Sex With the Virgin Mary

You might try to guess which group put this image up on a Billboard in New Zealand. D'ya think it's from an atheist group making fun? No, not at all. It's from St. Matthew-in-the-City Church. Since I've previously written on how to increase traffic to your Blog or site this is an example of it. It gets attention. So also does the title to this post of mine. Controversy gets people talking. So okay, let's talk about it.



Here's what they say about the Billboard:

In its ongoing effort to provoke conversation about spiritual matters, St Matthew-in-the-City will be putting up a Christmas billboard on Thursday that lampoons literalism and invites people to think again about what a miracle is. Is the Christmas miracle a male God sending forth his divine sperm, or is the miracle that God is and always has been among the poor?

It will feature an illustration that may disturb some. Mary and Joseph are in bed. Joseph looks down dejected. Mary looks sad. The caption reads: “Poor Joseph. God is a hard act to follow.”

It is intended to challenge stereotypes about the way that Jesus was conceived and get people talking about the Christmas story.

Archdeacon Glynn Cardy, vicar of St Matthew’s, is pleased at the amount of conversation it has already generated in just the conception phase around the meaning of the incarnation.

“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” he said.

“At Bethlehem low-life shepherds and heathen travelers are welcome while the powerful and the priests aren’t. The stories introduce the topsy-turvy way of God, where the outsiders are invited in and the insiders ushered out.

He argues that “the true importance of Christmas is in the radical hospitality Jesus offered to the poor, the despised, women, children, and the sick, and says: ‘this is the essence of God’. His death was a consequence of the offensive nature of that hospitality and his resurrection a symbolic vindication.” Link.

Got that? This church is a liberal one which supports the poor and downtrodden.

Again, the Billboard...

...lampoons literalism and invites people to think again about what a miracle is. Is the Christmas miracle a male God sending forth his divine sperm, or is the miracle that God is and always has been among the poor?"

Neither! Both options are completely untenable. The nativity stories are a myth, that's for sure. Literalism is dead. But what of the alternative? The liberal view that God miraculously helps the poor based on mythical and symbolic stories (like the resurrection, which they also admit!), are ludicrous too. Listen up you blind as a bat believers, if God helps the poor then why do so many children die every single day around the world, last I heard 25,000 children per day:

The silent killers are poverty, hunger, easily preventable diseases and illnesses, and other related causes.

Neither side gets it. The Nativity stories are a myth and there is no evidence of a miracle working God who cares for the poor. But who needs evidence when you have faith, right?

HT to the Friendly Atheist for the story.