I have to say that this one made me smile. A billboard with the aim of “challenging stereotypes” with regards to the Biblical story of Jesus’ divine conception was put up in Auckland, New Zealand and was promptly defaced with brown paint. Ok so that’s not exactly unexpected news. However the fun part of this story is that the billboard was put up by St Matthew-in-the-City church rather than a group of unwashed, hairy, furious, heathen atheists scum. And on top of that it is actually funny.

But, surprise surprise, it appears that the Catholic Church can’t see the funny side and have condemned the billboard as “inappropriate” and “disrespectful“. Ok, so I kinda get that but I have to say that the main complaint they are making really doesn’t make any sense to me. Lyndsay Freer, spokeswoman for the Catholic Diocese of Auckland, made this rather confusing comment:

“Our Christian tradition of 2,000 years is that Mary remains a virgin and that Jesus is the son of God, not Joseph,”

 

I…well I don’t really know what to say to that other than that Ms Freer obviously doesn’t get it. The billboard is clearly implying that Joseph is getting himself some immaculate ass after God had already been there and as such in no way suggests that Joseph was the father of Jesus and not the big guy. Also this idea that “Mary remains a virgin” confuses me. The Bible clearly states that Jesus had siblings and yet the Catholic Church seem to have this weird idea that Mary somehow remained a virgin for these pregnancies as well, or am I missing something here?

Either way this is yet another example of good Christians and their aversion to free speech. Nothing too shocking or original there, it just made me smile.