Build a Better Jesus
About 30 miles north of downtown Cincinnati is a megachurch which calls itself the Solid Rock Church. The most striking feature of this church as you pass it by on I-75 is was the 62-foot tall Jesus statue, which featured him from the waist up with his arms outstretched towards heaven. I say "was" because I regret to say that the statue is no more.
For many locals, this roadside icon was sort of a combination joke and embarrassment. It's the kind of thing you point to and say, "Look at that - heh heh heh" before shaking your head and hiding your eyes behind your hand. I'm not sure what its official name was, but many have christened it "Touchdown Jesus" for fairly obvious reasons. The songwriting jokester Heywood Banks preferred the term Big Butter Jesus, and his performance really does the thing some justice. I must admit that a certain form of tourism followed from the complete sense of weirdness emanating from the structure.
Someone save the giant Jesus from sinking into the ornamental fountain pool.
On Monday evening, June 14, we had a nasty thunderstorm pass through. Lightning flashed every few seconds, and more than one strike came very close to my home. Well, lightning did more than come close to the giant Jesus:
Seems like there should have been a rave party present at the time.
As you might guess, someone managed to get a few seconds of video of the flaming statue and posted it to Youtube. It turns out that it was built from a metal skeleton covered with styrofoam and fiberglass. In other words, it was both conductive and flammable. Kiss that $250,000 goodbye. This has led to no end of snarky comments from far and wide, summed up by the terse "even god thought the damn thing was ugly". The irony was so overwhelming that one couldn't help but snicker.
What's left of the statue, you ask?
In some ways, it's more interesting as abstract art.
Today would have been the first sermon after the statue exploded. I'd love to see a transcript. I do know that the church is talking about building a fireproof replacement if they can find people willing to cough up the money. Should they do it? Well, what are I-75 drivers going to do without the world's tackiest Jesus effigy distracting them from their cell phones?