Implication Mary and Joseph had sex disrespectful to catholics
Offline Mary and Joseph post-sex billboard upsets Catholics
- From: AAP
- December 17, 2009
A RISQUE billboard that depicts Jesus's mother looking dejected after unsatisfying sex with Joseph has given Kiwi Catholics a nasty pre-Christmas surprise.
The huge ad erected in downtown Auckland today shows the unhappy couple in bed accompanied by the slogan: "Poor Joseph. God was a hard act to follow".
In the fresco-style work, Joseph looks down red-faced while an anguished Mary looks to the heavens.
It was the brainchild of a progressive Christian church, St Matthew's, whose vicar Archdeacon Glynn Cardy says it was a cutting-edge strategy to engage non-believers.
"Progressive Christianity is distinctive in that not only does it articulate a clear view, it is also interested in engaging with those who differ," Cardy said, with the advertisement still appearing on their website.
But the city's Catholic diocese is not impressed, saying the implication that Mary and Joseph had just had sex was "disrespectful" and "offensive" to Christians.
Spokeswoman Lyndsay Freer told the New Zealand Herald it was particularly inappropriate given the inference was wrong.
"Our Christian tradition of 2000 years is that Mary remains a virgin and that Jesus is the son of God, not Joseph," she said.
But statistics show New Zealanders may need such edgy advertising to help spark interest in religion.
The latest 2006 Census showed that 32.2 per cent - or 1.3 million Kiwis - profess to have no religion, up 270,000 people on the previous survey.
That's significantly more than the 18.7 per cent of Australians who ticked the No Religion box in the same year, and higher than most other Western countries worldwide.
It's not surprising that a recent atheist fundraising campaign to put controversial "No God" posters on buses was overwhelmed with donations from non-God fearing Kiwis.
The organiser, Simon Fisher, collected more than double the $NZ10,000 ($8000) he needed in just two days for the ads which read: "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."
He said the campaign, which mimics one which ran in Britain, was designed to break religious taboos.
"Religion should not be a taboo subject that no one brings up at dinner parties," he wrote on the website www.nogod.org.nz.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
- Login to post comments
Are that more than 32 per cent of kiwis don't believe in god. Brilliant.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
Honestly, even if these people did exist, they're all dead anyway. Does it even matter? No. Let's move on.
*Our world is far more complex than the rigid structure we want to assign to it, and we will probably never fully understand it.*
"Those believers who are sophisticated enough to understand the paradox have found exciting ways to bend logic into pretzel shapes in order to defend the indefensible." - Hamby
That certainly is more realistic than godsperm knocking up a girl.
What are these Catholics going to do other than shake their fists?
Sorry Pope, you and your fans and your super hero are not above scrutiny. Find it offensive all you want. That is the price of living in a open free society.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
Wait a sec...
Mary died a virgin? Why the hell would joseph marry a woman that never puts out? Why would he stay with her when he figures it out? So joseph died a virgin too? Poor bastard belongs in the Darwin Awards, fictional or not.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Is it just me, or does crap like this make Catholics sound like they might be afraid of vaginas?
Seriously. The women have to be untouched. Saviors have to be immaculate in their conception.
Weird.
Personally, I love it.
I think it's great in this wonderful modern age of instant information, the church blatantly and unapologetically tries to change its own doctrine to be more hip. It just makes them look all the worse.
Look at it this way: Who is the church generally the most pissed off at right now? That's right... ATHEISTS. Because we've become a real thorn in their side, what with our logic and common sense and science, and that damn internet that keeps reaching kids even in the communes. How cool would it be for the Christians to get all pissy and riled up at each other! Nothing spells disillusionment more than seeing children fighting over the bucket and scoop in the sandlot. Young people will NOT be attracted to this kind of silly argument. The whole thing will backfire, and more youth will embrace non-religion, or at least not Christianity.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
"Damn that internet. "
Thats probably what my parents are thinking.
The picture made me laugh a bit, but hearing about the arguing was even better.
Especially since the Bible talks about Jesus' brothers and sisters.
"I do this real moron thing, and it's called thinking. And apparently I'm not a very good American because I like to form my own opinions."
— George Carlin
It does? I don't remember that. Do you have a verse?
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
Well I can't remember 'cause it's been a while since I even touched a Bible and I have no idea where mine is, but I'm pretty sure the gospels occasionally refer to one James, the brother of Jesus. I think it was James... I'm sure there were more though.
Oh, that.
I thought a lot of biblical scholars were coming around to that being the same greek word... adelphos, if memory serves, that refers to a spiritual brother.
But then, I guess most Christians don't go in for scholarship.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
No, it literaly means brother, although it can mean spiritual brother in context.
You see how much I worry myself with Biblical minutia.
I'm proud to say I haven't cracked my Bible for at least four or five years, though I keep it around in case there's a kindling shortage.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
Matt 12:46, Mark 3:31 (same story), John 2:12, Acts 1:13-15, Matt 13:55-56 et al.
"I do this real moron thing, and it's called thinking. And apparently I'm not a very good American because I like to form my own opinions."
— George Carlin
That certainly seems clear enough in translation. But then, you know what a stickler old King James was for precision and accuracy. Who knows.
But yeah, seems odd that the Catholics would get their knickers in a knot over mentioning Mary's quivering vagina shortly after a doggy-style ramming from Joseph.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
"No, it literaly means brother, although it can mean spiritual brother in context."
Much like the word brother.
So this idiotic woman bitching about mary being an eternal virgin from birth to death just doesn't know her own religion. That makes a bit more sense. In a twisted, theist sort of way.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Muslims believe that in paradise they'll get that stack of 70 virgins as we all know. But get this. They also believe that the girls' hymens will regrow every night - they will always be virgins.
Personally, I'd prefer a 30 year-old brunette pole dancer with an interesting brain, a lovely smile and a man-sized sex drive...
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
Did you get your shots first? If you don't and you get infected, the shots you do take are much more painful.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
Yes, that.
Didn't you know that whatever you read in the bible must be literally true. Therefore, because the bible is printed in English, that must have been the language spoken back then. Any attempt to change the actual wording by scholars would constitute changing the words in the bible and therefore must be inspired by the Devil as an attempt to distort x-tianity.
And Hamby, that is only semi-poe. I have had several people try to convince me of that shit before. One of my favorites is when the literalist crowd tries to deal with 1 kings 7:23 ---
So according to the bible, the value of pi=3.00. OK. You can google plenty of lame excuses as to why the bible didn't really say that, despite the fact that all of them were written by people who don't hold that there is any room in the literal words for interpretation.
=