How predictable! ChurchAds.net comes up with a striking image for the Christmas poster campaign and the responses could have been written before they were given. First, the poster:
As I discovered last December, speak about the reality of the original Christmas events and you invite the piling of ordure on your head. After all, they say, who cares if the Nativity narratives of the Gospels get confused with Cinderella and the pantomime stories? There is something shocking about making the humanity of Jesus too real – sometimes a problem in the Church itself where a spiritualised version of the Messiah is easier to contemplate than one who had to eat, went to the loo, endured the real temptations of young men and got his hands and feet dirty in real muck.
So, this image compels the viewer to consider the reality of the Incarnation in a mode familiar to anyone connected in any way with anyone pregnant. When my daughter-in-law had her scans she texted them over to family and friends. That’s how it’s done and the good news is shared around these days. When we had scans twenty or thirty years ago they were indecipherable to amateurs like me: I couldn’t tell the head from the rear end.
So, what were the predictable responses? Look at the Times article which reported them:
John Smeaton, the director of the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child, said: “This advertisement sends a powerful message to everyone in Britain where 570 babies are killed every day in the womb, 365 days a year, under the Abortion Act. Whenever we kill an unborn child in an abortion, we are killing Jesus.”
Er… this isn’t an advert for SPUC or the anti-abortion lobby (although they might wish they had thought of it first). And the last sentence is simplistically contentious (although the need for a serious moral debate about mass abortion in the UK is long overdue).
Then we get the ubiquitous Terry Anderson of the miniscule National Secular Society (why is he asked about everything – because he can be guaranteed to miss the point, get irrationally cross and draw the wrong conclusions… which is great for the media):
Terry Sanderson, of the National Secular Society, criticised the image. “At first glance it looks like a poster for a horror film — perhaps The Omen VI: He’s Coming to Get You,” he said.“But it is also the kind of image widely used by anti-abortion campaigners and I hope that the Church of England isn’t trying to use its Christmas poster campaign to make a political point. If that’s the intention, we may have questions to ask at the Charity Commission… If, on the other hand, it’s supposed to make a Christian Christmas more appealing to our secular nation, I think it is likely to have the opposite effect.”
Terry! Calm down! This isn’t a Church of England poster campaign. And it isn’t remotely political. So, don’t waste the postage on your letter to the Charity Commission. (But your reaction does reveal again your lazy assumptions and prejudices – clearly not the sole preserve of religious people…) And it is not about abortion – that’s just another lazy connection based on prejudice. As for Terry’s final (subjective) judgement, well, he would, wouldn’t he?
Full marks to Ruth Gledhill for kicking off a good story, but fewer marks for resorting to the usual suspects for critical comment. It will be interesting to see which Christians stick the boot into the campaign – and on which grounds. But, as in the past, if some people hate it, it’s a sure sign the campaign got it right.
This poster is designed to arrest the attention of the usually disinterested. It is aimed at awakening the imagination, teasing the curiosity and provoking fresh consideration of the heart of Christianity – precisely what Jesus did with parables, images and stories. No, it doesn’t cover all the bases and deal comprehensively with every theological nuance; but it gives a huge kick start to thinking about what Christmas is all about.
And that is needed as much in the Church as outside.
June 9, 2010 at 5:21 pm
Excellent, love it! Great post, which really put a smile on my face. You’ve skillfully disected this with stunning observations!
I’m so sorry to ask yet again, but would you permit a cross-post (yet again), PLEASE know that I will not be offended if you decline, I’ll still find a way to link.
Just don’t publish the comment if you’d rather I didn’t.
June 9, 2010 at 5:24 pm
Stuart, go ahead, if you wish to cross-post.
June 9, 2010 at 5:37 pm
[…] been trying to write a nifty little intro to this cross-post by Bishop Nick Baines, but can’t, as it’s such a classic, so here it is, […]
June 9, 2010 at 11:21 pm
While I totally agree with your assessment of the secularists’ arguments, Nick, I don’t quite “get” the poster itself. It’s a striking image, yes, but I had to think for quite a while about what it was trying to say.
Eventually I decided that it was something about emphasising the humanity of the Incarnation, and I see that you agree. (I think you’re paraphrasing John Hick?) I can see it being a perfect visual aid for a Midnight Mass sermon or suchlike, where the message can be teased out and explored. As a poster, however, it has to stand on its own; I’m not convinced it does.
Perhaps it is this lack of a clear message that leads people such as Sanderson to fantastic interpretations.
June 10, 2010 at 7:11 am
Sam, the whole point is that it should not be ‘clear’ or monovalent – it is aimed at making the viewer think. The parables of Jesus do just the same thing, but we don’t write them off for not being clear.
John Hick hasn’t been in my thinking for 20 years…
June 10, 2010 at 8:00 am
Thanks – this is a great poster.
So many people do not even think about the meaning of Christmas other than the cost … this poster will provoke and maybe even cause a few discussions in the pubs and coffee shops … we can hope!
June 10, 2010 at 9:14 am
Interesting debate about clarity. The more I think about this striking image the more I wonder if it could be an ultrasound scan of John the Baptist. We know a lot more about his pre-birth womb activity – he was good at leaping in there – and his role is destined to declare the coming of the Messiah. Add a speech bubble and it would seal my theory. The halo doesn’t rule it out as being John -see some of the early renaissance paintings..
June 10, 2010 at 9:14 am
My one surprise is that the poster is out already. Christmas gets earlier every year!!
June 10, 2010 at 9:41 am
“It is aimed at awakening the imagination, teasing the curiosity and provoking fresh consideration of the heart of Christianity”
Cliched or what?
“precisely what Jesus did with parables, images and stories.”
Comparing this poster to the infinite wonder of the parables? OH DEAR LOR…..!!!!
“but it gives a huge kick start to thinking about what Christmas is all about.”
Does it? I mean really?
June 10, 2010 at 12:17 pm
[…] How predictable! ChurchAds.net comes up with a striking image for the Christmas poster campaign and the responses could have been written before they were given. First, the poster: As I discovered last December, speak about the reality of the original Christmas events and you invite the piling of ordure on your head. After all, they say, who cares if the Nativity narratives of the Gospels get confused with Cinderella and the pantomime stories? Th … Read More […]
June 10, 2010 at 1:56 pm
I worked with ‘The Samaritans’ for about 10 years. Christmas was then (and probably still is) a very busy time for The Samaritans. So many lonely people feel even lonelier at Xmas.
One year there was a poster campaign by one of our local branches. Its basic message was (if I remember correctly, this was many years ago); “Sometimes I wish the baby Jesus had never been born”.
Of course, it was controversial. It was designed to be controversial, to make people think about the less fortunate people in our society, and to advertise the help offered to them by The Samaritans.
It was withdrawn after a few days, and head office issued an apology.
I was not directly involved (I worked at a different branch) and I have no idea what sort of pressures were applied, or by whom.
The message is clear though, ‘Do not mess with the baby Jesus’
K
June 10, 2010 at 3:00 pm
This is a fantastic image – and I say that as someone who is used to cringing when these ads are revealed. I have to confess, though, one of the first connections I made was also with abortion – I don’t think it is surprising or evidence of especial dullness that both SPUC and the NSS take it that way. And this is a good thing: abortion shouldn’t be the only or the first thing we think about on seeing the poster – but to think about the Incarnation seriously means thinking about this issue more seriously than many of us have got used to doing.
What I love about it is that it makes very clear what God becoming human means – that it is a whole life, from the beginning, which is concerned. My only reservation is that it could do without the halo!
June 10, 2010 at 5:00 pm
It is extremely thought provoking.
Anything which draws attention to the christian message and precious life in the womb must be good
June 10, 2010 at 5:55 pm
George, last year they went out in July with the real push in September for December postings – and it was all too late, with most poster sites already sold. If you’re going to get the stuff out there, you have to start early.
June 10, 2010 at 7:19 pm
A digression: the term “mass abortion” makes me think of abortifacient chemicals in drinking water or similar drastic measures to induce abortion on a widespread level, rather than the phenomenon of many individual parents (it is not always the women who decide) trying to weigh up the risks and costs of bearing a child vs terminating a pregnancy.
I don’t doubt that there are people who take such things more lightly than I’d like, but I wonder whether good community support, along with understanding and wise counsel, might be more effective in reducing the number of abortions than a moral debate.
What would a community look like where terminating a pregnancy was truly unthinkable except in the most extreme cases? And what are we doing to build that community?
I don’t think it’s too early to start thinking about Incarnation. Calendars are a human thing. God is eternal.
June 10, 2010 at 7:43 pm
[…] more erudite thoughts on the topic, Nick Baines is your man. Full marks to Ruth Gledhill for kicking off a good story, but fewer marks for […]
June 10, 2010 at 8:49 pm
[…] 10, 2010 Nick blogged about Christmas is coming and the 2010 Christmas Poster from ChurchAds.net. As Christmas is launched earlier and earlier I […]
June 11, 2010 at 6:38 pm
Great piece on anintriguing advert.
June 11, 2010 at 7:25 pm
Nick, George – I agree that it’s much too early for Christmas advertising. But this looks to me like a 20 week anomaly scan photo. If Mary was plugged into the NHS system, and we celebrate Christmas(rightly or wrongly)on 25 December, she would have had her scan around the end of July. So the timing’s not too far off really…
June 16, 2010 at 4:10 pm
Dear Bishop Nick
In the Catering world our Orders for Christmas Turkeys and poultry have to be placed now for the Festive season delivery.
Pointing out to Richard, my flat mate, that Advent will soon be upon us, he commented “Christians and Cooks always preparing for Xmas”!
Enjoyed your sermon on Sunday (13th June)