I love this.
A n Anglican Church in New Zealand has put up billboards showing the Virgin Mary holding her face in shovck after looking at the result of her preegnancy test. They put it up to “shake things up” and get people thinking.
It’ll definitely do that
Apparently it’s not the first time they’ve put up a wild billboard.
Well, Mary’s a blonde and they do say blondes have more fun, right?
Maybe I’m just dense but in not really seeing “controversial” or “provocative” in the new billboard. The fact that Mary was pregnant and had a child is kind of central to the story of Christmas and isn’t really anything new our shocking.
I think it’s perplexing. Mary wasn’t shocked that she was pregnant; she told the angel, “let it be done to be as you say.” I think she’d be shocked it there was no pink line. For a church to suggest that Mary was in some way dismayed about the whole thing sort of undermines the entire theology. Conceived without sin, she’d been prepared by God to be the mother of the savior from the get-go. There’s really not much of a comparison between Mary and your typical single mother, shocked by the pee stick.
I guarantee there will be a reaction. Mary’s obviously shocked by the revelation, and it’s drawing comparisons betwen her and an unwed mother. Hec k, there will be people shocked that she learned of her pregnancy through a peestick and not from an angel. I knew people who were shocked that Jesus Christ Superstar told the story of Jesus in rock music.
I can maybe see people getting up in arms over the idea that Mary was shocked to find herself pregnant (what with preceding divine revelation). I hadn’t read her expression that way when I first saw it (I thought she just looked overwealmed by it all, which I think is an understandable reaction.)
I’m shocked by how Anglo-Saxon she looks. 
That should show those proponants of abstinance-only… It’s not 100% effective.
I think a lot of people don’t know all the theology and just think of Mary as a virgin. So it’s kind of funny in that respect. Even funnier would be a stern looking Joseph glaring in the background.
My favorite painting of the Annunciation has Mary looking less than pleased. I really can’t remember many where she looks as though she’ll jump for joy.
They’re really not breaking much new ground, unless they’re trying to say Mary now has a choice to make.
Ha — less than pleased? She looks totally pissed!
It’s just morning sickness.
I think I broke some kind of very valuable internal organ laughin’ over this. I’ll send you the hospital bill.
I had a friend who was at a local school meeting to discuss what qualified as ‘family’ for school purposes. During the discussion, he said “Well, Jesus had two daddies.”
That caused a great uproar, and he was literally escorted out of the building – told that his comments were ‘disruptive’.
I don’t get how Mary was a virgin in the first place. Wasn’t she married to Joseph?
Betrothed.
Joe was going to break off the engagement, but angels told him, “it’s OK, it was only God.”
They were engaged, not yet married, when the conception occurred. That’s why Joseph planned to “put her away quietly” before he too was visited by the angel.
I’m not religious, but this sounds like a church I’d like to join.