Church's piercing poster 'is blasphemy'
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Your support makes all the difference.A trendy Church of England advertising campaign designed to appeal to young people has run into controversy for its "blasphemous" references to body piercing and drug-taking.
The posters, to be displayed in bus shelters in the Midlands this winter, broach youth-orientated subjects as part of a "realistic" Anglican campaign to fill empty pews. One reads: "Body piercing? Jesus had his done 2,000 years ago." Another asks: "Life gone to pot? Made a hash of things. Things not too E-asy? Love is the drug." Another, a play on the National Canine Defence League slogan, jokes: "The Church is for life, not just for Christians."
The campaign, sanctioned by the Church of England, was defended by local church officials in Birmingham as a serious attempt to reach the 18-30 market. But traditional elements of the Church branded the posters "blasphemous."
David Hilsley, director of the National Council for Christian Standards, said: "Jesus suffered a form of torture and to then make it sound like a piercing is, quite frankly, disgusting."
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