I am very fortunate that my extended family and my wife’s extended family live very close together – we can visit almost all our relatives in one trip. Each time we visit, we make a number of trips on I-75 between Cincinnati (where my parents live) and Dayton (where my wife’s mother lives). A landmark on our trip is Solid Rock Church, an Evangelical church notable for its 6-story high statue of Jesus coming out of the ground to proclaim “touchdown!”:

The first time we drove by this monstrosity, one of my kids asked, “What is THAT?” In all honesty, I was at a loss for words. I really just wished that this Protestant church had kept to its iconoclast origins.

Well, it appears that God agreed with my negative opinion of this work of “art:”

6-story Jesus statue in Ohio struck by lightning

MONROE, Ohio – A six-story statue of Jesus Christ was struck by lightning and burned to the ground, leaving only a blackened steel skeleton and pieces of foam that were scooped up by curious onlookers Tuesday.

The “King of Kings” statue, one of southwest Ohio’s most familiar landmarks, had stood since 2004 at the evangelical Solid Rock Church along Interstate 75 in Monroe, just north of Cincinnati.

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