Lightning struck a styrofoam statue of Jesus last night.
Let me relate some facts, now that I've done a bit of reading about this statue. It was only six years old. The church it was constructed in front of built it (using donations, none of the regular church funds) at a cost of something between a quarter and three-quarters of a million dollars (depending on the source). It was a metal frame (the only surviving pieces), wrapped in molded styrofoam, and then coated with a thin veneer of fiberglass, so it could be painted to look like stone or marble.
There was, of course, criticism when it was built. It was nicknamed, "Touchdown Jesus" by some people. Heywood Banks (a parody songwriter and folk singer) wrote a song about it, entitled "Big Butter Jesus." There were people asking, "What else could the church have done with the funds they used on that statue?"
Now that it's been destroyed, I'm really shocked at the amount of people who are willing to ascribe this to divine intervention. Shouldn't we be past the whole, "God Smites Wicked; Full Story At Ten" mentality? I remember when someone tried to attribute AIDS to God, something about vengeance on the wicked (this is trending down). I remember just a short time ago a scientific experiment was conducted to disprove a claim that immodestly dressed women cause earthquakes.
Suppose there's a God (just go with me on this one), who spent a lot of time and energy between 6000 and 1400 years ago, sending the Divine Word to his creations. Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam; assume these (and their associated publications) are the attempts of a Deity to inform us of His(Her) Will.
As divine works, these have a lot in common. They all include a creation story, instructions on how to worship, rules for treatment of your fellow man, etc. They all say Good Things™ will happen, if you follow their commandments. They contain stories of vengeance, of compassion, of mercy, of rules broken and rules upheld. There are wise people portrayed, and there are also fools (there sure seem to be a lot of fools, lately, doesn't it?).
This kind of reading can make a person think, "Ahah! They are all so similar! They must all be the Divine Word of God!" Of course, it can also make a person think, "Plagiarism! Someone wrote down some good stories, and all the other religions copied them!"
As for me ... I hope their statue was insured.
Until another time,
Salt
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I'm so sad to hear that "Big Butter Jesus" was destroyed. Seriously how can you not love Heywood Banks? You need to listen to "You Can Be Mean to Me (The Revenge Song)" when you get a chance.
ReplyDeleteBeyond the wonderfulness of Heywood, I agree with you completely about the similarities between most of the major religions. Without trying to offend, they are similar to most of the mythologies. All cultures have creation stories, compassion and vengeance. I was once almost thrown out of mythology class for asking if we would be studying the Judeo-Christian myths.
Although I love the idea that they were plagiarized. Isn't there a commandment on that?
I suppose that would fall under "Thou Shalt Not Steal," but I'm sure some kind of Fair Use settlement could be worked out.
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