The large Jesus statue iconic to Interstate 75 in Monroe is destroyed following an apparent lightning strike during a thunderstorm.
Motorists were stopped along the highway and around the Monroe area to watch the 62-foot “King of Kings” statue burn. The fire was reported just 11:15 p.m. Monday, June 15. Within minutes, all that was left was the steel frame of the statue at Solid Rock Church, 904 N. Union Road.
Church member Cassie Browning, 27 of Dayton, said she was driving north on I-75 on her way back from Tennessee when her family noticed the statue was missing. “It meant so much to so many people,” said Browning.
“It’s crazy,” said Ted Williams, 35, of Monroe, who could see the statue ablaze from a Shell gas station along Ohio 63.
Sometimes I write a post just for me.
My headline is sort of tongue in cheek of course but we all know that if lightning had struck a tree or building and left a burn that even remotely resembled Jesus, or the Virgin Mary, or even Justin Bieber, people would flock from miles around just to get a glimpse of it and perhaps touch it believing that it had healing properties and could cure their cancer, or their club foot, or that burning sensation when they pee.
But NOBODY will see this as a sign that the people who built it had offended God, or that the Christianity of today has no resemblance to the teachings of Jesus Christ. Just like nobody ever takes it as a sign from God when a church gets hit by lightning and burns to the ground. They will just shrug their shoulders, and say "shit happens", and then run off to find the next water stain on a bathroom floor that kind of resembles Pope John Paul if you turn the lights down low and squint with one eye while standing on the toilet seat.
Because essentially, the majority of people are sheep who just desperately want to have their superstitions reinforced without having to consider that out of all of the possible religious, or non-religious choices out there that they might just possibly have chosen the wrong one.
No offense to any Christians, or Jews, or Hindus, or Buddhists, or Muslims, or Taoists, or Jains, or Rastafarian's, or Hare Krishna's, or Scientologists, or Wiccans. You guys are totally correct in your religious choices. I am referring to those OTHER guys.
Tee hee.....it should have been grounded (or not constructed of wood and styrofoam). I'm not religious so I find this a non-story. Just another tacky structure asking to be struck by lightening being the highest thing in the area. :)
ReplyDeleteThat statue was tacky beyond belief. I say good riddance.
ReplyDeletefunny post gryphen! interesting to ponder all the potential thoughts running trough the minds of the people who saw it happening. could make for an entertaining short film. kind of unrelated but it makes me think of a scene from six feet under where one of the "faithful" is driving in her car listening to a preacher on the radio, and the next block over is an accident with a truck that has blow up sex dolls - well she doesn't see the accident, but she sees the blow up dolls floating into the air and thinks that the rapture is happening, runs out into traffic and gets herself killed. I wonder what these people thought as they saw jesus burning.
ReplyDeleteSo when the toilet over flows it's a baptismal font? If this thing really burned i want pics.
ReplyDeleteSorry but i could not resist is this jesus walking on mud.
ReplyDeleteOk it must be the savior at lake lucille-walking on mud.
ReplyDeleteTo each his own. Doesn't threaten me.
ReplyDeleteThis is the feel-good story of the year.
ReplyDeleteGryphen, you may have written the post just for youself but you sure expressed the views of a lot of folk, I reckon.
ReplyDeleteBTW I noticed that you did not mention intending no offense to the adherents of Baha'i, Confucianism, Druidism, Shinto, Sikhism and Zoroastrianism... so are they in the group of OTHER guys? lol
Here's a tribute by Heywood Banks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-ksuOaI61g
ReplyDeleteI've driven past it quite a few times myself while visiting relatives in Cincinnati.
The Rapture has begun.
ReplyDeleteYears ago there was a terrible tornado in Topeka, KS. Everything in the downtown area was destroyed except one liquor store. I thought the goddess was making a point on a semi-dry state.
ReplyDeleteA short video of the fire: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUZ3d1tTbWg
ReplyDeleteAny chance the church will set up a charity fund to help local people in need, rather than waste money on rebuilding that monstrosity? Didn't think so. What would Jesus do? Never mind, my Jesus is bigger than your Jesus.
ReplyDeleteHow did they even get permission to build that thing in the first place? Can anyone erect 62 foot statues on their property of whatever floats their boat, or are exceptions made for religious icons of a certain persuasion?
I would not appreciate having to pass that eyesore every day if I lived near that stretch of highway. In-your-face religion is often a red flag for misplaced priorities. So would allocating funds to rebuild that statue in the middle of a recession.
The fundies have completely hijacked a religion which is really based on love, compassion and social justice and turned it into one of intolerance, selfishness and hate. Jesus was a liberal!! : )
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nemrits.com/gallery/pic/20100614155801
Thanks Gryphen. You are right on target.
ReplyDeleteSearch on youtube for the song Big Butter Jesus, it's hilarious and probably offensive to some!
ReplyDeleteOMG, literally!
ReplyDeleteI drive by that thing when I fly into Dayton to visit my sister. I LOVE this story! I always wondered how many accidents that thing caused as people looked back in horror!
Maybe this IS a sign. For the extreme fundies not to keep using God/Jesus for their own self promotion and to try to gain an edge in politics!!
ReplyDeleteSarah and Beck and their nasty batshit crazy friends are always saying that God talks to them.
Are you listening Sarah??
Of course she's not. Those voices in all of their heads is mental illness.
I regret that I don't consistently read Leah Burton's site, www.godsownparty.com. Life happens, as you well know.
ReplyDeleteBut I've just come back over here, from there, and wanted to draw some attention to it.
Leah has commentary today from a retired minister who gives background on the circumstances under which he believes the book of Revelations was written in the Bible. Because of the thoughtful information provided at Leah's site, I think I see things in a better perspective now, and I appreciate the new knowledge.
Just wanted to say, "Keep up the good work, Gryphen" and suggest to your faithful multitude here to take a look at Leah's blog today: "Observations from Pastor Bess…An 'Enlightened' Sermon".
That's Big Butter Jesus!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-ksuOaI61g
I've never seen or heard about the Jesus statue. But I agree with GenieO. It is tacky. Why is it tacky to me? I revere the great masters and their teachings. None of them would have wanted to be icon-ized. imo
ReplyDeleteJust what I needed this morning. Showed it to my husband, he said, I wish I could see it burning. Then a couple of comments in is the youtube video of just that. I bet there's more than a few fundies shaking in their boots this morn.
ReplyDeleteOh no...they killed Kenny....
ReplyDeletehow much time, labor, effort and money went into that thing, that could have gone to a good purpose? Like helping people or something silly like that.
ReplyDeleteThe really ironic twist to this? Lightning got Jesus, but left Larry Flynt's Hustler Sex Shop alive and well across the street!
ReplyDeleteare you kidding, they will say that the world is coming to an end get to Israel Fast, its sign of the rapture or the second coming. Hope Palin goes.
ReplyDeleteI agree with a lot of what you say even as a Christian. I think that 99.99% of the time (and even that may be low) these 'sightings' of Jesus/Mary/Joseph/whoever are frankly stupid.
ReplyDeleteBut I have to say that I think you were somewhat condescending when you said "Because essentially, the majority of people are sheep who just desperately want to have their superstitions reinforced without having to consider that out of all of the possible religious, or non-religious choices out there that they might just possibly have chosen the wrong one." Frankly I think that is false. Yes there are a number of people who are like that but they are far from the majority. I've been a churchgoer since I was 8 and have attended Catholic, Methodist, UCC, Lutheran and Baptist church and even went to a ELCA affiliated college and I've yet to meet anyone who didn't greet these stories with anymore than a "eh". Crazy people get the press but that doesn't make them the majority. Otherwise the teabaggers would be in control.
I strongly support exposing hypocrisy in religion, especially Christianity. It is something my parents do (my mom considers herself the church nag because she tells the pastor and other deacons when they are being idiots) and something I try to do. But it would be nice to not have people make generalizations based on the nuttiest (just unfortunately more vocal) members of the group.
Well, the Old Testament did say that the Lord did not want any person to make a re-creation of him in any way, statue, or gold icon, anything. No image of God was allowed, as no man has ever seen God, even Moses could only see his back, never his face. That was the only way God manifested Himself to Moses, because his Face was so glorious, one would die.
ReplyDeleteThe NT teaches that Jesus, the Son of God, was finally manifested to the world. But, in some christian circles, the rule still applies about not making statues or paintings of Jesus, as He is can never be made in man's image.
I agree with Gryphen, if the Jesus statue was hit by lightning by the hand of God, then it's definitely a sign of the Father's displeasure that the churches have made themselves a King of their own liking, one that stays in their little mind's box with their own idea of the Kingdom of God. And, that any likeness of Jesus in our eyes is totally incorrect. Most portraits of him are of a white man. How do christians know what he looked like? What's important is that He is now one with the Father in heaven and again, no one OWNS him, no one needs to convince the world that they follow him just because they have a stone cold statue made of him, all they have to do is act like Him.
Here in Ohio, we called the statue "Touchdown Jesus." I know quite a few Christians, including a seminarian, who make (made?) fun of it.
ReplyDeleteLet me guess, Limbaugh is blaming the storm on environmentalists?
ReplyDeletePalin probably thinks it's a sign from Him that she is now the Chosen One...
I figured it was just the scalar weather guys messing with the fundies. But the best comment I've seen so far:
ReplyDelete"Zeus wins!"
Another possible reason --
ReplyDeleteGod did it so the church could build a larger likeness AND make it marble - "replace our statue building fund" .... lots more donations see, He does have a plan!
I recall some to-do a long time ago (40-50 yrs) about Catholics praying to "statues" of Mary, Jesus, and other saints. Other religions declared it was Idolatry.
Goooooooaaaaalllllllll!
ReplyDeleteYou got THAT right, Gryphen! EVERYONE knows that ________________ is the one true religion (out of literally THOUSANDS of mankind's faiths) and all non-believers are going to hell in a handbasket. There's a 98.6% probability that it's all foolishness, but what if the one true religion was some obscure, long extinct faith of the Minoans or Aztecs? Truthfully, I would pay cash money to see the look on Pat Robertson's, Benny Hinn's, Ted Haggard's or Pastor Muthee's face when they discover it isnt a proud and loving JC waiting for them in heaven, but an angry Quetzicotl holding a bloody obsidian knife and a bucket full of still twitching detached eyeballs and sex organs....
ReplyDeleteAh, yes, the Lord does work in mysterious ways.
ReplyDeleteIn this case perhaps the point was to enforce the gospels admoishment against worshiping idols or perhaps it was a little more New Testament and refering to the ostentatious display of wealth similar to the Philistines that Jesus removed from the temple?
Sorry to go all religious on you folks...
I have driven by that monstrosity and the garish megachurch that built it...gives Christianity a bad name. God has spoken.
ReplyDeleteYEAH!!!! Another one bites the dust!! So to speak....
ReplyDeleteFYI: Not sure this is true, however, I live in this area and have always been told, through the grapevine, that this church, as well as the elaborate house and horse ranch, this minister built for himself, before he built this church and the Jesus figure were all built with "drug" money. So...if that is true... and I have since heard people around here, say..."well what do you expect?" That's why Keith Olberman got the email that it was an "Act of God!" Simply because some people around here who do not attend that church, believe this to be true. I'm a skeptic, so again, not sure if this is true. People around here often say,, whenever anyone builds anything big, without explaination of where their money came from, that it came from "drug money"....so there you have it... This just explains why Olberman heard it was an "Act of God". I'm sure it was from someone who believed their church was built on "drug money". The story goes that the drugs where hidden in the horses that this minister traded back and forth from drug dealers. If this is true, don't see why they wouldn't have caught and arrested him a long time ago. Also...he now has a drug rehab facility, where the mother of my great great neice lives. I've never met her, so truly have no inner connection with anyone who is living there. Just all rumors. Oh, also, my daughter's best friend, used to attend church there. She thought it was a great church, but has since moved out of this area. So, just thought I would add what has been rumored here in the area and also to let Olberman know why he was confused last night when getting the email that it was an "Act of God". Now you know the rest of the story...
ReplyDeleteThink of how many ancient religions have a god that throws lightning... Oh yeah. A statement is made :D
ReplyDelete