An unholy row has broken out in New Zealand over a church billboard aimed at "challenging stereotypes" about the birth of Jesus Christ.
A dejected-looking Joseph lies in bed next to Mary under the caption, "Poor Joseph. God was a hard act to follow".

St Matthew-in-the-City Church in Auckland, which erected the billboard, said it had intended to provoke debate.

But the Catholic Church, among others, has condemned it as "inappropriate" and "disrespectful".

Within hours of its unveiling, the billboard had been defaced with brown paint.

The church's vicar, Archdeacon Glynn Cardy, said the aim of the billboard had been to lampoon the literal interpretation of the Christmas conception story.

"What we're trying to do is to get people to think more about what Christmas is all about," he told the New Zealand Press Association (NZPA).

"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?"

He told NZPA that the church had received e-mails and phone calls about the controversial image.

"About 50% said they loved it, and about 50% said it was terribly offensive," he said. "But that's out of about 20 responses - this is New Zealand."

But Lyndsay Freer, spokeswoman for the Catholic Diocese of Auckland, said the poster was offensive to Christians.

"Our Christian tradition of 2,000 years is that Mary remains a virgin and that Jesus is the son of God, not Joseph," she told the New Zealand Herald. "Such a poster is inappropriate and disrespectful."

The family values group Family First said any debate about the Virgin birth should be held inside the church.

"To confront children and families with the concept as a street billboard is completely irresponsible and unnecessary," Family First director Bob McCroskrie told the news website stuff.co.nz.

Kink says: Yes, I bet it's one hell of a debate for people who believe that Jesus was conceived through Divine intervention. Like, wow, parang ang horny ng diyos. Made me feel sorry for Joseph... come on, how does one mortal compete with God?! *gasp*

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Being On The Wrong Continent

I believe I am standing on the wrong continent. Nevertheless, I do love the Philippines but it's just too darn hard to get a boyfriend down here. I think most Filipino men if not all (let's not generalize) are a little pretentious. Or some of them think that women as open-minded as I am are good as free rides. Now that's pathetic, don't you think? Two days ago, I had another one of those phone calls with this guy whom I play football (or soccer) with. He used to fix me up on dates with his friends. I don't know what I said somewhere down the road that made him change his mind but right now everytime I talk to him, he's always mentioning sex. And how he want to have sex with me. Ugh! I'm trying to recall what I said to him but I just can't seem to remember the what and the how of this. One time we're friends then the next he's trying to crawl into my pants. Some friend he turned out to be. And he wants scheduled sex. Ugh! This guy ...
Read more

Five Minutes of Fame

Image
Date: February 27, 2006 Place: Somewhere in Manila, Philippines What it was about: Taping for TV Noringai , a good friend of mine is currently a writer for one of them big, megastar showbiz personality down here. Being a writer and partly a researcher at the same time, she decided that it might actually do their show good to have me as one of their guests. Well... that's what she thought! Prior to actual taping in the studio, they had their production crew troop down to where I live and do a preliminary shoot (Totally different from the interview I did with Studio 23's "Points of View" a few years back). I thought it'll be like 3-4 people and a camera wanting to take a look at my place. Yeah, I've been living in here since 1995. And yes, almost alone. (ooh...kinky! hehehe) To my surprise, they got four vans parked infront of the house. With about 20 people in the crew. And they had two cameras and this sliding railroad to pan their cameras set up in the middl...
Read more

Meet Louie Oviedo

Image
Meet Louie Oviedo... another Louie Oviedo aside from me. Oh lookie what I found on my other website Louie's Newsies ! One of me guests was there. And we have the same name!!! He's cute 'no? Hehe And he's a HE... totally unlike me. I think he's from Colorado or something (let me verify). He's under my "Unbelievable!!!" link. Looks like he's a musician. Check him out!!!
Read more