AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND — The Christmas season in sun-kissed New Zealand is normally a chilled-out, festive time more likely to involve beaches and barbecues
than robust debates on the story of Jesus’s birth.

But this year, many here are caught up in the latter (on the beach and around the barbecue, of course), because of a billboard outside St. Matthew-in-the-City,
a towering neo-gothic Anglican church on a bustling street in downtown Auckland.

The poster features Mary and Joseph in bed and apparently naked under the sheets. Joseph looks dejected, while Mary gazes sadly toward the heavens.

The caption reads: “Poor Joseph, God was a hard act to follow.”

The church insists that the billboard is an attempt to spark a discussion about faith in an increasingly secular nation. Some say it has at least prompted
a laugh or two.

I’m not a Christian, but even I can see where this would be considered offensive and unnecessary. I think the church could have achieved its goal of sparking discussion about the birth of Jesus, or told people they didn’t need to believe in supernatural things, in a different manner. But at least it’s not the non-Christians who will get tarred for this. The church decided to come up with this all by themselves. I suppose they get points for originality though.