BS: Virgin Mary & pregnancy test

Subject: RE: BS: Virgin Mary & pregnancy test
From: gnu
Date: 19 Dec 11 - 01:10 PM

I guess I should have said... it's displayed in public. It would drwa flack here fer sure.

By the way, some of the responses above struck me as very funny.

Subject: RE: BS: Virgin Mary & pregnancy test
From: frogprince
Date: 19 Dec 11 - 12:31 PM

I wouldn't think of it as anything worse than a slightly edgey attempt to provoke thought. If you look down the comments with it at the linked site, I find some of the foaming-mouthed reactions far, far more disturbing than the billboard. Some of them really sound like people who could become physically dangerous at the least push of their religious "buttons".

Subject: RE: BS: Virgin Mary & pregnancy test
From: Ed T
Date: 19 Dec 11 - 10:26 AM

Find it mildly amusing. If I saw it on a billboard, I would not spend any time looking for any wider meaning than what seems to be the intended joke. But, then, some folks can see deep meaning in many things, such as abstract art, often far beyond the orginal intent.

But, don't see that it would be seen as offensive to most broad thinking folks. Unlike in the past, today most Christians also have a broad sense of humour.

Subject: RE: BS: Virgin Mary & pregnancy test
From: theleveller
Date: 19 Dec 11 - 08:37 AM

"Wait till I get my hands on that fucking angel."

Subject: RE: BS: Virgin Mary & pregnancy test
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 19 Dec 11 - 08:29 AM

The second link in the OP makes these points.
This billboard portrays Mary, Jesus' mother, looking at a home pregnancy test kit revealing that she is pregnant. Regardless of any premonition, that discovery would have been shocking. Mary was unmarried, young, and poor. This pregnancy would shape her future.

It could have added that she faced being stoned to death for conceiving while unmarried, and that she would have been barely 14, or even just 12 or 13.

Subject: RE: BS: Virgin Mary & pregnancy test
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 19 Dec 11 - 08:21 AM

"Now, this is going to take some explaining"

L in C#

Subject: RE: BS: Virgin Mary & pregnancy test
From: Jack Campin
Date: 19 Dec 11 - 07:43 AM

I occasionally went to concerts in that church in the early 70s. The one that really stands out was a performance of Cornelius Cardew's "The Great Learning", paragraph 7, where the whole audience participates - walking around the nave singing the text at pitches they chose themselves, then every so often walking up to somebody else, listening, and adopting their pitch instead of their own. So the sound started out as an enormous blur and as as a result of all those individual exhanges gradually focused down on a single unison tone.

Subject: RE: BS: Virgin Mary & pregnancy test
From: Will Fly
Date: 19 Dec 11 - 07:08 AM

Jesus!

Subject: RE: BS: Virgin Mary & pregnancy test
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 19 Dec 11 - 06:41 AM

Let me add to the "bad taste" angle by posing a cmpetition for the best one line addition:

Starting with "Some party that was"

L in C#

Subject: RE: BS: Virgin Mary & pregnancy test
From: Fossil
Date: 18 Dec 11 - 11:07 PM

Gnu should *definitely* never visit New Zealand! Most people here appreciate the - let's say slightly risque - sort of humour and it's appreciated that an organisation like a church is prepared to take it on.

My own (Presbyterian) church, St John's in the City, Wellington also has a tradition of provocative posters - such as the exhortation (with appropriate photos) to "Love thine enemy: Go Australia!" which appeared during the Rugby World Cup.

But, looking at the Virgin/Pregnancy Test one - isn't there a very serious message there, underneath the obvious humour? We are, of course immediately faced with the question any woman in that situation has: "What do I do now?". Think about it, it's what the Catholics want you to do...

Subject: RE: BS: Virgin Mary & pregnancy test
From: gnu
Date: 18 Dec 11 - 10:38 PM

It's funny. Even tho it's DEFINITELY not funny to me. I think it's in VERY poor taste. But, anything for a joke. Live and let laff eh?

Subject: BS: Virgin Mary & pregnancy test
From: Crowhugger
Date: 18 Dec 11 - 10:03 PM

Tonight when my husband read to me a news item from the paper about this image on a billboard in NZ (see top left of page), first I laughed right out loud. Immediately I also thought it was a brilliant stroke of PR to make a church relevant to early 21st century people. A great angle on an old story.

We both laughed some more at a list of possible captions for the billboard (scroll down)--some are downright audacious! Though I don't know if the billboard actually has a caption.

Anyhow, given that I'm not Christian and my husband's Catholicism is long lapsed, it occurs to me there may be more to this than meets our eye. Do tell: Does the image offend you? How, why? Does it amuse you? How, why? Not sure? Talk about that, too.