Billboard with Mary Staring at a Positive Pregnancy Test Sparks Controversy in New Zealand

Auckland’s most provocative church is at it again with a billboard showing Jesus’ mother Mary staring at a positive pregnancy test.

St Matthew’s, also responsible for the well-known Gay-Dar billboard and another suggesting God was good in bed, has placed the new version outside its central city church in a move, it says, is designed to highlight the fact that Christmas is a tough time for many people.

Erected yesterday, it shows Mary staring at a home pregnancy test which reveals she is pregnant.

In a statement, Vicar Glynn Cardy and priest associate Clay Nelson said Christmas was about “a real pregnancy, a real mother and a real child. It’s about real anxiety, courage and hope”.

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Update: Lyndsay Freer, a spokesman for the Catholic diocese of Roman Auckland, has responded:

“Once again, St Matthew’s shows us that they have moved away from traditional Christianity, even though their hearts might be in the right place,” she said.

“It is true that Christmas is real and celebrates a real pregnancy.

“It is also true that the anxiety and needs of young solo mothers today need to be addressed with compassion and care.

“But in making this point, St Matthew’s ignores the gospel account of matters surrounding the pregnancy and birth of Jesus, in which Mary is not a shocked solo mother but a young woman who has given her assent and trust to God.”