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<DIV><FONT size=2>Irony/Comedy in our lives, especially the comments made by
readers.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT size=5>Ohio's Jesus statue is latest religious statue to be
struck by lightning<BR></FONT></STRONG>
<P><FONT size=-1>By Monica Hesse and Dan Zak<BR>Washington Post Staff
Writer<BR>Wednesday, June 16, 2010; C01 <BR></FONT></P>
<P></P>
<P>It appears God has sacrificed his only son. Again. </P>
<P>A bolt struck a 62-foot-tall statue of Jesus Christ on Monday outside a
church in Monroe, Ohio, and the statue <A
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAAj1OiH-WA" target="">erupted in
flames</A>. All that remains is a charred steel skeleton, its spindly arms
stretched toward heaven, a gesture that once earned it the nickname "Touchdown
Jesus." </P>
<P>Darlene Bishop, co-pastor of Solid Rock Church, says she's simply relieved
that the lightning hit Jesus and not the home for at-risk women next door. </P>
<P>"I told them, 'It looks like Jesus took a hit for you last night,' " she
says. </P>
<P>Act of God? Act of nature? </P>
<P>In 2008, lightning singed the fingers and eyebrows of Christ the Redeemer,
the 130-foot Jesus statue that stands over Rio de Janeiro. In 2007, a bolt
blasted the 33-foot Jesus statue at Mother Cabrini Shrine in Golden, Colo. One
of Jesus's arms fell off. </P>
<P>The saints and angels are not safe either. The Notre Dame de Chicago's Virgin
Mary burst into flames from her perch atop the church's dome in 1978; the
Engineering News Record covered the construction of a new, lightning-resistant
statue with the headline: "Burned once, dome reMaryed." </P>
<P>A bolt that struck St. Joan of Arc's statue in New Orleans sliced her
brandished staff in half. Statues of the Angel Moroni, which frequently top
Mormon churches, have been hit by lightning with such frequency -- Moroni's horn
is particularly susceptible -- that the Salt Lake Tribune once fretted over
their safety in a front-page story. </P>
<P>(Side note: Actor James Caviezel was struck by lightning in 2003 while
filming Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ." He was playing Jesus.) </P>
<P>Believer or not, we can always count on lightning to energize the
what-does-it-mean lobes of our brain. </P>
<P>Ancient Romans equated statues being struck by lightning with bad omens, such
as chickens beginning to talk and blood raining from the sky. Presumably, the
latter two were less-frequent events. </P>
<P>To find some modern-day meaning in Touchdown Jesus, we turned to Pat
Robertson, host of "The 700 Club," who has divined meaning from Hurricane
Katrina (abortionists?) and the Haitian earthquake (historic pact with the
Devil?). Alas, he declined through a publicist to interpret the significance of
the lightning strike. </P>
<P>So, we turned to science. Religious structures, especially church steeples,
are regularly zapped because they are often the highest point in a given area,
according to John Jensenius, lightning safety specialist for the National
Weather Service. But the same goes for towering secular symbols. </P>
<P>"Oh, she's hit by lightning on a continual basis," says Statue of Liberty
spokesman Darren Boch. </P>
<P>When asked whether such lightning strikes might represent a malevolent act of
God toward America, Boch says, "I can clearly state that no one here deems it an
act of God." </P>
<P>Which brings us to the main reason for writing this story: <A
href="http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/" target="">Lightning Safety Week</A>
starts Sunday. </P>
<P>Summer is a bolt-heavy season for much of the South and the East Coast, so
the National Weather Service recommends seeking shelter when there's thunder and
waiting 30 minutes after the last flash to emerge. </P>
<P>But some people don't need to worry <I>too</I> much: Only five people have
been killed by lightning inside the District of Columbia since 1959, despite a
flash-per-square-mile rate (11.7) that exceeds 35 states, including Virginia (66
deaths) and Maryland (124). </P>
<P>As for the incineration of Touchdown Jesus, Pastor Bishop isn't reading into
it. </P>
<P>"Honey," she says, "it's just some fiberglass." </P>
<P></P>
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