Source: QMI Agency
An ad in front of a New Zealand church is causing controversy because it shows a shocked Virgin Mary holding a positive pregnancy test.
Vicar Glynn Cardy took to the St. Matthew-in-the-City's Facebook page to say he received more than 200 e-mails about the ad.
"Huge amounts of projection," Cardy wrote giving examples of some of the e-mails, such as, "You make (Mary) look like a whore," "No one who is a virgin needs a pregnancy test," and his personal favourite, "You are destroying the fabric of society that gives rise to bigots and fanatics and then think it is OK to no longer follow rules."
In a post on the Auckland church's website, titled Mary is in the pink, Cardy and associate priest Clay Nelson write that to the Virgin Mary, her immaculate conception would have been "shocking."
"Mary was unmarried, young, and poor. This pregnancy would shape her future. She was certainly not the first woman in this situation or the last," they wrote.
When many parts of Christmas are "make-believe," it's important to remember the "real" story, they said.
"It's real. Christmas is real. It's about a real pregnancy, a real mother and a real child. It's about real anxiety, courage and hope," they wrote.
The ad, which looks like a painting and is on a billboard in front of the church, has no words on it.
"We invite you to wonder what your caption might be," they wrote.
The post on the website received more than 100 comments with caption suggestions, including such relatively tame ones as, "Oh dear lord, what have you done?" and "If I say I'm a virgin, mum and dad won't kill me." Some caption suggestions were far more inappropriate.
The ad follows one the church did in 2009 where a painting depicted Mary and Joseph in bed together with the tagline, "Poor Joseph, God was a hard act to follow."
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