LONDON - The Church of England Friday rebuffed complaints about a series of controversial adverts, one of which links body piercing to the crucifixion of Jesus.
The posters, aimed at young people and due to appear at bus stops across the city of Birmingham in central England, feature slogans such as "Body Piercing? Jesus had his done 2,000 years ago."
"Body piercing is a particularly current trend that young people can identify with," said Arun Kataria of the Church of England's communications unit in London.
"Jesus actually underwent a severe form of painful death and piercing is actually mentioned in the Bible," he added.
But other church groups have expressed their disgust at the publicity campaign, calling the adverts blasphemous and saying the Birmingham diocese of the Anglican church was trivializing and secularizing faith.
"Comparing a stud in the navel to the crucifixion, to say it is like a body ornament, is blasphemous," said Chris Hunt, director of the Christian Institute, an independent charity.
"I do think Christianity can benefit from advertising but you can't change the message -- they are secularizing and twisting and trivializing the message," he added.
The adverts are aimed at attracting people in the 18-30 age group who are currently not believers.
The diocese is also launching a revamped Web site which will answer young people's questions about faith and inform them of other youth events happening across the city -- including meetings in pubs and a multimedia club event called "Transfiguration."
The ads were dreamed up by Arun Arora, 29, director of communications for the Bishop of Birmingham. Arora said he did not think they were offensive.
"The age group we are talking about think very little of faith," he said. "Hopefully it will get people to stop and think. We don't think we are trivializing faith. The crucifixion is more shocking," he said.
References to drugs and contemporary culture will strike a chord with young people disillusioned with drugs and looking for answers to spiritual questions, he said.
But Hart was unconvinced.
"There is a world of difference between a tin of beans and people's most sincerely held belief. We are not selling 'New, Improved Christianity' here -- it is the same one that has been around for 2,000 years," he said.
Lou Henderson, a spokesman for the Church of England at Church House in London, said the campaign could be rolled out across England if the individual dioceses gave their approval.
"It is a mistake to think of the Church of England as some Stalinist monolith. This one an initiative of the diocese of Birmingham," Henderson said. "If other dioceses felt that this particular style of campaigning suited them then that is not something we would wish to second-guess," he added.