Church's Joseph & Mary Sex Poster Causing Anger in New Zealand

A billboard outside an Anglican church in Auckland, New Zealand which depicts Mary, mother of Jesus, and her husband-to-be Joseph, in bed together, seemingly having just had sex, is being condemned as blasphemous.

Archdeacon Glynn Cardy is the vicar of St-Matthew-in-the-City, an Anglican church in central Auckland outside which the controversial billboard can be found, and Sky News is reporting on how the Archdeacon has described the poster which shows Mary, said to have been the virgin mother of Jesus, and Joseph, to whom Mary was engaged to be married when she supposedly conceived the man Christians believe to be the Son of God, in bed together, apparently after having unsatisfying sex, as an attempt to connect with non-believers. Explaining further the decision to erect the billboard outside his church, which the Telegraph confirms is painted in a classical fresco style and appears to show the couple naked under the bedclothes, Archdeacon Cardy said:

Progressive Christianity is distinctive in that not only does it articulate a clear view, it is also interested in engaging with those who differ. Its vision is one of robust engagement

On the poster which is causing much anger in the wider Christian community in Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand, a rather forlorn-looking Joseph is staring very slightly to his left, and beside him Mary is looking towards the heavens. Above the couple's heads are the words "Poor Joseph. God was a hard act to follow". By suggesting that Mary and Joseph have just had sex the poster is, as The New Zealand Herald confirms, considered to be a contradiction of what is written about the conception of Jesus in the Bible. As the Herald notes Mary, known also as the Virgin Mary or Saint Mary, and a virginal Jewish woman from Nazareth, a city in modern-day Israel, was told by an angel that appeared before her that she would feel the Holy Spirit come over her and eventually she would give birth to a child that was the Son of God. Archdeacon Cardy is quoted by the Telegraph as saying that the poster, intended he asserts to satirize the manner in which the conception of Christ is literally interpreted and to make people think more about the message of Christmas, was the brainchild of an advertising agency that came up with another idea he rejected, which would have seen sperm running down a poster, accompanied by the words "Joy to the World". Regardless of the justification Archdeacon Cardy may provide for the billboard - it made its first appearance on Thursday and prompted irate phone calls and emails to the church where it can be seen and a large number of comments on radio stations and on the Internet, in addition a man daubed it with brown paint - the approach he has taken is seen as simply inexcusable by many. The Catholic Diocese of Auckland is particularly critical of the billboard, its spokeswoman Lyndsay Freer stating:

Our Christian tradition of 2000 years is that Mary remains a virgin and that Jesus is the son of God, not Joseph. Such a poster is inappropriate and disrespectful