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| The ad shows Jesus with a beard, breasts and make-up. Drawing: P Jóðkirkjan |
In its eagerness to claw back some of its dwindling support amongst the increasingly secular, liberal and Atheist Icelandic population, a Christian church there had made a right fool of itself and ended up offending just about everyone in the process.
Firstly, it launched this ad showing a prancing 'Jesus' figure in front of a 'gay' rainbow with lots of children of different ethnicities looking on. Jesus had a beard and wore a long white dress and sandals, as usual, but sported a fine pair of breasts and had rosy cheeks suggestive of make-up. Presumably this was supposed to be trans-Jesus (or maybe a cis-Mary?).
The ad was clearly intended to emphasise inclusivity and was widely circulated, appearing in Facebook and on public transport in Reykjavik.
However, it soon fell foul of the homophobic traditionalists, for whom the last thing their church should be is open, inclusive and welcoming to all, regardless of gender identity or sexuality. Their church is reactionary, jugemental and homophobic and should be persecuting minorities, not supporting and welcoming them, so they complained vociferously.
It was only after these complaints that the church realised it wasn't so inclusive and welcoming of diversity as it claimed and it quickly scrubbed the ads and issued an appology to those who might have been offended by it - so offending those at who it had been aimed in the first place, by agreeing with the conservatives that there is something wrong with being gay - so something to apologise for.
The church is now in the position of having offended everyone both by being too liberal and inclusive and by not being liberal and inclusive enough!
This what happens when a religion struggles to keep up with developing social morals without losing its identity and any moral authority it might once have lain claim to, just as the Catholic and Angican churches are split now, unable to move forward for fear of losing the traditionalists by becoming something other than the excuse for bigotry and division that they need it for, and continuing to shed those members who are sickened by the bigotry and prejudice of the old church.
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