Churches have a hard time getting bodies into the pews these days. Part of the reason for the decline in church attendance is because we live in a more skeptical age. Biblical tales about parting seas, angelic visitations, God-sent plagues and virgins who magically become pregnant tend to be subject to more critical scrutiny.
An Anglican church in Auckland NZ, St Mathew-in-the-City, has come up with controversial ads in an effort to provoke interest and discussion. Their latest seasonal ad shows a rather sickly looking Mary looking deeply apprehensive as she eyes the results of a home pregnancy kit test.
The Mary ad has provoked predictable outrage on the part of traditionalists who take the bible much too seriously. Charges range all the way from blasphemy to bad taste.
A New Zealand man involved with a Catholic Action Group protest march ripped the lower part of the poster. The vandal, one Arthur Skinner, openly admits that he ripped the ad and told a local news outlet - "to see this at this time is an absolute abomination". Skinner is less bothered by the fact that his conduct was precisely the opposite of that recommended by the gospels he holds so dear.
Vandalized ad
Really the ad is little more than a novel effort to make Mary appear more human, more real, more vulnerable. Kind of like a pregnant teen faced with a life changing dilemma.
The problem of course is that Mary isn't just anyone. If you buy the bible's explanation she's no less than the mother-of-God. A concept not everyone can easily relate to.
Glynn Cardy, the minister of St Mathew, seems to think that the ad will provoke discussion and lead to new understandings. If he is proposing a more humanist interpretation of the biblical narrative, his contention might hold up. But if the ad leads artfully to the same old conclusion, namely that Mary's pregnancy was the work of none other than "God" then it's hard to see where this will lead.
The late Christopher Hitchens boldly stated that "God is not great" and there are many sound reasons for arriving at that conclusion. Religion and its superstitions has contributed mightily to endless strife and division in our world. Coming up with novel ways to present old myths is just a new way to proselytize when what we really need is an informed reality check.
An earlier and equally controversial ad put out by St Mathew church in 2009 shows Joseph and Mary in bed beneath a provocative caption.
More on the Mary ad story at TVNZ
An Anglican church in Auckland NZ, St Mathew-in-the-City, has come up with controversial ads in an effort to provoke interest and discussion. Their latest seasonal ad shows a rather sickly looking Mary looking deeply apprehensive as she eyes the results of a home pregnancy kit test.
The Mary ad has provoked predictable outrage on the part of traditionalists who take the bible much too seriously. Charges range all the way from blasphemy to bad taste.
A New Zealand man involved with a Catholic Action Group protest march ripped the lower part of the poster. The vandal, one Arthur Skinner, openly admits that he ripped the ad and told a local news outlet - "to see this at this time is an absolute abomination". Skinner is less bothered by the fact that his conduct was precisely the opposite of that recommended by the gospels he holds so dear.
Vandalized ad
Really the ad is little more than a novel effort to make Mary appear more human, more real, more vulnerable. Kind of like a pregnant teen faced with a life changing dilemma.
The problem of course is that Mary isn't just anyone. If you buy the bible's explanation she's no less than the mother-of-God. A concept not everyone can easily relate to.
Glynn Cardy, the minister of St Mathew, seems to think that the ad will provoke discussion and lead to new understandings. If he is proposing a more humanist interpretation of the biblical narrative, his contention might hold up. But if the ad leads artfully to the same old conclusion, namely that Mary's pregnancy was the work of none other than "God" then it's hard to see where this will lead.
The late Christopher Hitchens boldly stated that "God is not great" and there are many sound reasons for arriving at that conclusion. Religion and its superstitions has contributed mightily to endless strife and division in our world. Coming up with novel ways to present old myths is just a new way to proselytize when what we really need is an informed reality check.
An earlier and equally controversial ad put out by St Mathew church in 2009 shows Joseph and Mary in bed beneath a provocative caption.
More on the Mary ad story at TVNZ
