Why do people believe in God?

For some people Christmas remains a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, but the virgin birth is one part of the Christmas story that can cause controversy, even within the church.

A billboard at a New Zealand church has become the talk of the town for depicting a downcast Joseph lying beside Mary in bed with the heading ‘Poor Joseph. God was a hard act to follow’.

Church vicar Archdeacon Glynn Cardy said the sign was intended to challenge stereotypes about the way Jesus was conceived and get people talking about the Christmas story, but not everyone has taken it that way.

One paint-wielding vandal defaced the billboard just hours after it was erected on Thursday outside the St Matthew-in-the-City Anglican church in Auckland.

The controversial sign has also triggered passionate and sometimes angry debate on talk radio and the Internet.

‘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 Mr Cardy, who described his church as having very liberal ideas about Christianity.

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

On the billboard – painted to mimic the fresco style commonly used in church murals – Mary and Joseph are in bed side-by-side. Joseph is looking down. Mary, looking heavenward, appears sad.

Auckland Catholic Diocese spokeswoman Lyndsay Freer said the billboard implied the Virgin Mary and Joseph had just had sex and was inappropriate, disrespectful and offensive to Christians.

‘We would see a billboard like that being used by an anti-Christian group to actually poke fun at the divinity of Christ,’ Freer told National Radio.

Christ’s conception was a profound theological question and the billboard would not ‘give rise to any intelligent discussion on the birth of Jesus,’ she said.

Many messages on the church Web site attacked the image, while others defended it.

‘This billboard and your “sermon” is a sacrilege,’ one visitor, identified as Karen, posted.

Another, identified as Andrew M wrote: “I for one think this is an excellent billboard. Challenging and thought-provoking. Just what it was intended to be.’

Mr Cardy said he understood that some people were upset by the image but said he was disappointed the billboard had been defaced. He said he did not intend to take it down.

Very funny indeed.