Giant Jesus Statue is Having an Identity Crisis

MONROE, Ohio - The controversy continues over a 62 foot high foam statue of Jesus erected by the 3,400-member Solid Rock Church.

The current disagreement is over the statue’s name. Postcards for sale in the church’s gift shop refer to it as the King of Kings. But, locals have other names for the $300,000 foam statue. The most popular name is “Touchdown Jesus”. Other names include “Super Jesus”, “MC62ft Jesus” and “Big J”

We here at the Museum of Idolatry think it should be called, “Help Me I Can’t Swim, Jesus”

Comments

[Pattison]

Wow. $300,000 for a graven image of Jesus. I wonder how many Bibles could have been smuggled into restricted nations, or how many pastors could have been supported in those restricted nations. I guess it's not about them... it's about us!

[Sister_Sunshine]

Very sad they spent 300,000 dollars on an idol. How many churches could be built in Africa for that money? How many inner-city areas in the US would have benefited from a daughter work being started? How much gospel outreach could have been funded? How many small ministries could have been blessed with church vans or buses? SHAME ON THIS CHURCH FOR WASTING GOD'S MONEY LIKE THAT!

[Aaron]

How is it an idol. I get it begin a waste of money, but how an idol?

[Peter Anselmo]

Exodus 20:4-5

4Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

5Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

[Aaron]

Doesn't that verse say "Don't make an image of anything on the eart" either? Does that mean there shouldn't be any pictures of anything in our churches? Certainly no one is worshipping that statue. I'm having a hard time following you here.

[John]

I've driven by this statue several times. Every time I see it, I think "what a silly church." If I'm thinking this as a believer, what do unbelievers think when they see it? The best thing this church could do, now that they've wasted the money, is to tear the statue down and move forward in serious ministry.

[Craig]

Aaron, NO ONE today knows what Jesus Christ looked like, so that image is a LIE. Also NO IMAGE can show His DEITY! All else aside, that makes it a lie. If ANYONE says that that graven image is the image of the Lord Jesus Christ he has subscribed to that lie. The LORD JESUS CHRIST IS THE WORD, Christianity came to EXIST by the WORD, we are given a WORD BOOK not a picture book. Thou shalt not make any likeness of any thing that is in heaven, it says FIRST,20:4, DON'T MAKE IT, then later it says, 20:5, DON'T WORSHIP IT! Will you OBEY or not, it is that simple.

In the service of the TRUTH, the LIVING WORD, JESUS CHRIST,

Craig

[Craig]

***Certainly no one is worshipping that statue*** Worship means to attribute WORTH. If one says "that is JESUS", a certain worth has been attributed to that graven image, that is why it is wrong! Isa 53:2 he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

There was NOTHING about His looks that set Him apart, HIS WORDS, and DOCTRINE set Him APART! He said KEEP MY WORDS! Not His image. John 8:31 If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed

In the service of the TRUTH, the LIVING WORD, JESUS CHRIST,

Craig

[Janine]

The image is a sad joke to the lost people I have seen and an abomination to the saved. And, Touchdown Jesus is indeed its most popular name. A lost friend of mine called it by that name when it was first built. Not sure what they want to accomplish by having it in front of their church.

[sarah]

What happened to their cross? And what exactly does INR mean to them. Medically, it is a lab test to see how thick your blood is...is this supposed to be a subtle connection? :)

[Aaron]

The statue is their to raise questions. Certainly the church did not build this statue to be worshipped, but as a means for spreading the word. People continue to judge what the church is doing, and that is not our jobs. God is the judge! Don't question the churches motives. God is the judge! The people raising questions are at an advantage you already know who the person in the statue is. Live for him. Surely God is moving in this church for a church to continue and be strong they must have a unity only given from God. When i see the statue i don't look at the statue as a graven image, but when i see the statue it reminds me of what Jesus did for us 2000+ years ago on the cross. We need to quit questioning why things happen and become more like Job who states, I know my redeemer lives!

[Rita Martinez]

I know its been over a month but i have a comment to what Aaron is saying, brother in Christ, the problem is if we need to resort to things such as statues and statuettes and paintings and seeker-sensitive methods to "attract" people to Christ then we are not being good Christians. Why, instead of spending 300,000 dollars on a statue, was that money not used in other ways for the glory of Christ, like building churches in places like africa (as someone above said), or Christ-centered schools in underdeveloped countries, or funding for missionaries...actions that will make non-christians say "Wow look at how they love each other, truly Christ must live in them" But when churches do these things what people say is, "look at that all that money spent on them"...thats all..
In Christ,
Rita M.

[Mrs. Jake]

I'm not going to get into the "idol" debate, but "Help Me I Can't Swim Jesus" is really, really funny.

[Chris]

I just want to point out to all you people complaining about this being an 'idol' and that it should be forbidden in that regard: I've YET to step foot in any church or cathedral (And I've been in to many of them in the two cities I've lived in through my life) that did not have a statue of Jesus on the cross over or behind the altar.

The only difference between those, and this is 1) This one is larger. 2) people are actually 'bowing down' to the ones in the churches, so, technically, they're worse.

[Charlene]

I think the statue is wonderful, it made me feel wonderful and it seemed like a sign to me at the time I seen it ....

[Matthew]

We call it the Butter Jesus. snicker.snicker. ;)

[Jeremiah]

Jesus Christ is God and any image of Him that might be done through an act of worship and reverence is not considered a graven image. The statue or a picture of Jesus should remind us of what he has done for us and the love that he has for us. To create a god out of stone or any other earthen object is ridiculous and is a sin (idolatry). This is clearly not with this case since this is in honor of the resurrected Christ. We should not create any others gods be it either from the earth or in our minds. There is only one God and that God deserves our worship.

[carol]

"Jesus Christ is God and any image of Him that might be done through an act of worship and reverence is not considered a graven image."

What??? Who told you that? Did God change His commandments? An image is an image. The following is the 2nd of the ten commandments:

Exodus 20:4 "Thou shalt NOT make unto thee ANY GRAVEN IMAGE, OR ANY LIKENESS OF ANY THING THAT IS IN HEAVEN ABOVE, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6 And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments."

(emphasis mine)

[Barb]

"Thou shalt not make . . . any likeness of any thing that is . . . in the earth . . . or in the water." If, as you say, an image is an image, than does that mean I've committed a grave sin every time I've doodled flowers and vines in the margins of my notebooks, with no intent to worship? What about landscapes and stick figures? And I guess I'll have to tear up those treasured photographs of family members I won't be seeing again in this lifetime . . .

I guess we're stuck with abstract art from now on, lest we actually portray something that exists in the real world, whether we intend to worship it or not, and break the second commandment.

[carol]

Barb,

The post was (again):"...ANY IMAGE OF HIM THAT MIGHT BE DONE THROUGH AN ACT OF WORSHIP AND REVERENCE IS NOT CONSIDERED AN ACT OF WORSHIP." (caps are for emphasis only, not screaming). You said you didn't worship your flowers, landscapes, and photographs. That's good but you're missing the point. I didn't say anything about art or photographs in daily life. You have twisted my words into something else. The main idea which you missed is "act of worship and reverence." We are not to have images as objects to worship or "help" in worship. If an object or image is used in this way, it is wrong. If you still have a problem, take this matter up with God Who commanded it. I didn't make this up.
I sense through your comments here and other places on this site that you want to argue just for the sake of arguing. I might be wrong but that's the way your posts are coming across. I have not found any of your comments that are agreeing with the subject or others who agree with the things posted by Chris. I'm not saying that you should agree with everything and everyone. Please don't acuse me of that.
I would like to ask you something. Please consider reading the verses shown or posted in the comments or find verses in the Bible to show your point of view. Then pray for guidance before you comment.

[Barb]

I thought you might make that point . . . the issue is "worship and reverence." Okay. But creating an image as an act of devotion isn't the same as creating a graven image to bow down to it. When I was a (very) little girl I wanted to baptize my dolls, and to invite my family I cut out God-shaped invitations. (I was going for the bearded Jesus look, but, being a four-year-old with a pair of safety scissors, ended up with an amorphous blob.) When I told my mother what I was doing, she lectured me on the second commandment, and I felt as if I had committed some grave, terrible wrong against God, as if I were just as bad as those African heathens who bowed down to statues. In retrospect, of course, the concept of God-shaped invitations seems laughably tacky, but this commandment seems to me to be clearly intented to squash idolatry, not religious artwork, illustrated Bible story books, allegorical fiction, preschooler creativity, or any of the other perfectly harmless things it's been used to challenge in the past.

[carol]

Barb, again, I was referring to images in worship only. There was nothing wrong when you, as a little girl, wanted to "baptize" your dolls and invite the family. Children are constantly in a learning process and if I had a little girl who wanted to do that I would have thought it was cute.
There is nothing wrong with religious artwork if it agrees with what the Bible teaches. We send Christmas cards, don't we? I think you and I really do agree on this whole subject.
Forgive me if I'm not sticking to the subject above but I would like to ask for prayers for South Texas from anyone who reads this. Hurricane Dolly is going to show up at our front door in a few hours. As I write this, it's around 10:00 Tuesday night. It is not expected to do much damage but these things are unpredictable and have hail and tornadoes in the feeder bands. They're expecting flooding, too. Hopefully it will all be over by tommorrow night or Thursday.
Thanks.

[Barb]

You're right Carol, we may be (more or less) on the same page after all. I'm sorry if we misunderstood each other.

I pray that God will safeguard the lives and property of you and your neighbors. Stay safe, Carol, and please drop us a note on Thursday to let us know you're OK.

[carol]

Thanks Barb. I appreciate your prayers so much.

Report: Obviously our electricity is still on. The tornado sirens blew about an hour and a half ago. One of the sirens is very close to our house. It means that a funnel cloud or tornado has been spotted in our county. I think it went just south of us. Another one was spotted northeast of us in another county. We are west of Corpus Christi. The bad news for us is that the storm went in a little farther north than expected, fourty miles above Brownsville with winds at 100 mph. It was upgraded to a category 2 hurricane. We didn't board up the windows but neither did any of our neighbors. It seems ironic to hear the wind gusting and have a garage full of plywood just sitting there. The good news is that the storm itself won't get any stronger. We have only experienced some bands of moderate rain and wind. We are on the north side of the storm which always has the most wind and rain. It will get stronger for us because it's moving closer. I'm watching a Corpus Christi TV station now and it looks like another band of rain is going to come through. They are now showing people surfing and fishing in the gulf near Corpus!
Keep us in your prayers, it's not over by a long shot. Thanks.

[carol]

We came through the hurricane just fine. Lots of rain and wind early this morning through about 1:00 this afternoon. The only thing damaged was our land line phone service. Oh well, we won't miss it. No telemarketers! Thanks for your prayers.

[steinbeck11]

Can idolatry get any BIGGER?