Published: 4:11PM Thursday December 17, 2009
Source: ONE News/NZPA
Source: ONE NewsA man paints over the controversial billboard
A church billboard showing Joseph and Mary in bed has been defaced, within four hours of going up.
On the billboard Mary and Joseph are in bed with Joseph looking down in a dejected manner and Mary looking disappointed.
The caption reads: "Poor Joseph. God is a hard act to follow."
The billboard, at St Matthew-in-the-City Church in Auckland, was almost entirely painted over by a man standing on his car on Thursday afternoon. A ONE News camera caught him in the act .
The church says the billboard intended to challenge stereotypes about the way that Jesus was conceived and get people talking about the Christmas story.
"We actually think God is about the power of love as shown in Jesus, which is something quite different than a literal man up in the sky," says Archdeacon Glynn Cardy.
The billboard has led Anglicans to fall out with other religions. It has, however, also received praise as well as the criticism.
Cardy says the church had received emails and phone calls since it made the public aware of the billboard on Tuesday.
"About 50% said they loved it, and about 50% said it was terribly offensive," he told NZPA.
"But that's out of about 20 responses - this is New Zealand."
The billboard, which has already sparked a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority, has also raised the wrath of the traditional values pressure group Family First.
"The church can have its debate on the Virgin birth and its spiritual significance inside the church building, but to confront children and families with the concept as a street billboard is completely irresponsible and unnecessary," Family First national director Bob McCoskrie says.
"The church has failed to recognise that public billboards are exposed to all of the public, including children and families who may be offended by the material."
Catholic Church spokeswoman Lyndsay Freer says the image is inappropriate and disrespectful.
"It's flying in the face of our 2,000-year-old beliefs," he says.
The archdeacon says the plan behind the billboard was 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 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 says St Matthew-in-the-City is at the progressive end of the Christian continuum, and that he believes God is "more like a force but not a being in any sense".
The church is seeking a replacement billboard.
What do you think of the billboard? Is it amusingly thought provoking or insulting and unnecessarily provocative? Leave your comments on the messageboard below.
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