It is interesting to note how quick many Christians are to take the worldly view and deny that Mary, after giving birth to Christ, remained celibate for the remainder of her days. Exactly why some Christians feel the need to argue against Mary's virginity mystifies me — did not Paul teach us that to remain celibate for the sake of the Kingdom was a high calling indeed? (c.f. 1 Corinthians 7) Is it not possible that Mary chose this path of devotion for herself, knowing that it was pleasing to the Lord? Is it not possible that Joseph, her faithful and righteous husband, would have been unwilling to defile his wife in the sexual act (c.f. Leviticus 15) after her body had given birth to the Son of God, meaning in turn (as Luke reminds us, in how he structures his account of the Annunciation) that she was the New Ark of the Covenant?
We live in a sex-obsessed world, and moreover we live in a world which has been getting more sex-obsessed as the centuries have rolled along. Look back at the early church; even in Martin Luther's time, as well as long before that, the virginity of Mary was an accepted part of Christian teaching. Martin Luther certainly believed in the perpetual virginity of Mary, and it should be noted that his tomb is inscribed with an image of the Assumption of Mary, the Blessed Virgin.
Indeed, the mainstreaming of the denial of Mary's virginity is a fairly recent thing, and I think it has quite a lot to do with the direction the world's attitude toward sex has taken. Many Christians don't even want to acknowledge that Mary is, according to the Bible, to be called "blessed" by all nations (and then presumably in all ages). I would wager that many Christians also don't want to admit, with any kind of frequency, that Mary is the foremost example of Christian devotion to the will of the Lord.
And I'd wager, following along from that, that many Christians, too worldly in their thinking about sexuality, don't want to consider the possibility that the Mother of the Son, the foremost example of Christian devotion to God's divine will, she who is "blessed" to all the nations, the woman clothed with the Sun…was also virginal for the remainder of her life on Earth. The Church sets forth this example against the changes of the ages, as a reminder to all that God's way is a higher way, above the whims and fancies of men. The example of Mary is many lessons all bundled into one, not the least of which is that the world does not revolve around pelvic issues, despite what the magazines tell us.
Lately, though, this special recognition of Mary has been dismissed, by some Christians, as a "vain philosophy" and a "tradition of men", yet one more example of how Scripture has apparently been "twisted" by the Church. This despite the fact that historically, Christians of all stripes have accepted the perpetual virginity of Mary as factual.
Moreover, the Catholic belief (and, by extension, the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox belief) concerning Mary's perpetual virginity is attacked as being against Scripture. Verses that are often cited in support of this claim are sourced from all four of the Gospels, and much of the rest of the New Testament, and include verses which reference the "brothers and sisters" of Christ (Matthew 13:55-56, Acts 1:14), logistical analysis of e.g. the flight to Egypt (c.f. Matthew 2:13-15), or the implication of sexual relations between Mary and Joseph after the birth of Christ (Matthew 1:25).
Were I of a more facetious bent, I might opt to congratulate an anti-Marian Christian for citing such verses, which the Church has obviously never encountered in its nearly 2,000-year history. Surely the existence of these new-found passages from the New Testament must be immediately brought to the attention of the Pope, I might suggest, and the whole of Catholic doctrine concerning the Blessed Virgin must be re-examined (if not cast down entirely). Because we all know that no Catholic has ever read the first few chapters of the Gospel of Matthew!
Actually, the Church is fully cognizant of the existence of these passages of Scripture, and yet stubbornly continues to promulgate the doctrine — long-accepted by the vast majority of Christians, it should be noted — that Mary remained virginal even after the birth of Jesus. Indeed, Catholic doctrine pertaining to the virginity of Mary makes reference to many of the same verses that are often thrown out against it!
How can this be?
Well, as it turns out, the doctrine of Mary's perpetual virginity is actually supported in Scripture; moreover, it is supported by all of Scripture, not just a handful of carefully chosen (read: cherry-picked) verses. I will be exploring this as thoroughly as I can as the day rolls on, beginning with what might be, for some, an unexpected foray into the Old Testament. But to get there, we have to take a detour through a discussion of hermeneutics.