London, England, Jul 2, 2010 / 12:12 pm
Though Christmas is still six months away, the organization ChurchAds.net has chosen the design for its Christmas ad campaign. The selected design, called "Ultrasound Jesus," depicts an ultrasound image of an unborn baby with a halo above his head and the caption, “He's on His way. Christmas starts with Christ.” The image quickly angered pro-abortion and atheists groups with its alleged pro-life sentiments.
ChurchAds.net is a British marketing and advertising organization that brings together various Christian denominations such as Anglicans, Methodists and Baptists. The Catholic Church is not part of the group.
The authors state that they want to spread the true meaning and origin of Christmas. It is estimated that the ad will reach over 40 million people in the weeks before Christmas.
The vice-chair of ChurchAds.net, Mike Elms, told the Guardian newspaper, “We wanted to convey that Christmas starts with Christ. That this baby was on the way. Then we thought that the scan was a way of conveying that: it is modern currency in announcing a modern birth. We put a halo on it because theologians speak of Jesus being fully human and fully divine."
Secular and pro-abortion organizations such as Britain’s National Secular Society (NSS) have expressed great dissatisfaction with the campaign and have called it, "politically motivated" and "naïve." “The image is too specifically associated with pro-lifers to be seen in a benign context. They should go back to angels and cribs,” said Terry Sanderson of the NSS.