Mary, did you know? Religious controversy, and Dolly Parton
Updated: 2 hours ago
Mary, Did You Know is a firm favourite with the choir, and part of our 2026 Christmas repertoire. But did YOU know that it has stirred up quite lot of controversy? Here's why.
Mark Lowry was part of the leadership team of Thomas Road Church, a Baptist megachurch in Virginia run by the TV evangelist Jerry Falwell. In late 1984, Jerry asked Mark to come up with some spoken material to go between the carols of their Christmas service. Casting around for a theme, Mark asked his mother, who replied, "If anyone on earth knew for sure that Jesus was virgin-born, Mary knew." Inspired, Mark began thinking about what else Mary might have known and began to develop a set of questions; things he would have loved to have asked Mary over a cup of coffee: ‘Do you know who is in your arms? Did you know the one who holds creation together, and the one who holds you together, is lying helpless in the manger?’
The questions proved a great success, and Mark continued to think about them for the next 7 years. It wasn't until 1991 that he asked his friend, Buddy Greene, if he could come up with some music to turn some of these questions into a song. Buddy says
“Mark handed me his lyrics, and I held on to them for about two weeks. One day I pulled them out and looked at them. They seemed to suggest a minor key approach to writing an accompaniment. I completed the musical setting in about 30 minutes. I called Mark at his home in Georgia and on the phone played and sang the song to him. He was ecstatic! He said, ‘That’s it!’
The song soon became popular in the USA, covered by many country artists. However, elsewhere, controversy followed. The main disputes over the lyrics have been between the Protestants and Baptists on the one hand, and the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches on the other, who have two main issues.
Firstly, Catholics believe Mary was born without sin (the "immaculate conception"), so the idea that "the child that she delivered would soon deliver her" was just plain wrong, as she didn't need any deliverance. Secondly, Mary had been pretty well briefed by the Angel Gabriel about what to expect from her child, and therefore the answer to almost every question in the song would have been "Yes, I did know, and I still agreed to go ahead." Some people go as far as to call the song patronising sexist man'splaining; reducing Mary's role from the heroine of the story to ignorant passivity.
Theology is important, and these are often deeply held beliefs, but it does seem a lot of controversy over a song that is basically a list of questions, and not trying to 'splain anything. Probably the best "Come on guys, its just a song" response is from the Roman Catholic author Karl Erickson who wrote
"Mary, Did You Know" is a song and not a theological essay. Even as simple Christmas music, however, it does a fine job conveying the beauty and profound mystery of the Incarnation. Yes, there is some poetic license taken within the lyrics, but much less than is taken within innumerable other songs we are asked to sing regularly"
Now here I must make a confession. Part of the reason for writing this blog is to introduce the version below by the late great Dolly Parton, taken from her album "A Holly Dolly Christmas". Dolly calls it "one of the greatest sweetest songs", says that, for her, it encapulates what Christmas is really about, and that you can hear in her voice how emotional she feels when singing it.
There are other great versions of the song, for example by the R&B Artist CeeLo Green, and the lovely A Capella version by Pentatonix. Personally I am looking forward to our own performance this Christmas.
Despite all the controversy, I am with Dolly and Karl Erikson on this one; it's a beautiful sweet song, and reaches right to the heart of the Christmas story. I hope you agree!
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