Joseph's child.

What could he say? It wasn't his child. But to say that was to call it a bastard child. To say that was to deny the divine revelation to himself. To say that was to require others to believe it, or else they would consider him a liar, or the child a bastard, or both.

The entry of God into this world was an impossible moral dilemma. For Jesus to be His divine Self, He would have to enter in a manner normally recognized as sin, under sin, in sin. Illegitimate. "Born of fornication," as the Pharisees once derided. (John 8:41). The label was inescapable except as one had faith. One believed Jesus was divine, that Mary was virgin, or one believe He was simply an child of sin. (Most people forget, marriage is sacred. Sex is reserved for marriage. This is the ordained concept. Anything else, and any results therefrom, is called sin.)

Thus entered the world the Son of God. It was through was through the appearance of what was normally considered sin.

Of the many, many children that enter like Rudy, we must allow a certain compassion. They cannot help the nature of their origins. They themselves should find courage in the story of the Redeemer, who Himself came into the world under the same shadow. Of course, those children who have been passed around from family to family, abused, neglected, unloved, lost, are very far from the kind of parenting Jesus had. That is a fact.

Some Indians have called Rudy typical. Many Indians have practiced a free-wheeling sense of family. Indiscriminate sexual relations, numerous illegitimate children, and the grandmothers clean up the mess. Indian land is kaku land. Grandmother territory.

I say this is a disgrace, nonetheless. Loose living does not a family make. Irresonsible men do not a nation build. I was asked once by a college student, "Why do you think white civilization became stronger?" I answered in one word: "Monogomy." Family. Marriage. One man, one woman, parenting. No Hillary Clinton-style "It Takes a Village." That may have seemed appropriate for the old days, and heaven knows I'm a stickler for the old ways, but, in this case, in modern times, illicit, careless, irresponsible sexual relations and superficial reproduction is destructive, the ruination of a people. Rudy is epitomical of the problem.

This is Rudy's case. According to information given to BadEagle.com, he has already fathered one child in Oklahoma, (BadEagle.com respectfully withholds the tribe and family name), and seems fond of spending time with Indian girls. Of course, fathering a child by an Indian girl doesn't make Rudy Indian. It only makes him guilty of perpetuating exactly the same kind of nonsense life that was dumped on him. It makes him do unto others--not as he would have had done for him, but as was done unto him. He is perpetuating irresponsibility.

While we want to have the very deepest sympathy for a young person like Rudy, especially at a time like Christmas, when the very story of Jesus reminds us of unwanted pregnancy, illegitimate children, and the desacration of marriage. Yet, the willful indulgence and perpetuation of the same, the professional aggrandizement of the same, and above all, the false association with American Indians--if indeed Rudy is the liar he appears to be, make this special Christmas sympathy nearly impossible.

If Rudy is the manipulating, conniving "bastard" he appears to be, he should be hung. Jailed, tried, and hung. If his is in fact an illegitimate son of an American Indian father--for which there is no support or evidence by word or writing at this time, then BadEagle.com will be the very first to support Rudy "Youngblood." Rudy simply needs to tell all, now. The Negroe mother, or father; the Indian mother, or father; the Mexican mother, or father; this is what Rudy needs to identity. Perhaps his "parents" are all liars. Perhaps he will never know who he is. The ball is in his court now. It is his turn to play his hand. Every minute he delays is evidence that he is a manipulative liar, whatever his other talents, however successful he is with them.

No, the Bible does not use the Virgin Birth as a polemic to evince the divinity of Jesus, although it is the most basic, telling evidence. Nor did Jesus himself once refer to it. When Peter said, "Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God," is is quite clear that he did not have the Virgin Birth in mind. This miracle of miracles was hidden from everyone, deep in the heart of Mary. It is a feminine thing, to keep such things inside. Remember Hester Prynne, in Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter (1850)? When put on the stand, to publicly reveal the sinner whose illegitimate child she held, Hester would not say. Indeed, it was "wronging the very nature of woman to force her to lay open her heart's secrets in such broad daylight." The daylight of the world was not so severe that Mary herself ever paraded the Virgin Birth. The Virgin Birth was never made the foundation of Jesus' identity. His divinity was to be understood from his character, words, and his miraculous works, and finally, his willing death by crucifixion.

These are very deep considerations. Secrets, truths, and realities of life.

I could be that Rudy has such considerations in his life. Then again, it could be that he is simply a blasphemous liar, in the inevitable lair of deceit which he inherited. I trust the truth will come out in due time, as it usually does. All will be better off, including Rudy. True compassion is sometimes like medicine. It burns. It hurts. But it heals. I pray that these pursuits are of a healing nature, and I pray that my own motivations are sincere, and worthy. Every human being needs compassion, no matter how hardened, ill-willed, or evil. I will also protect the integrity of American Indian identity. Surely, these things can be resolved.