"Poor Joseph. God is a hard act to follow." Billboard

TheSilence

I found this to be an odd billboard simply because it was posted by a church:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121585861&ft=1&f=1001

mrsjones5

Didn't Mary have children after Jesus? Why is it so offensive for some folks to think that Mary had sex with Joseph after Jesus' birth?

cameo-d

wasn't Jesus more like artificial insemination?

I think the offense comes from the idea putting forth the idea of god having sex with Mary. I think that is the insinuation behind god being a hard act to follow while joseph looks dejected in bed with mary next to him looking wistfully towards heaven. Personally I find it rather amusing, just surprising that it was posted by a church rather than someone mocking christianity.

cameo-d

quote from article:

Church vicar Archdeacon Glynn Cardy said the billboard was intended to challenge stereotypes about the way Jesus was conceived and get people talking about the Christmas story.

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"challenge the stereotypes about the way Jesus was conceived"

does "stereotype" refer to "virgin birth"?

Is the church about to change it's doctrine?

frankiespeakin

So Mary had an O God O God moment!

Jim_TX

"So Mary had an O God O God moment!"

hahaha

Well... I guess that she couldn't say, "Jesus! Look at the size of that thing!"

mindmelda

In most belief systems, eventually a God or Goddess has sex with a human and creates a "hero". Every ancient religion I can think of has a story like this.

Nothing new here...move along.

Sad emo

Having read the explanation:

"This billboard is trying to lampoon and ridicule the very literal idea that God is a male and somehow this male God impregnated Mary," said Cardy, who described his church as having very liberal ideas about Christianity.

the billboard, inappropriate and/or offensive as it may be to some, makes sense - its saying that IF people think that's how Mary conceived Jesus, then yeah, Joseph might seem a pretty inadequate successor!

I don't quite follow the first part of the next statement though, s'pose it depends on how you define 'virgin'!

"We would question the Virgin Birth in any literal sense. We would question the maleness of God in any literal sense," he said.

Satanus

Apparently, joseph forgave his wife. I wonder, how he viewed god, after god did his wife.

S

"Poor Joseph. God is a hard act to follow." Billboard

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