Eliza, thank you for bearing with me on this. I expect it's just as hard for devout folks to wrap their heads around how I see things as vice versa. Are you saying it's against church rules to consider or portray Virgin Mary in any light other than as a devoted madonna figure? You did kind of lose me at the parallel between thong & tassles on my mother and VM thinking "oh sh!t, this baby thing is for real." Does this mean that you feel VM taking a pregnancy test effectively sexualizes her, and that's what's wrong with the image?

McGrath, your comment is helpful, I think. Do I understand correctly that you're saying that what the image portrays is not possible within the story of the annunciation? If so, the image messes with theology (I think, it's not like I'm an expert in this stuff) so I can totally understand how that would be blasphemous.

I think that those who were raised Christian may not realize just how much detailed knowledge they've amassed about it, which knowledge I, for one, do not possess. I do know that Christians care about certain stuff that isn't a big deal to me. That is the whole reason I was asking about the image in the first place--I know enough to realize there may be issues but I don't know enough to see what they are. I'd rather know than guess, so I asked.