Jesus replaced with a Gregg's sausage roll.

ah but see terribull I live in the west of Scotland where the religious divide has caused family breakups,street fight sand worse....and thats JUST folk who believe they are "christians" !! In my lifetime I've seen girls thrown out of the family home because they brought home a boyfriend who was of the other side...either orange or green as its seen .Its a vile sectarian thing .I know its not QUITE as bad now but it does still exist with Orange order marches that decend into mayhem. As to the scottish meaness...well thats a whole different thing.Why would anyone think its OK to attribute one thing to a whole nation.....yet we hear it constantly despite the FACT that scots contribute MORE to charities per head than any other part of the UK and for several other reasons.I do get your point though....

baggs correct!

Baggs I would not like to see a blasphemy law but it does appear that Christianity is fair game whilst other religions are off limits.

We are not the free society we perceive ourselves to be somewhere along the lines we have morphed into something else, when the likes of Germaine Greer is banned from speaking at a university because of her views on gender issues, then one has to conclude that there are a whole gamut of issues that are not up for discussion.

Do make up your mind Baggs , you question why some need to say they are offended and now say people are entitled to feel offence , seems you are allowing posters to feel offended but not to express this.

A cracked nutshell

For info, a humanist perspective (@Humanists_UK):

"People are entitled to feel offence, but when they claim that jokes about any religion or set of ideas are off limits and should never happen, what they're really calling for is a blasphemy law: weaponised hypersensitivity. Such demands should be ignored."

Well nutshelled.

who express

An aspect of human nature is a fragility about personal issues that one holds dear. You can bet your life most of us have our Achilles heel, one previous poster on this thread had pretty much the same reaction to the distate some have expressed here to to a stereotypical jibe about perceived "Scottish meaness" but nevertheless failed to understand the anger/hurt/annoyance that a committed Christian feels in this instance. We have seen where fragility of faith can lead in certain scenarios I'm just wondering if some of the high handed, pontificators on this thread would be as judgemental to the extreme reaction of the small minority of Muslims who a real hatred when they deem their prophet/god is depicted in a derogatory way.

I still have no idea who the gods in vests are. Obv a non believer.

I like the response of suzie's quoted vicar - I have not asked my believer friends (2 of whom are vicars) but I am sure it would be similar to that. If their god is all-powerful, a mere sausage role would not faze him/her, as I am sure my friends would agree. Such a fragile deity would not be worth worshiping; and as the vicar points out, the ability to laugh at oneself is a precious gift.

There are plenty of other aspects of modern Christmas that I would suspect are more worthy of a believer's wrath. getting legless and vomiting in the street would qualify I guess.

sun this thread hasn’t deteriorated ( apart from bringing the other JC into it). The OP was completely full on its criticism and therefore strong responses for and against were inevitable. And why not?As I said before, no special status on GN for Christianity.

Some hope it isn't, sunseeker.

The man who started Greggs got on his bike, literally. He started by delivering fresh eggs and yeast to women in Newcastle so they could bake bread.
He did that for ten years before he opened his first shop in Gosforth.
Annie, you are very fond of praising Wales. What's wrong with praising someone in the North East who helps the poor?

I am sorry this thread seems to have deteriorated into a fight between believers and non believers. We are all different, I happen to be a believer, however I can and do accept that many are not. I respect their right to be non-believers just as I would expect them to respect my right to be a believer.

As for the ad. I think it is in poor taste but I also believe that God has a sense of humour. (Besides the advertising executives who thought it up will now be facing an eternity in hell - that was a joke by the way!)

Nice post suzie. I’m fortunate to have dear dear friends in my life who are deeply committed Christisns ( one even a vicar ?) and not one of them would bat an eyelid at the Greggs advert. And don’t be so naughty asking about gods in vests - you could instead join me in expressing our complete and utter outrage at our idol being described in that way - or maybe not as I guess we are both too grown up to do so and anyway I have no idea whether you are a true believer or not - perhaps someone could tell you like I’ve been told. Bit like faith really, if people believe it to be true, it is, never mind the facts.

This is written by a C of E vicar
“What a shame that Greggs felt obliged to apologise for their lighthearted take on the visit of the Magi to the Christ Child.Objectors are correct in saying that other faith traditions wouldn’t take kindly to such a jape, but perhaps the freedom to do so, and the ability to receive it in good part, are signs of grace. When a faith tradition loses the capacity to laugh at itself, it is on the slippery slope to the hardline fundamentalism which brooks no comment or criticism”

BTW-Who are the gods in vests?

I agree Day6 the ad was in very poor taste, shame on Greggs.

That was to annie in case there is any doubt

I don’t actually worship anyone and the tone of your comment is a truly beautiful and perfectly rendered example of my comments about the un Christian attitudes being expressed by some on this thread.

I thought we could all post our opinions as often or as rarely as we wanted and ask any questions we want of others that they are free to respond to or not as they see fit and regardless of how our posts relate to the OP? Christianity ( and other religions) have no special protected status on GN

Here comes more atheists who worship a god in a vest . Carry on .

Baggs, if you look at the O/P you will see a ?, the poster asked a question, but you dismiss some who replied to the ? With - I don' t know why they need others to know they are offended. You post your opinions OFTEN, allow others to do the same without asking why they had the need to please.

I’ve followed this thread with increasing incredulity especially at the fragility of some people’s faith that they are so easily offended and beside themselves with rage, anger and bitterness at this. And by the very unChristian expression of these reactions towards others. A susej rol in a manger - hardly the desecration of the altar at Westminster Abbey is it? Or Life of Brian? I’m an atheist and reading this thread has completely reaffirmed me in the utter rightness of that position. Occasionally I think that if there were a god he must on so many occasions have his head in his hands sobbing at the hatred and behaviour of some of his followers. We haven’t got a Greggs here but the next time I see one, I’ll definitely patronise it. And what supercilious comments about Greggs some of you have made - it must be freezing cold at that high altitude some of you are are experiencing at the moment. FWIW I agree with those that don’t for one minute think Greggs did this to stir up controversy. Someone thought the image would make good advertising copy for their advent calendar which has a £1 voucher apparently for each day.The sausage roll is their ubiquitious symbol so why not use that? It was mildly amusing,gentle humour. Advent calendars are everywhere featuring gin, chocolates, beauty products - some costing hundreds and hundreds. Are they suitable ways to count down to Christmas just because they don’t have a representation of Jesus in their publicity material? I didn’t know about the good work that Greggs does in their communities but now that I do I’d say there is probably more real Christianity in their CEO’s thumb than there is on this thread.

I am sad, sickened and offended by what Greggs have done. I will never buy anything from their outlets again.

I trust anyone else of a similar opinion will vote with their feet.

There should be a comma after no in "no, poking fun at... shouldn't be taboo".

There is this though.... judging from the snooty comments about it that I've been seeing here and elsewhere, I don't think Greggs has much to lose as to its reputation: people are right snobs about sausage rolls and the sort of sugary snacks Greggs is famous for.

Maybe that's why they did it: nothing to lose and, possibly, much to gain. In which case it was a clever marketing move cos even people who'd never heard of Greggs have now.