Wow this is very Innapropriate

I was just going to add this story to an addition of "Hitting the High Notes" but after giving it a re-read I figured it deserved an entire post of its own. Ok so I was reading this article about a billboard in New Zealand showing Mary and Joseph in bed together. The billboard is trying to draw attention to "alternate theories of Jesus' birth" by showing the apparently no longer Virgin Mary in bed with Joeseph during a post coital moment. Mary is looking upwards and Joeseph looking forlorn as if he wasn't able to perform adequately and uses the following caption. "Poor Joseph. God was a hard act to follow." As if God actually had intercourse with Mary and was a good lover and Joseph couldn't measure up.


Oh wow, how inappropriate is this? I can understand that there are alternate theories to how Jesus was conceived and how his life, death, and resurrection are portrayed in the Bible and throughout Christianity but throwing this in the face of believers in the form of a billboard is just wrong. In my opinion it's not being used "to challenge stereotypes about the way that Jesus was conceived and get people talking about the Christmas story." as vicar, Archdeacon Glynn Cardy of St. Matthews Anglican Church claims. It's being used for it's shock value and it's ability to draw anger from believers. I am a Christian who considers myself pretty open and accepting of other religious views but this one goes too far for even me to tolerate so I had to post it here. Maybe I can use it to start a discussion.

So I would love to hear what you guys think? Is this billboard just a way to get a discussion going? It is just for shock value? Is it blasphemous? What do you think? Please keep it civil though folks...

-Doc