I've finished my book on the New Testament and am starting "Guns, Germs & Steel" (for the comma-philes, there's a comma after Germs, but I'm a comma heretic and don't like serial commas).

I think I'll wait till I know my new co-workers better before I take "Reclaiming the Gay-Lesbian Past" to work.

How does Mary staying a virgin after His birth make Jesus any more Jesus-y?

I'd imagine for the same reason Mary's conception got made immaculate -- if she's sin-free enough to bear Jesus, she's sin-free enough to stay that way. In other words, get the sex as far away from Jesus as possible.

Don't fuck with the Jesus?

or in the same zip code

Aren't married folks kind of supposed to go forth and multiply under Catholic doctrine? How does Mary staying a virgin after His birth make Jesus any more Jesus-y?

Actually, married couples deciding to abstain from sex is praiseworthy in Catholicism; I'm pretty sure that a couple of saints were married but abstinent.

Not saints, but Abelard and Heloise. Of course, Heloise didn't want to be celibate, but Abelard forced it.

Margery Kempe made her husband be celibate for a while too.

Um, didn't Heloise' uncle cut off Abelard's penis to enforce the celibacy?

Hmm, according to Wikipedia, well after the celibacy was broken.

Gonads, not the tool o' love itself.

Gonads, not the tool o' love itself.

That's right! Castration is generally not accompanied by dick amputation.

Though in certain Malaysian countries it is not uncommon for women to cut off the johnsons of their cheating husbands and throw it to the pigs.