People see Jesus in a lot of things: Shrouds, grilled cheese sandwiches, ultrasounds. And in Britain this December, you’ll be able to see the baby Jesus in a simulation of what his own ultrasound would’ve looked like.

The faux-ultrasound image is part of an ad campaign that will be featured on billboards with the goal of reaching 40 million people. Pro-life groups are celebrating it as a potentially effective abortion deterrent, although the caption only says, “He’s on His way: Christmas starts with Christ.” John Smeaton of the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child says, “This advertisement sends a powerful message to everyone in Britain … Whenever we kill an unborn child in an abortion, we are killing Jesus.”

The ad is backed not by the adamantly anti-abortion Catholic Church but by several Protestant Churches, including the Church of England and the Methodist Church. Despite the fact that conversation about the ad has focused on abortion, Mike Elms, vice-chair of the agency that created the ad, claims that it’s not about politics. “We wanted to convey that Christmas starts with Christ.”

Critics disagree. “The image is too specifically associated with pro-lifers to be seen in a benign context,” says Terry Sanderson, director of the National Secular Society. “They should go back to angels and cribs.”

Christmas break and Good Friday might be back – at least on the Brainerd School District calendar.

The Brainerd School District’s Finance Committee Tuesday recommended the school board take back its earlier motion and make reference to religious holidays in the 2010-11 school calendar.

The school board in April voted to not make reference to religious holidays in the school calendar after a Forestview Middle School parent told the board in February that he was against the district’s calendar calling for a day off on Good Friday, a Christian holiday.

The district’s April motion modified the calendar to refer to Christmas break as “Winter Break” and Good Friday as “No School.”

The school board members then said they wanted to get additional feedback on the religious holiday name changes and discuss the issue again at an upcoming board meeting.

Several board members said since April’s vote they’ve received many calls and e-mails from people disagreeing with the board’s decision to take out the religious holiday terms.

Board member Ruth Nelson said she received more calls from people on this issue than any other issue since she has been on the board.

Board member Jim Hunt said, “I think we should go back to Christmas vacation and Good Friday, call it what we used to before our action at the last board meeting.”

“We all discussed the importance (of the issue) and our intent was to have more research done,” said Kent Montgomery, board member. “I received calls from a lot of people in favor of keeping the calendar as it was with calling it a Christmas break and Good Friday … We’re more diverse and we need to keep our minds open to other sorts of holidays out there.”