BREAKFAST BIBLE STUDY

The Queen of Heaven

Jeremiah 44: 16-19 (NIV)

12/21/25

“Christian nationalism is about power, nothing more.” – Christian Pecker

Because it is the first day of winter, all I wanted to do was get ready for Christmas, but I became confused when I saw a Catholic sign on the road on our way to do Christmas shopping. The sign said something about Mary being the Queen of Heaven and Earth. I had never heard of Mary being the queen of anything. I knew Jesus was the King of Kings, but I thought Mary was just his mother.

“Mom’s going to be here tomorrow,” Grace said. “If we explain it to you, can this be our breakfast Bible study for the week?”

“Is it in the Bible that she’s a queen?” I asked.

“No,” Christian said. “Catholics believe that Jesus gave Peter the keys to Heaven, meaning that he could make rules. He was basically like the first pope. That meant that future popes could create doctrine.”

“That doesn’t sound right,” I said. “That’s not in the Bible, is it?”

“None of the creeds we learned are in the Bible,” Grace said. “They all came later.”

“Really?”

“The Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, the very concept of the Trinity—those are all later inventions,” Grace said.

“Human inventions, I’d argue,” Christian said.  

“Oh,” I said. “So why don’t we say Mary is a queen?”

“We were raised protestant,” Christian said.

“So, she’s not a queen?”

“You can think of her as a queen if you want…or not,” Grace said. “Protestants typically view Jesus as coming from humble means, meaning his mother was poor. ”

“Catholics kind of treat her like a queen mother,” Christian said. “She intercedes for people who pray to her. That’s what Catholics believe.”

“You’re only supposed to pray to God,” I said. “In Jesus’ name.”

“That’s what you believe,” Grace said. “Many religions have female deities. It was easier for the Catholic church to convert people if their religious figures were familiar. People in most cultures of the time were familiar with social hierarchy.”

“But the Bible doesn’t have any queens.”

“It’s somewhere in the book of Jeremiah,” Christian said. “People did worship a Queen of Heaven before Jesus came around. Jeremiah condemned those beliefs.”

“That was probably a good idea.”

“Most people were converted by force,” Grace said.

“That’s not good,” I said. “Was the Jeremiah ‘Queen of Heaven’ the same as Mary?”

“I believe ancient Israelites saw the Queen of Heaven as a consort to God, so kind of,” Christian said. “In Christianity, Mary was the mother of Jesus, and God was the father of Jesus. But the Old Testament Queen of Heaven likely filled a fertility role.”

“How do you know?” I asked.

“In Jeremiah, the people complain that they did not suffer famine or warfare when they worshiped the Queen of Heaven. Jeremiah retorts that the famine and warfare came because they were worshiping the Queen of Heaven.”

“He was right?”

“I doubt correlation meant causation,” Christian said.

“Huh?”

“If you pray, does it rain?” Grace asked.

“Not always,” I said.

“What makes it rain?” Christian asked.

“The water cycle,” I said.

“And prayer plays no part?” Grace asked.

“Not usually,” I said. “Usually, the forecast gets it right.”

“What’s more reliable,” Christian asked, “the weather report or your prayers?”

“Usually the weather report,” I said. “They do a good job. The only time my prayer worked was the one time when it hailed, we got too much rain, and the house burned and fell on me. But that time, the weatherman got it right, even though I saw it on a TV that wasn’t working.”

“Have your prayers ever worked in this timeline?” Christian asked.

“Not really,” I admitted.

“Is there any correlation between your prayers and the weather?” Grace asked.

“It sometimes works,” I said, “but not most of the time that we need rain.”  

“Is there any causation between the weather report and the weather?” I asked.

“Do you mean that the weatherperson makes it rain?” I asked.

“Exactly,” Christian said.

“No,” I said. “We don’t blame the weather report for bad weather.”

“Yes, that would be magical thinking,” Christian said. 

“I don’t like magic,” I said.

“Magical thinking is when you credit the supernatural for the natural,” Christian said.

“Like what?”

“When doctors warned of the threat of a pandemic,” Grace said, “does that mean they caused the pandemic?”

“See, online, some people say that those doctors planned—”

“Those are lies, and that’s conspiracy thinking,” Christian said, “which is a form of magical thinking. The doctors were just like the meteorologists, experts in their field who understood disease.”

“Oh,” I said. “If they wanted to warn about the pandemic to stop the pandemic, that doesn’t mean they caused the pandemic. It’s just like with storm alerts. Those don’t cause storms. We know all about drought and pests. We plan for it. That doesn’t mean we caused it.”

“Religion is all about magical thinking,” Christian said. “Conspiracy thinking is all about magical thinking. In both instances, people think magically to deal with a chaotic world.”

“It’s a maladaptive adaptation baked into our DNA,” Grace said.

“Is that why religion shouldn’t be taught in public schools?” I asked.

“That’s just one small reason,” Grace said.

“Oh,” I said. “We didn’t even have to read a Bible passage this week, but I found it on my phone. Jeremiah 44: 16-19. It talks about the Queen of Heaven, just like you say.”

“Jeremiah was around during Josiah’s reign,” Christian said. “Worship of the gods was dispersed throughout the region in orchards, on mountains, in city temples, and within people’s homes. Josiah wanted all that worship centralized to control his people. When Josiah and his prophets crushed polytheism, he killed the Queen of Heaven.”

“And the Catholics brought her back,” I said. “That’s something I never knew.”

In state legislatures across the country, Christian fundamentalists are passing laws meant to force the teaching of the Christian Bible in public schools. From the posting of textually inaccurate iterations of the Ten Commandments on the walls of classrooms to the incorporation of the “Trump Bible” across multiple pedagogical disciplines, these laws and mandates are sweeping the reddest parts of this nation.

The height of hypocrisy is banning books in the name of “protecting children” while mandating one particular book rife with numerous acts of sexual violence and scenes of graphic violence and genocide.

Book bans are dangerous. The Bible is worth reading and exists online and in public school libraries across the country, but proponents of mandating its formal teaching in public schools need to know what it actually says.

Some themes in my books below might not be appropriate for children.