Church Billboard: 'Time for Jesus to Come Out'

New Zealand reverend: 'Would it make a difference?'
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 17, 2012 7:15 PM CST
www.stuff.co.nz/national/8090143/Church-billboard-Was-Jesus-gay.html
A church in Auckland, New Zealand, put up this provocative billboard.   (St. Matthew in the City church, Auckland, New Zealand)

Nothing controversial here: A church in New Zealand has put up a billboard urging Jesus to come out of the closet as gay, Stuff (NZ) reports. "It's Christmas," reads the billboard in Auckland. "Time for Jesus to come out." But Rev. Glynn Cardy at St.-Matthew-in-the-City church says he's only trying to raise the Christian prophet's humanity. "The fact is we don't know what his sexual orientation was," he says. "Would it make a difference if he was gay? Would that change the picture for you? Would it mean what we revere about him changes?"

His church is no stranger to controversy—or unique billboards, reports the Daily Mail. A billboard last year showed the Virgin Mary looking upset over the results of a pregnancy test. It was torn down by an angry protester, but Cardy didn't mind: "In the Internet age ... the image will be out there forever." As for Jesus being gay, Cardy notes that some scholars have made the argument—and attempts to mention it in the Bible may have been mistranslated. "There was almost nothing in his teachings about sexuality while there is plenty about the perils of being rich," he says. "Certainly he always supported the marginalized in society." (More Jesus Christ stories.)

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