Touchdown Jesus

On reddit.com, the giant Touchdown Jesus makes it on the "What's new?" section under the title, "62 foot tall Jesus? Have megachurches gotten too big? I have driven past this huge graven image/eyesore/example of gross profit & excess many times. It is out there just north of Cincinnati on I-75 northbound." 

Solid Rock Church featured in Monroe, Ohio is notorious to those who have driven on I-75. Okay, okay. Not the church itself, just the enormous Jesus statue that weighs in at like 16,000 pounds. More stats featured on the King of Kings statue (i like touchdown jesus better) include over 8,000 hours of man-labor, reportedly the largest sculpture of Christ in America, and was actually built in Florida, divided into sections, shipped to Monroe and then rebuilt on site of the church. 

8,000 man-hours. Besides how stupid "man-hours" sounds, that's like, 333 days. Does anyone else feel like that was time poorly spent? I mean, is it funny? Yes. Is it gaudy and ridiculous and making for a great rant? Yes, yes, and hopefully yes. But it's possible with volunteers and "man labor" to build homes in just over a month. Is this church doing what Jesus what do? Ahhhh, I don't think so. 

The argument was made that the people that see Touchdown Jesus become curious and inquire, thus leading to the visiting then church, then falling in love with God. Not that I necessarily find it acceptable that a huge expensive sculpture brought someone to their religion, but congratulations on finding some kind of hope. I believe that people need to have some kind of hope and if thinking that a huge jesus that resembles that statue is going to forgive your sins and bring you to eternal happiness at the end of your days, then FINE. I've never BEEN to this church, I don't KNOW what they practice. But something tells me by the structure of the church itself, they aren't standing for that WWJD stuff. 

Upon clicking, the link to the church itself was used three months prior to host a separate title. "Itithe: Paying your duty to God in the 21 Century." I click. My jaw drops. Not only did these people spend an insane amount of time and money to make this ridiculous fucking statue, but the bastards have a way for you to DONATE ONLINE.

Not only just, "Hey, help us fulfill our mission to uplift people," but instead "iTithe online is a way of fulfilling your commitment to God."

No, no. Don't go to church, just give us your money. This isn't even about religion anymore. This is a profit seeking, money-hungry clan. I've seen it from my hometown too. Suburban, wealthy churches buying Wii's to entice children to go to Bible study groups. What, does "ministry" work cost too much? Bussing a few kids downtown to help at a food bank every once in a while? Or cook some food and serve it on the streets? Sure, Cleveland fucked up real hard and made it illegal to feed the homeless, but bottom line: Shouldn't churches be helping feed the poor instead of feeding materialism into their children?

Hm... that rant strayed a bit. 

Final note: The website gives you an option to save the Touchdown Jesus picture as "Desktop size." I could've sworn somewhere in the Bible people were supposed to be modest. Like when Jesus tells that guy to stop praying out loud in front of everyone so they can hear. I feel that Solid Rock Church is in violation of this action.