Mon 17 Dec 2012 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
The ever-controversial central Auckland church St-Matthew-in-the-City has raised a billboard saying "it's time for Jesus to come out." “This year we invited discussion and debate on the sexual orientation of Jesus,” say St Matthew’s clergy Reverend Glynn Cardy and Reverend Clay Nelson. The billboard depicts the Baby Jesus in his crib with a halo of rainbow colours. Nelson says it presents the challenge to think about Jesus as fully human whose growing up would have involved the same range of character possibilities, and even sexuality, as the rest of us. “Some scholars have tried to make the case that he might have been gay,” Nelson says. “But it is all conjecture. Maybe gay, maybe not. Does it matter?” Cardy asks what Jesus would have said about New Zealand’s current debate on gay marriage. “There is almost nothing in the record of his teachings about sexuality while there is plenty about the perils of being rich. Certainly he always supported the marginalised in society.” St-Matthew's is a GLBT-friendly Anglican church, and has a history of confronting billboards – many of which have been vandalised.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Monday, 17th December 2012 - 10:31am