Mary Marsh incident
From West Wing Wiki
The Mary Marsh Incident was a major plot point for the Pilot in which Josh Lyman was in trouble for insulting Mary Marsh and the Christian community while debating with Marsh on Capital Beat.
[edit] The Incident
Josh Lyman had gone onto Capital Beat prior to the start of the Pilot to debate with Mary Marsh. At one point, during their debate, they had a heated exchange in which they said:
- Mary Marsh: I can tell you that you don't believe in any God I pray to, Mr Lyman, not any God I pray to.
- Josh Lyman: Lady, the God you pray to is too busy being indicted for Tax Fraud
The incident is first presented to the viewer at the start of the show when Sam Seaborn is being asked by Billy Kentworthy whether Josh was going to be fired. While Sam flatly denies that the incident would be significant enough to result in Josh being fired, the possibility of Josh being fired becomes the central focus of Josh's interactions with other characters. While Mary Marsh is not seen as a powerful opponent by the West Wing, she represents a group of Conservative Christians including the powerful Reverend Al Caldwell.
We later discover from Leo McGarry as he's speaking with Rev. Caldwell that the President had ordered Leo to fire Josh, but Leo had been trying to convince the President not to. Toby Zeigler similarly tries to help Josh out by giving Josh a chance to apologize and make up for the incident: they will meet with Rev Caldwell, Mary Marsh and John Van Dyke and offer them the right to pick the topic of the President's Sunday Morning Address for any morality topic they'd like.
During the meeting, Josh apologizes to Mary Marsh who immediately seizes upon the opportunity and tells the West Wing that they pick one of three issues: condoms in schools, pornography, or school prayer. When Josh tries to negotiate, Marsh tells him she wants to deal with Toby since Josh has probably already been fired and proceeds to insult Josh for his "New York sense of humor". Toby takes the statement to refer to the fact that Josh and Toby are Jewish since Josh is from Connecticut, not New York.
When John Van Dyke changes tacts and tries to bring discussion around to the Ten Commandments and focuses in particular on "Love thy father" - which he incorrectly labels as the First Commandment. Toby corrects him saying it is in fact the Third Commandment (it is, actually, the 5th). When Van Dyke asks what the First Commandment is, the President walks in and says it is "I am the Lord, your God. Thou shalt worship no other god before me." The President then tells a story about how a religious extremist group call The Lambs of God, who were closely related to Rev Caldwell's group had sent his granddaughter, Annie a "raggedy Anne doll with a knife through its throat" for voicing an opinion on abortion. He orders Rev Caldwell to publicly denounce the group and kicks them out of the White House.
The President lets Josh keep his job but warns Josh to never make a similar mistake again.[1]
[edit] Appearances
- Pilot
- Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc (Mentioned only)
