November 21, 2005--Dashboard Jesus
I would ordinarily save this one for a Friday Fanaticisms blog. But this is such a good story that I couldn’t wait to share it with you. It’s from an article in the NY Times that reports about a 62 foot high Styrofoam Jesus that has been erected beside Interstate 75 in Monroe, Ohio (see link below for full story).
It cost $250,000, but to the patrons, Lawrence and Darlene Bishop, a rags-to-riches couple, it is a pittance considering that they head up one of the nation’s largest megachurches, Solid Rock Church, situated on a 100-acre “campus” that not only houses the Church (which seats more than 3,000) but also a Bible college, music amphitheater, and of course a gift shop. If you can’t get to Monroe before next summer, visit their website where you can both shop and tithe on-line.
Lawrence stared out in the Appalachian village of Zag (relax, not Zig Zag), Kentucky where, at age 10, he bought his first horse for $25, and though it was blind, sold it later for $250. He then went on to make his fortune as one of the nation’s leading quarter horse dealers.
He reports that “God ordained all this to happen.” Thus in arranging for the construction and siteing of what some nearby residents call the Super Jesus, he was just following God’s direction.
But it did present some problems—first of all, when workers started installing the statue they discovered that the head and arms were too small for the torso. So they needed to rip it apart in order to recast the arms and face. They then found that the skin was so thin that it could be indented with the mere touch of a finger. But there it is, proud and tall, illuminated (artificially) at night.
Some claim that it’s presence has led to a reduction in the number of accidents on what had previously been one of the most dangerous stretches of I-75—two years before the statue appeared there were eight people killed along that stretch of the highway; since then there have been no, read zero deaths.
But before you lobby your highway commissioner to have equivalent 62 foot highway Jesuses put up along the Long Island Expressway or DC Beltway, listen to what officials of the Ohio Department of Transportation have to say. They claim that the reduction in deaths is the result of having built a $1.1 million high-tension cable in the road’s median. It has caught cars about to jump that median more that 180 times. By my calculations, if even half of those cars had not been caught by the cable, and even a quarter of that half had caused fatal accidents, that would mean that there would have been 22 deaths along that stretch.
It could very well be that the garishly illuminated statue itself (not exactly in the class of Michelangelo’s David) might actually be the cause rather than the prevention of all those accidents.
No wonder then that the Intelligent Designers are not claiming it to be more evidence of the correctness of their views. Maybe in this one case, science itself (in the guise of high-tension cable engineers) has the upper hand.
But then there could be something else at work. Other locals have dubbed it Touchdown Jesus because its raised arms remind them of a football referee signaling that a touchdown has been scored.
In any case, ordained by God or the Ohio Department of Transportation or Ohio State’s football coach, it’s worth a visit. And don’t forget to pop in at the gift shop—you can buy your own 10 inch version.
It cost $250,000, but to the patrons, Lawrence and Darlene Bishop, a rags-to-riches couple, it is a pittance considering that they head up one of the nation’s largest megachurches, Solid Rock Church, situated on a 100-acre “campus” that not only houses the Church (which seats more than 3,000) but also a Bible college, music amphitheater, and of course a gift shop. If you can’t get to Monroe before next summer, visit their website where you can both shop and tithe on-line.
Lawrence stared out in the Appalachian village of Zag (relax, not Zig Zag), Kentucky where, at age 10, he bought his first horse for $25, and though it was blind, sold it later for $250. He then went on to make his fortune as one of the nation’s leading quarter horse dealers.
He reports that “God ordained all this to happen.” Thus in arranging for the construction and siteing of what some nearby residents call the Super Jesus, he was just following God’s direction.
But it did present some problems—first of all, when workers started installing the statue they discovered that the head and arms were too small for the torso. So they needed to rip it apart in order to recast the arms and face. They then found that the skin was so thin that it could be indented with the mere touch of a finger. But there it is, proud and tall, illuminated (artificially) at night.
Some claim that it’s presence has led to a reduction in the number of accidents on what had previously been one of the most dangerous stretches of I-75—two years before the statue appeared there were eight people killed along that stretch of the highway; since then there have been no, read zero deaths.
But before you lobby your highway commissioner to have equivalent 62 foot highway Jesuses put up along the Long Island Expressway or DC Beltway, listen to what officials of the Ohio Department of Transportation have to say. They claim that the reduction in deaths is the result of having built a $1.1 million high-tension cable in the road’s median. It has caught cars about to jump that median more that 180 times. By my calculations, if even half of those cars had not been caught by the cable, and even a quarter of that half had caused fatal accidents, that would mean that there would have been 22 deaths along that stretch.
It could very well be that the garishly illuminated statue itself (not exactly in the class of Michelangelo’s David) might actually be the cause rather than the prevention of all those accidents.
No wonder then that the Intelligent Designers are not claiming it to be more evidence of the correctness of their views. Maybe in this one case, science itself (in the guise of high-tension cable engineers) has the upper hand.
But then there could be something else at work. Other locals have dubbed it Touchdown Jesus because its raised arms remind them of a football referee signaling that a touchdown has been scored.
In any case, ordained by God or the Ohio Department of Transportation or Ohio State’s football coach, it’s worth a visit. And don’t forget to pop in at the gift shop—you can buy your own 10 inch version.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
12:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home