Jesus Statue at Megachurch Complex Destroyed by Lightning

[82_28]

Just scouring the news, and I saw in quick succession:

Jesus hit by lighting.

Petraeus collapses.


Seems related, but probably only in my mind, or in that strange world of synchronicity.

I did see that space shuttle disaster that happened on Bush's watch right before everything went really truly disastrously bad as an omen.

No, not in your mind. Something is coming fast and furious. My entire starship panel is blinking.

[justdrew]

Just scouring the news, and I saw in quick succession:

Jesus hit by lighting.

Petraeus collapses.


Seems related, but probably only in my mind, or in that strange world of synchronicity.

I did see that space shuttle disaster that happened on Bush's watch right before everything went really truly disastrously bad as an omen.

and a lightening strike on the bp ship in the GoM taking on oil suspended it's operation and it caught on fire.

[Sepka]

One of my friends commented: "We built a sixty foot lightning rod, and You smote it with lightning - how, O Lord, have we displeased Thee?"

[Nordic]

I realized what the connection is, for me.

That statue was called "Touchdown Jesus" because he had his hands up, like when a touchdown is signalled.

Petraeus is our "quarterback" in the glorified football game known as our war in Afghanistan.

So there ya go.

The lightning hitting the ship? Just more of the same. Wonder what the name of the ship was?

[annie aronburg]

Everyone knows the REAL "Touchdown Jesus" is in Indiana.

[82_28]

Wonder what the name of the ship was?

"Discoverer Enterprise"

[barracuda]

Let's just hope this incident signals the end of the whole "Touchdown" phenomenon, and returns Christian iconography to the baseball paradigm.

[Gouda]

There's been a disturbance at Solid Rock Church...

Protesters: Jesus statue a 'graven image'

But Solid Rock Church downplays Wednesday's incident

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/2010 ... ven-image-

MONROE - Opposition to rebuilding the giant Jesus sculpture at Solid Rock Church sparked a disturbance to which police were called Wednesday – and also spawned a Facebook group called “Petition to Solid Rock: Do Not Rebuild,” which has had nearly 6,400 people join.

But Darlene Bishop, co-pastor of the church just off Interstate 75, seemed unfazed by critics who allege the statue is a “graven image” or that the money should instead be used to help people.

She says the church, which boasts 4,000 members, can do what it sees fit with its money and that the organization already supports some 50 ministries around the globe.

The 62-foot-tall “King of Kings” statue was struck by lightning, then burned during a storm Monday. The fire destroyed the sculpture and caused another $400,000 damage to an adjacent music theater but no damage to the church building itself.

Bishop says the church intends to build a bigger, better, fireproof Jesus likeness by year’s end. The statue originally cost $250,000 when erected in 2004, but was insured for twice that amount because artists donated some of their time to the project, Bishop has said.

Although a police report and 911 calls paint a more contentious situation, Bishop minimized the significance of Wednesday’s disturbance during her sermon to about 1,000 people.

Bishop says a man shouted out that he had some questions to ask her. She said he told him: “We don’t answer questions during service.”

The man, holding a Bible, later confronted her and her husband about whether the statue could be considered a violation of the Second Commandment, which forbids believers from making and bowing down to “a graven image, or any likeness of anything” in heaven, on earth or in the water.

Bishop said that her husband, co-pastor Lawrence Bishop, replied something like: “We don’t worship the statue; we worship the living God. The statue is just a symbol of what we believe in. We’re Christian.”

But in a Monroe police report, Brandon M. Ushry, 23, of Springfield Township, gave a different description of the incident.

He told police that a church member assaulted him while he and a friend, Andrew R. Braden, 27, of Greenhills, were at the church “to protest the ‘worship of a graven image,’ in reference to the recent Jesus statue fire,” a police report says.

Ushry “stated that he and Andrew began to publicly protest during the sermon and were advised to leave by Church security,” the report says. As Ushry and Braden were being escorted out of the church, Ushry told police that a church member grabbed him, shoved him and threatened to beat him.

The accused church member told police that the pair were cursing and yelling during the service and “they continued to protest (while) he and other security members began to escort them out of the church, and at no time did he threaten or shove” Ushry or Braden, the police report says.

A co-pastor of the church, Lawrence Bishop, told police that he had asked church security guards to remove the two men because they were disruptive during the sermon.

Ushry said he was unscathed but “did feel threatened,” the report says.

Officers advised Ushry to contact the Warren County prosecutor if he wanted to file charges.

Public records reveal that both sides called 911.

In a call to Monroe police just after 8 p.m., someone shouts “no!” several times in the background as a man reports: “We’ve got a disturbance here at Solid Rock Church…and we do want an officer here.”

A Warren County dispatcher transferred another call to Monroe police. That caller, who may have been Ushry, said, “I was sitting in the church…they told us to leave.” Then he goes on to say that a man “grabbed me up by the shoulders and like tried to throw me out and said he was going to hit me.”

Bishop acknowledges that a few people have contacted the church to discourage the statue from being rebuilt.

But she said the proponents far outnumber the opponents, in her estimation, and, “I had no idea this statue touched so many lives.”

She also said that she has received many offers of donations but as of Thursday said she didn’t know how much had been received. The donations are not being solicited, she said, but people keep offering to make them.

The Facebook page urges people: “Please ‘like’ this page if you think Solid Rock Church should spend their money on helping the huge scores of poor, needy and sick people in this country and around the world instead of rebuilding their huge Jesus statue.”

[justdrew]

we can rebuild Him... Bigger. Better. Fireproof.
the uncruicifiable savior... Terminator Jesus made of liquid metal, "come with me if you want to live, forevah"

...

[Sounder]

Jesus is a harsh critic.

[elfismiles]

Sorry Annie and all ... the "REAL" Touchdown Jesus is in Eureka Springs Arkansas...



Been there ... and touched him.

OH! And you should all bow-down before "Our Lady of Austin" ...

[seemslikeadream]

19 reasons why God torched Jesus

By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist

Wednesday, June 18, 2010

Never let it be said that God does not appreciate irony. Never let it be said that God does not have a sense of humor. Never let it be said that God loves tacky Styrofoam parade float lawn statue things that look like Charles Manson dipped in bleach and marshmallows and lost dreams.


Charred remnants remained this morning of the large Jesus statue iconic to Interstate 75 that was destroyed following an apparent lightning strike during a thunderstorm late Monday night. -- Dayton Daily News
Why would God do such a thing? What could it possibly mean? Is the apocalypse nigh? Do I have to pay my parking tickets anymore? Herein, 19 possible reasons for His happy blasting of a six-story Jesus statue to fiery smithereens:*
1) You ever wake up one day and look at your leopard-print bedspread or your jacked-up Ford F-150 pickup with the airbrushed scene from "Lord of the Rings" on the side, or maybe see your fifth wife's giant box of pink wine in the fridge and go, "Oh my God, what the hell was I thinking?"

You ever have that fine, epiphanic moment when you realize an eyesore's an eyesore and it's time for some, you know, housecleaning? And what better way to rid yourself of some of the more hideous crap laying about than maybe tossing it into a nice bonfire? By the highway? In Ohio? God has those moments, too.

2) The late, great fundamentalist nutcase Oral Roberts, he who singlehandedly inflicted the nightmare of the megachurch on humanity, he who invented Oral Roberts University and spawned a hugely corrupt, slug-slick huckster son named Richard to run it into the ground, well, Oral reportedly had himself a hot little vision some 30 years ago, in which he claims to have encountered -- and chatted with -- a 900-foot Jesus, which is as tall as the Chrysler building, thus making his casual conversation sort of like you talking to a flea. Cute!

All of which is to say: A measly six-story, truncated half-Jesus made out of Styrofoam and coat hangers and Elmer's glue, stuck on the side of an Ohio highway? You call that a vision? For that to be a real vision worthy of a pseudo-religious shyster worth his misfiring synapses, the thing should be on fire. Aha!

3) I'll let you in on a little secret: God had nothing to do with it.

A shockingly large number of Americans don't yet realize just how powerful the gay movement has become. Few seem to comprehend what sort of nasty underworld forces have been unleashed thanks to all those sassy gay sitcom characters, the gay marriage movement and Ellen DeGeneres. The homo energy wave has quietly been increasing in strength over the years and is now fully able, after millennia of bad Liza Minnelli impersonations, tight tank tops and Speedos, to actually control the elements.

Don't you see? It's all very timely, really. Prop. 8's ultimate fate is being decided as I write these words. The evil gays needed to send a message to really freak out the homophobes. Turning half the megachurch pastors, Catholic priests and Boy Scout leaders gay didn't seem to have any effect. I've got it! Torch the giant Jesus! So easy. Next up: hailstorms of butt plugs during the Super Bowl. Watch for it.

4) Oh sure, make all the jokes you want. "God struck down his only son. Again!" Or, "I guess God really hates Styrofoam!" Here's what the fundamentalists think: "It's genius! Don't you see God's master plan here? He started a holy conversation! We're all talking about Jesus again! He brought Christ back into the public consciousness! Yay, God!"

Sure, you could argue it's a form of the Savior that's just a wee bit tacky, insulting and childish, not to mention a laughable piece of "artwork" you wouldn't wish upon a blind quadriplegic goat herder. Whatevs. As the Pharisees used to say: "No such thing as bad press, yo."

5) He is resin.

6) The real Jesus of historical record, being a grizzled, husky, musky, dark-skinned Jew with short, curly black hair who rarely showered and smelled of goat droppings and dried sweat, and who had a thing for screaming random prophesies in the streets and talking about doom, fire and the unbearable hotness of Mary Magdalene, well, the real Jesus' spirit has been quite displeased with being eternally depicted as a pale, soft-focus blond European hippie in bleached-out robes who likes to give lots of there-there-now hugs while watching professional sports. Basta.

7) One word: S'mores.

Two more: Insurance money. God has been eyeing the new Cadillac CTS Coupe. In this economy? You do what need to do.

9) God: "Wait, what? That was supposed to be Jesus? It looked like Charles Manson after too many marshmallow peeps and a bad peroxide job. Aw, dammit."

10) Word has it the Hustler Hollywood sign sitting atop the adult bookstore across the street from the torched Touchdown Jesus was left unscathed, thus proving (once again) that God really does like porn. And irony. Or just needs a new contact lens prescription.

11) God is actually Larry Flynt.

12) Really, who doesn't like to watch fundamentalists scurry about in a baffled frenzy, unsure what it all might mean, vowing to rebuild the tacky roadside hellbeast in honor of, well, of not really understanding much about divinity, or art, or how nature works? Not God, that's who.

13) Thor had had just about enough.

14) Correction: Zeus.

15) Because God loves the smell of burning Styrofoam and fiberglass in the morning. Smells like ... victory.

16) Reminder to all smartass born-again sons-of-god in the universe: Do not toss your dad's last carton of Camel menthols into the lake of fire as a gag. He'll flick his pinkie finger and torch your favorite little roadside attraction in an eyeblink. So vengeful! Shoulda known.

17) Hey, all kids and parents argue.

18) The revenge of science.

19) At last! The End Times hath arrived! Wrath, hellfire, lightning, burning Jesus, oil in the seas, plagues of grasshoppers, a black president, Gary Coleman dead, the works. About time, no?

*With special thanks to all the Facebook fans and Daring Spectacle readers who inspired/contributed to this list.

[barracuda]

Sorry Annie and all ... the "REAL" Touchdown Jesus is in Eureka Springs Arkansas...



Been there ... and touched him.

Dude, you can't have a Touchdown Jesus that isn't signaling a TD. DISQUALIFIED FROM CONTENTION

[elfismiles]

Sorry Annie and all ... the "REAL" Touchdown Jesus is in Eureka Springs Arkansas...

Been there ... and touched him.

Dude, you can't have a Touchdown Jesus that isn't signaling a TD. DISQUALIFIED FROM CONTENTION

Awww Chriminy! EPIC FAIL!!

[Sepka]

Sorry Annie and all ... the "REAL" Touchdown Jesus is in Eureka Springs Arkansas...



Been there ... and touched him.

Dude, you can't have a Touchdown Jesus that isn't signaling a TD. DISQUALIFIED FROM CONTENTION

I think that's actually "It was THIS BIG! Seriously!" Jesus.