A church in New Zealand has landed itself in hot water after putting up a poster with an image of the Virgin Mary in a state of shock after examining a pregnancy test.
The quite sizeable poster, titled ‘Mary is in the pink’ was erected outside St Matthew’s church in Auckland and shows Mary in an exasperated state with one hand over her mouth and the other holding a pregnancy test.
The church invited people to post appropriate captions to the poster on their website and while some were quite amusing, there was also a predictable stream of outrage from people offended by what they had seen.
“You have crossed the line! Mary should not be the object of a trite campaign, whatever your good or not so good intentions,” said one poster, while another added: “Can it be more offensive?”
There were also a series of lengthy critiques of the poster from religious types, one of whom labelled the image “grotesque, blasphemous and profane”.
Some of the more humorous caption entries included:
“JESUS CHRIST! … Oh that’s a good name!” and “Damn, and I thought it was only an ass I sat on”.
Explaining the reasoning behind the poster, a post on the website by church representatives reads: “It’s real. Christmas is real. It’s about a real pregnancy, a real mother and a real child. It’s about real anxiety, courage and hope.
“This billboard portrays Mary, Jesus’ mother, looking at a home pregnancy test kit revealing that she is pregnant. Regardless of any premonition, that discovery would have been shocking. Mary was unmarried, young, and poor. This pregnancy would shape her future. She was certainly not the first woman in this situation or the last.”
St Matthews is no stranger to controversy, having courted criticism in the summer for a billboard displaying a ‘Gay-dar’ meter, suggesting that the Anglican Church use it to determine who its potential priests might be.
Even worse was Christmas 2009, when the church displayed a billboard of Joseph and Mary in the nip in bed after having a sex with the banner line: “Poor Joseph. God was a hard act to follow.”
If you think you can do better than some of the funnier entries mentioned above, or want to have your own little rant about the whole thing, you can visit the website here.
