Turd Jesus': Canadian Punk Band Creates Offensive Album...Using Taxpayer Dollars

Editor's note: CONTENT WARNING -- some curse words in this post have not been redacted.

What you're about to see is some album art from the Canadian punk band Living With Lions. But if you're a person of faith, it's something that may enrage you. And if you are a person opposed to taxpayers funding offensive religious art, then you will be fuming.

This is how LA Weekly, which first broke the story, describes the band's new album:

Vancouver punk rockers Living With Lions just released their sophomore album today. It's called Holy Shit, is subtitled "The Poo Testament," and has liner notes that recreate the Ascension with Christ portrayed as a turd. Oh, and the album is sponsored by the Canadian government.

Gawker has mashed together pictures of all those elements. On the left is "Turd Jesus," on the right is the album cover, and the inset on the right is the country's seal showing that the album was paid for in part by the Canadian government:

In the acknowledgements, the band even thanks the government:

According to the Vancouver Sun, the funding came from a program called FACTOR (depicted on the back of the album), or the Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recordings. How much funding? $13,248.

Now that the government's funding involvement has been made public, Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore (whose department is thanked in the acknowledgements) is speaking out.

“The content of this CD is offensive and the fact that it is clearly designed to offend a group of Canadians based on their faith is simply wrong,” James Maunder, Moore’s spokesman, said in a statement to the Sun. “The Minister has called Duncan McKie, president and CEO of FACTOR to express his profound disappointment with this content.”

But a spokesman for the group's record label, Black Box Recordings, told the Sun the whole thing is a joke, and thus shouldn't be taken seriously.

"I’d like it to be well understood that the lyrical content on this record makes no reference to any religious themes whatsoever,” Ian Stanger told the Sun. “To say that this band has a unique and sometimes provocative sense of humour is nothing new.

Later, he added that people who are offended just don't get it.

“I think there’s a tongue-in-cheek element of this record people may be missing. I don’t think it’s meant to be a serious criticism or commentary on religion. It’s a joke.”