Touchdown Jesus, the infamous 60-foot cast of Jesus Christ emerging from a pond, has been an area talking point in Southwest Ohio since 2004. It’s now gone.
To some it was a landmark. To others, a punchline.But to many, the 62-foot-tall “King of Kings” statue along Interstate 75 was a powerful and vibrant religious symbol of Jesus and his message.
The aftermath of the fire that incinerated the southwestern Ohio icon Monday, June 14, brought out scores of people snapping photographs and paying tribute, today, June 15, including Darrell Lawson of Middletown, who recently brought relatives to the site.
“He will be back,” Lawson said in a trembling voice as a tear trickled down his cheek. “Keep your faith strong. He will be rebuilt back… if everybody in the United States would quit driving down this highway and calling him Touchdown Jesus. He’s not Touchdown Jesus, he’s our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Touchdown Jesus was the inspiration for the hit comedy song by Heywood Banks called “Big Butter Jesus.” Banks reacted to the destruction of his muse.
Now, just as the creation of the statue inspired Banks to write the novelty tune “Big Butter Jesus,” its destruction has prompted him today to write a new verse and chorus for the song.
The new verse: “One night Big Butter got struck by lightning/And it burned to the framewire in a giant grease fire. Some blamed it on Satan, and boy, that would be frightening/But I thought it was Jesus’ father who was in charge of lightning,” Banks wrote.
The original chorus of “Big Butter Jesus” had a series of butter puns. The new chorus has a series of fiery puns. The new chorus: “Big fireball Jesus, flaming shot Jesus, charbroiled Jesus, Opa! Jesus, extra crispy Jesus, bananas foster Jesus, I’m put out it’s not Jesus, Charcoal-y O Lord.”
Asked if he had heard about the fire, the Michigan-based performer sarcastically asked, “Is there any excitement going on down there?”
Print
Digg
StumbleUpon
del.icio.us
Facebook
Yahoo! Buzz
Twitter
Google Bookmarks
Google Buzz
LinkedIn
MSN Reporter
MySpace
Orkut
Ping.fm
Reddit
RSS
Slashdot
Technorati
Tumblr
Webnews.de
Any Jesus not on top of the water isn’t real Jesus anyway.
and if the statue doesn’t resurrect itself then isn’t it fake art?
That’s all I got. Be sure and tip the waitresses folks!
Seriously, this is all anyone down here is talking about. It’s been on the news 24-7, my Facebook is nothing but “Touchdown Jesus” and I haven’t talked to anyone today who hasn’t mentioned this at some point. In other words, Southwest Ohio is the world’s largest small town.
This statue brings up a variety of emotions. I want to laugh yet I respect the idea behind the statue…it’s just so tacky. I’m not against tackiness in itself and a quite a few of the religious books I saw growing up were kitschy. Seems like the people behind the statue had it built out of great reverence.
I don’t think I’d laugh if the Christ the Redeemer in Rio would be destroyed.
Oh, heck with it…I’m going to laugh.
I think Jesus sent the lightning. Good intentions? It’s our Lord and Savior! How ’bout some good art?
Yeah, you’re right. Besides, I think you had a point about Jesus being ON water instead of rising out of water.
Like Jaws!
Maybe they should have set up a boat to be buffeted by some wind machines and the statue could have depicted Jesus calming the seas? This would have the bonus of having big statues of the apostles too.
Galilee Land!
Are you an anti-semite? You’re walking some very thin ice there brother.
It wasn’t Jesus who did it, Floyd. The perpetrator’s face was caught on film.
That’s right—
—it was Michael Jackson!
I always thought Touchdown Jesus was in South Bend!
Please don’t quote Heywood Banks please. That guy is anti-comedy to me
Toast!
I’d never heard of this statue before. It doesn’t look like it was something I’d have liked, but Darrell Lawson’s okay by me.
Darrell Lawson is OK by me too. If the American church was more involved in the arts Mr. Lawson might have some decent statuary to admire and might know better whether or not he has a formal arts education. (Ditto church music, architecture, etc.)
And anyway, that statue was clearly signaling a field goal, not a touchdown.
Touche, Mike.
which inexorably leads to this:
Mike and Floyd are on fire tonight…but considering the subject matter perhaps that’s not so good.