Ok, for real?This statue is in front of a church on I 75 just north of Cincinnati. It is most commonly referred to as ‘touchdown Jesus’, but I like to call it ‘butter Jesus’ because it looks as though it was carved out of a giant stick of hand churned, full-out-Amish butter. If you look close you’ll see a dude standing next to the statue as a way to scale the thing. It is over 60 feet tall. We’re talking the statue of liberty big.
This is the most gaudy thing I have ever seen. It blows all other ‘big’ church indulgences out of the water. This makes the textured iron cross of camp look almost necessary to true spiritual growth and development. ( this analogy only works if you know of said cross, my apologies.)
Now, before I go into any thoughts on this…what do you think? Audience participation. Is it a good use of money for the church? Is it an “alabaster jar” expensive? Is it good for churches to drop money on bigger better stuff? Is this a symbol of God’s blessing or a perversion of resources?
5 comments:
As I tend to see church money as being intended for mission, I see this as a gawdy and unnecessary expense. However, even if I were to take the approach of “the beauty of God, the creator, in art”, or even somebody else’s expression of worship, I’d simply have to look at it and say, “Boy is that tacky. Why don’t we just stand out front of the church and sell paintings of Jesus on velvet?”
Jesus was all about the alabaster jar of perfume because he was the direct recipient. He rebuked Judas by saying that he (Jesus) would not be among them forever, while the poor will be here forever. Jesus is in heaven now so the poor, I would assume, should take precedence.
That being said; what we consider to be the greatest works of art in history were done in the name of Christ. The great Cathedrals that we often stand in awe of, the greatest paintings of Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci, and lest we forget the "Happy Trees" of Bob Ross.
But is there a difference. A yes. This Jesus is by far not part of a wider category of high art. The half baked idea to broadcast just how cheesy, nay buttery, evangelicals as a whole have become is both tacky and more harmful than good. Anyone who is not soccer mom-uber republican-casting crowns loving/ suburbanite is going to assume the worst about the people attending that church.
It may look delicious, but its as tacky as crap and therefore nullifies its only acceptable excuse for existence.
It's crap.
I always called it Zombie Jesus or J3: Rise of the Machines. Touchdown Jesus? Come on! This Jesus is out for revenge!
We saw that thing dozens of times when we still lived in Cincinnati, and every was always frustrated by it.
Ridiculous
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