If Jesus Were Born Today

	Child advocates would remove the child from the custody of his mother when
	they discovered she was shacking with a guy (not the child's father) in a
	barn. In most jurisdictions that would constitute child neglect.

	Of course, Mary would have an underpaid court appointed attorney to
	represent her in the dependent-neglect proceeding, and Joseph would be out
	of luck once it was determined that paternity could not be established
	within a reasonable degree of medical certainty through blood or DNA
	testing(97% probablilty that Joe was the dad is sufficient, but absent
	divine intervention, that couldn't happen, hmmm?). He would be excluded
	from juvenile court as a stranger to the proceeding and investigated for
	possible sexual deviance (all those oxen and asses around), and he would be
	told that he had no standing to object since he was not the natural father
	of the child and was not yet married to Mary (by their own admissions they
	had not yet consummated their union).

	The Division of Children and Familly Services would ask the court to order
	Mary to take parenting classes, and the Court would order that homemaker
	services be provided as well, since obviously Mary can't keep house
	properly (the place where the DHS workers forund the child was kept
	remarkably like a barn). Mary would be allowed to have one visit with Jesus
	per week at the Centers for Youth and Families. The visit would be one hour
	long, and supervised by a therapist since Jesus would no doubt be put in
	therapeutic foster care to prevent psychological damage resulting from the
	horrible lack of civilization to which he had been exposed at such a tender
	age.

	At the eighteen month dispositional hearing, the court would consider
	terminating parental rights because of Mary's refusal to bring a paternity
	suit against Jesus' true biological father (or even to identify him to the
	satisfaction of the Court). The Court would be appalled at the life choices
	
	Mary would have made: she would have completed her marriage to Joseph (that
	suspected sexual deviant) and had more children by him, which was obviously
	contrary to Jesus' best interest. Since Mary and Joseph had fled the
	jurisdiction with Jesus once to escape encounters with the authorities,
	they would determine that Mary and Joe had nefarious plans to abscond with
	the Ward of the State to Egypt again, where they would possibly engage in
	dangerous and illegal activities with him. Parental rights would be
	terminated, and Jesus would be put up for adoption.
	
	He would be adopted by the Herods, a well-connected and politically
	powerful family, who have been searching for just such a child as Jesus. Of
	course, Jesus will die in the custody of his adoptive family, because
	that's all they wanted him for in the first place. Social services will NOT
	have intervened prior to his death because the state social workers could
	never imagine someone as highly placed as the Herods exploiting children or
	torturing them to death. The political ramifications for the Herods would
	have been too severe. In all likelihood, the social service agencies would
	cover up the death as one occurring from accident, and Herod's good name
	will be preserved.