The story itself is meaningless and trivial. But suppose some icon held in hatred by Christians had been struck by lightning, can anyone doubt that evangelicals would be triumphantly declaring that God had spoken and sent forth his wrath to destroy the hated symbol? Those who do somehow doubt that are encouraged to look at news stories about the catastrophic flooding of the Mississippi River many years ago, and how evangelicals claimed it God’s wrath because abortion was legal in America.

Then again real incidental justice could have been with us and it could have struck in Washington.

Heretic_for_Christ, evangelicals do not speak for all Christians – actually rather few of them I wold think. There are some people who like to be in the limelight now and then, but this has nothing to do with living your life in emulating Christ. You can always find an idiot or two in any group of people, and groups of people with a common thread, such as being an Episcopalian, certainly are no exception. It would be hard not to find those who are out of step somehow, making them more noticeable. But again, they have nothing to do with all Christians. Then again, we are all just human after all, and we all make mistakes.
The evangelicals can’t help it if their mouth isn’t connected to their brains or their humanity.

chilehead,
Thank you for the gentle reproof. You are quite correct. In general, I take care to avoid generalizations, but in this case I did not. Sincerely, I would hope that people like you would speak out more forcefully and frequently to say that evangelicals and fundamentalists do not represent all or even most of christendom, even if they are its loudest members.

I’m Catholic, not Evangelical Protestant, but I think there is something sick about a religious site like Beliefnet chortling over how entertaining it is to read about lightening destroying an iconic-statue of Christ. Also, I think the commenter who labeled all Evangelicals as people who “can’t help it if their mouth isn’t connected to their brains or their humanity” is the one who needs to do a little reality check of both his own brains and humanity.

If this Jesus was “packin’ heat” there might have been quite the cosmological shoot out! I guess it’s a good thing this bit of lawn decor was not in Louisiana!

Well since over the past two weeks there has been lightning strikes
in the mountains of North Carolina where a man’s fiancee was struck by lightning as he was proposing to her, then a bolt of lightning struck a tank at farm in Greensboro, resulting in a huge fire that closed two North Carolina interstates, then lightning struck a ship in the Gulf of Mexico that was involved in the attempt to clean up the oil disaster, a letter carrier was struck by lightning in St. Louis during a storm; a motorcyclist was struck in the head by lightning in Colorado, and lightning has been setting houses on fire in Atlanta. I suppose I am cheered to see that the thunder God was so lavish with spreading the pain.

chilehead I’m with H4C here. Evangelicals do speak for Christianity over and over; when a news anchor wants a quote he’ll go to some Evangelical leader and usually get some nonsense; and I don’t hear other Christians complaining about it.
If you want to complain when people assume Evangelicals are speaking for Christians then complain loudly and effectively when they do speak for Christians.

But hey, let’s face it: if you make extravagant claims about “God” watching over everyone it is pretty funny when your Jesus gets struck by lightning and burns down.
And not just any Jesus, the Jesus by the Solid Rock church. Clearly their Jesus, at least, was not solid rock. And, let’s face it, the Jesus inside their church is as phony as the one outside it. Just more harmful.

Deacon B. IT’s a cotton picken statue…not a person in any sense of the word. It doesn’t eat or sleep or walk about or anything…and being 62 feet tall means it was a prime target for lightning. Maybe someone was trying to tell someone something….Rath from on high perhaps? Never, HE will return and perhaps be even taller!

Last sentence should read….NEVER MIND, HE will return and perhaps be even taller!

I live by touchdown Jesus and I personally was glad to see him go up in flames. There was nothing sacred about this statue. They are going to go bigger, so they can get into the Guinness book of world records. What does that say about the “church”. The Solid Rock Church as a whole has nothing to do with religion and all to do about how much money they can rake in. It amazes me how people don’t see it. It also amazes me how those religious “leaders” can live with themselves.

“evangelicals do not speak for all Christians “
Yeah, r-i-i-i-g-h-t. They just ‘think’ they do. And it certainly comes across that way. Why, even businesses like Let’s Focus on SOME People’s Families, the American “Family” Association, and the “Family” “Research” Council are still considered go-to agencies for “Christian” comments on religious news affecting the world.
“The evangelicals can’t help it if their mouth isn’t connected to their brains or their humanity.”
Too true, dat, chilehead.
“I think there is something sick about a religious site like Beliefnet chortling over how entertaining it is to read about lightening destroying an iconic-statue of Christ.”
Well, you would, wouldn’t you. Seems Catholics are missing the irony gene, along with the hatred-of-kitsch-in-the-name-of-Jayzus gene. Some heap-big “solid Rock” that false, empty idol. (Hey, don’t all Catholic Churches have statues in ‘em?)