New Zealand Christians outraged by poster of Mary and Joseph after sex

manicstreetpreacher: LMFAO

I have come across this hilarious article on The Daily Telegraph website regarding the poster below which was vandalised after being displayed at a church in Auckland, New Zealand:

The large poster depicts a dejected-looking Joseph lying next to Mary, whose eyes are turned heavenwards, under the words: “Poor Joseph.  God was a hard act to follow.”…

Within hours of the billboard being erected outside the Anglican church of St Matthew’s in the City, in central Auckland, it had been attacked by a man who clambered on to the roof of his car to smear brown paint over it.

As a result it was almost obliterated and the church, which describes itself as “progressive”, is seeking a replacement.

Archdeacon Glynn Cardy said the billboard was intended to lampoon the literal interpretation of the Christmas conception story “and that somehow this male God impregnated Mary”.

“What we’re trying to do is to get people to think more about what Christmas is all about,” he said.

“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.”…

St Matthew’s was inundated with angry phone calls and emails soon after the billboard appeared at a busy street corner on Thursday.

The poster also sparked a barrage of comments to radio stations and on internet websites.

Among leading critics was Lyndsay Freer, a spokesman for the Catholic Church, who said: “This is disrespectful and offensive to all Christians.

“It’s flying in the face of our 2,000-year-old beliefs,” she said.

Too flaming right!  This is a piece of blasphemy up there with the infamous Mary Whitehouse –v- Lemon & Gay News poem by James Kirkup, The Love that Dares to Speak Its Name, depicting homosexual necrophilia on the body of Christ and the BBC’s showing of Jerry Springer: The Opera.

Someone deserves to be canonised into the gallery comedic terrorists!

UPDATE: RichardDawkins.net has posted the story after I forwarded them the link.  Some of the comments are hilarious:

Comment #442632 by Rosbif on December 17, 2009 at 6:35 pm

If God made man in his own image, size couldn’t be the problem.

Comment #442637 by Art Vandelay on December 17, 2009 at 6:51 pm

And guess who’s name she was calling out all the way through…?

Comment #442665 by chameleonpete on December 17, 2009 at 7:37 pm

it just demands a caption comp…..

Yey again Mary and Joseph argued about who was sleeping in the wet patch

or

Mary was getting sick of Joseph’s nun fetish.

Comment #442679 by SaintStephen on December 17, 2009 at 8:12 pm

Damn… missed the obvious one:

Is carpenter Joe having trouble getting wood?

Comment #442682 by squinky on December 17, 2009 at 8:26 pm

Caption: Years after being married, Joseph’s advances are again rebuffed by Mary the virgin.  Again, Joseph must rub one out.

Comment #442692 by root2squared on December 17, 2009 at 8:48 pm

Caption: Joseph wished he could cure headaches instantaneously like god.

Comment #442708 by GODisNOT on December 17, 2009 at 9:38 pm

Joy to the world, the lord has cumm! :)) 😉

One commenter has submitted an improved version of the picture:

Another commenter has posted a link to this hilarious picture which is in a similar vein:

And another commenter has submitted NZ newspaper articles before and after the paint attack.

Finally, one commenter has managed to make a serious point:

Comment #442671 by sibias1978 on December 17, 2009 at 7:52 pm

It is somewhat distressing to recall that three years ago every single newspaper in Great Britain had refrained from publishing the Danish cartoons on Muhammad in a grotesque display of cowardice and appeasement.  Religion rarely deserves the respect it asks of non-believers or the reverence it demands from believers.   However when ridicule is directed at one particular religion while simultaneously ensuring that it provokes the least amount of backlash it becomes difficult to applaud.

Tags: Archdeacon, Auckland, bbc, blasphemy, catholic church, christ, Christian, church, Gay News, Glynn Cardy, god, homosexual, James Kirkup, Jerry Springer The Opera, jesus, Joseph, Lemon, Lyndsay Freer, Mary, Mary Whitehouse, National Viewers and Listeners Association, necrophilia, New Zealand, New Zealand Herald, poem, poster, St Matthew, The Love That Dares To Speak Its Name