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Pastor condemns cheeky billboards to go up next to Times Square church

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updated 3:38 a.m. ET July 9, 2007

NEW YORK - A bidet company's advertising plans in Times Square are too cheeky for the pastor of a nearby church.

Rev. Neil Rhodes, pastor of the interdenominational Times Square Church, is asking a state court to block a billboard company from posting huge ads that feature naked buttocks with smiley faces on them. The display is to go up on two sides of the Broadway building that houses Rhodes' church, its Bible school and day-care center.

"You walk into a church building, you have naked bodies before your eyes, how are you going to close your eyes and seek God?" Rhodes told the New York Post in an article published Sunday.

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The ads promote the Washlet, a bidet-toilet seat that uses warm water and air. They were to go up for 30 days beginning July 1, but the church asked the state Supreme Court to block the displays, saying they would interfere with the church's religious mission.

Adam Silverstein, a lawyer for the advertising company, Van Wagner Communications, told the newspaper that he did not wish to trivialize the church's objections, but that "this is Times Square. It's the billboard capital of the world, and it's home to some of the most sensational advertisements in the universe."

A ruling was expected Monday.