A New Zealand church has sparked controversy by putting up a billboard featuring Mary and Joseph in bed. St Matthews is a progressive Christian Church in the heart of Auckland and its Vicar Glynn Cardy wants people to discuss God.
Outside the church is a biblical bed scene; an unsatisfied Mary looking up to the heavens and Joseph in bed beside her looking deflated.
The caption on the billboard reads: "Poor Joseph. God is a hard act to follow".
The Christmas message upset one man so much he took to it this afternoon with a can of brown paint.
But Vicar Cardy thought it was a great idea.
"We're trying to lampoon the idea of a literal male God who somehow, it's assumed, impregnated Mary," he said.
"Most Christians don't believe that, but the message that the general society hears from the church is this message; they think that they're meant to take it literally.
"We actually think God is about the power of love as shown in Jesus, which is something quite different than a literal man up in the sky."
A local man walking past said he was not offended.
He is one of the estimated 1.5 million atheists in New Zealand. And he was not equipped to answer his grand-daughter's questions.
"She asked me, 'is that Mary?' And I just said 'yeah', that's all I could say," he said.
"As for me, I'm not religious or anything so it doesn't really bother me at the moment."
Outrage
The billboard has upset the Catholic Church and New Zealand lobby group Family First.
Family First spokesman Bob McCoskrie says it is not an issue that should be on a billboard.
"Look, we haven't got a problem with the fact that they want a debate around the virgin birth, about sex and religion, we just don't think it's appropriate on a public billboard to be talking about the sexual prowess of God versus the sexual prowess of Joseph," he said.
"That's a debate you have inside the church building, not on a public billboard that families and kids are going to see."
But Vicar Cardy says they could have gone with a much more controversial option - an image of a fluorescent sperm coming down with "joy to the world" on it.
"Actually a lot of people didn't understand that it was connected with Christmas. So it was trying to make the same joke, but it was a bit cruder and so we went away from the crudity," he said.
This afternoon a vandal painted over Mary and Joseph's faces with brown paint.
The Vicar says it is very sad. He had hoped people would see the funny side of the billboard.
It will cost the church $200 for a replacement.
No laughing matter
In Wellington some atheists are also in the bad books with the deeply religious.
Simon Fisher and some of his non-believing mates are planning to put advertisements on buses which say: "There's probably no God now, so stop worrying and enjoy your life".
Similar signs appeared on London trains and buses earlier this year.
Mr Fisher says they are also trying to generate debate.
"We're presenting an alternative. We're saying that it's okay not to believe in God and that you can actually be good without God," he said.
Mr Fisher says he has been inundated with emails and some of them are quite nasty.
"Can I say crazy or more out there emails such as: 'you're going to hell'. But of course it's difficult for me to reply to that because I don't believe in hell, so that's fine," he said.
It appears that the man with the can of brown paint is not the only Kiwi who does not think religion is a laughing matter.
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