After
I wrote about this "Touchdown Jesus" some time ago. There is even a song about “Big Butter Jesus” on YouTube. Well, it’s now rubble. I guess Zeus must have been jealous. MONROE, Ohio – A six-story-tall statue of Jesus Christ with his arms raised along a highway was struck by lightning in a thunderstorm Monday night and burned to the ground, police said.
The “King of Kings” statue, one of southwest Ohio’s most familiar landmarks, had stood since 2004 at the evangelical Solid Rock Church along Interstate 75 in Monroe, just north of Cincinnati.
The lightning strike set the statue ablaze around 11:15 p.m., Monroe police dispatchers said.
The sculpture, 62 feet tall and 40 feet wide at the base, showed Jesus from the torso up and was nicknamed Touchdown Jesus because of the way the arms were raised, similar to a referee signaling a touchdown. It was made of plastic foam and fiberglass over a steel frame, which is all that remained early Tuesday.
The fire spread from the statue to an adjacent amphitheater but was confined to the attic area, and no one was injured, police Chief Mark Neu said. The fire department would release a monetary damage estimate Tuesday, he said.
Travelers on Interstate 75 often were startled to come upon the huge statue by the roadside, but many said America needs more symbols like it. So many people stopped at the church campus that church officials had to build a walkway to accommodate them.
The 4,000-member, nondenominational church was founded by former horse trader Lawrence Bishop and his wife. Bishop said in 2004 he was trying to help people, not impress them, with the statue. He said his wife proposed the Jesus figure as a beacon of hope and salvation and they spent about $250,000 to finance it.
I wonder what imaginative stories the builders, financiers and worshipers of this statue will make up to explain this one. I bet they will blame it on the debbil. 
4 comments:
Hilarious comment by the church's co-pastor Darlene Bishop "It will be back, but this time we are going to try for something fireproof," she said.
On a story on NPR on this, I heard one guy explain that Jeebus is always sacrificing himself. This time around Jeebus saved the church from being struck by lightening by taking the hit on himself.
So there you are.
Thank you for reading and commenting Atanu!
I had a discussion some time ago with a Christian about the idea of Jesus sacrificing himself. I took the stance that Jesus didn't really sacrifice himself because he supposedly came back to life and lives on in eternity on a throne in never-never land somewhere over the rainbow. How can something be a sacrifice when nothing was lost or given up? They go crazy trying to invent answers to that question.
I knew when this sucker burnt that every one would have some hilarious stuff to say! Thanks!
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