$250 000 'Touchdown Jesus' statue struck by bolt of lightning, burns to the ground

SHOOT: I guess could call that 'an act of God'...?

clipped from news.yahoo.com The sculpture, 62 feet tall and 40 feet wide at the base, showed Jesus from the torso up and was nicknamed Touchdown Jesus because of the way his arms were raised, as though reaching out to catch a football. It was made of plastic foam and fiberglass over a steel frame, which is all that remained early Tuesday. The fire spread from the statue to an adjacent amphitheater but was confined to the attic area, and no one was injured, police Chief Mark Neu said. The fire department would release a monetary damage estimate Tuesday, he said. He said his wife proposed the Jesus figure as a beacon of hope and salvation and they spent about $250,000 to finance it.