Christ appears in Playboy!

Playboy magazine has run a photo shoot featuring Jesus Christ among topless models in it's Potuguese edition.

The spread was ostensibly a tribute to Nobel Prize-winning author Jose Saramago’s The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, but Hugh Hefner’s headquarters have reacted with outrage.

The pictures show a long-haired, glowing Jesus watching two models in a lesbian clinch, standing next to a prostitute and looking over the shoulder of a woman reading a book.

Theresa Hennessy, Playboy Enterprises vice president of public relations told the Mail Online: ‘We did not see or approve the cover and pictorial in the July issue of Playboy Portugal.

‘It is a shocking breach of our standards and we would have not allowed it to be published if we had seen it in advance.

‘We are in the process of terminating our agreement with the Portuguese publisher.'

Saramago’s novel is a fictional re-telling of Christ’s life, depicting him as a flawed, human character. It generated controversy among the Roman Catholic Church, who accused Saramago of depicting a ‘substantially anti-religious vision.’ However, other critics have praised it as a ‘deeply philosophical, provocative and compelling work.’

I find it interesting that publishing full fontal and open crotch pictures of nubile young ladies is OK, but that publishing a picture of Jesus is unacceptable.
 
I am not, as you will know, a great fan of organised religion. I am certainly not outraged by this, but I do find it completely tasteless.
 
(Shamelessly nicked from here.)