New Zealand: Billboard depicting Joseph and Mary semi-nude in bed causes a stir
An unholy row has broken out in New Zealand over a church billboard which depicts a forlorn Joseph and Mary looking to the sky with a caption that reads: “Poor Joseph. God is a hard act to follow”. The billboard is aimed at “challenging stereotypes” about the birth of Jesus Christ.
The couple are lying in bed semi-naked beneath the sheets. The Anglican church defends the Christmas billboard erected by St Matthew-in-the-City Church in Auckland as they say it was intended to provoke debate.
But the Catholic Church, among others, has condemned the campaign as “inappropriate” and “disrespectful”. Within five hours of the billboard going up a man was standing on his car roof painting over the image.
Archdeacon Glynn Cardy, the church’s vicar, said to New Zealand Press Association: “What we’re trying to do is to get people to think more about what Christmas is all about.” He said that the church aimed at challenging a fundamentalist interpretation of Christ’s birth.
“What we’re trying to do is to get people to think more about what Christmas is all about. Is it about a spiritual male God sending down sperm so a child would be born, or is it about the power of love in our midst as seen in Jesus?”
Mr Cardy said one person had threatened to tear down the poster but that of the 20 odd emails and phone calls he had received “about 50% said they loved it, and about 50% said it was terribly offensive”.
“It’s flying in the face of our 2,000-year-old beliefs,” a Catholic church spokesman, Lyndsay Freer, said.
St Matthew’s was swamped with angry phone calls and emails.
A complaint has been lodged with New Zealand’s advertising watchdog, the Advertising Authority, but Cardy was remorseless.
“I don’t see why one person’s protest should deny other people the enjoyment of the billboard.”
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