Mega-Messiahs
(and Other End Times Titans)
It's still fashionable, during these post-millennial years, to ponder The End of Everything. Media-worn warnings from the Bible, Nostradamus, and assorted bunker-dwellers continue to give us pause. Fans of Hollywood Apocalypse films believe the End will be laden with spectacular special effects. And while students of the Book of Revelation may not agree on all the details, one thing is very possible:
A giant Jesus will be looking for you.
End Times Titans Big Marys: Immaculate giantesses loom, but also forgive. Find
the largest the USA has to offer: 50-ft Madonna Queen National Shrine, North
Boston, Massachusetts; 30-ft "Queen of Peace," Sioux City, Iowa; the 33-ft. tall Mary in Windsor, Ohio; and 90-ft "Our Lady of the Rockies," Butte, MT. |
How about synchronizing your Rapture/Rupture with a visit to one of America's giant symbols of faith? At the top of the list: a Mega-Messiah statue. Convenient to any End Times vacation plan, you'll be strangely at peace after spotting Christ writ large on the horizon.
Christ of the Ozarks, Eureka Springs, Arkansas
This Big J stands along a ridge near the Great Passion Play amphitheater,
New Holy Land, and the Christ Only Art Gallery. He is probably
the "World's Tallest Uncrucified Christ" (if we totally ignore the 125 ft. tall mountaintop Christ statue in Rio
de Janeiro), standing seven stories and weighing
two million pounds .
He
was
completed
in
1966,
and
according
to "The Story
of the Building of the Great Statue," as many as three cars could be hung
on either wrist without damage.
Visitors report that the eyes seem to move, but this is explained as the movement of the sun, not another incredible miracle. At night, attendees of the four-hour-long Passion Play walk off cramps around the eerie illuminated Messiah. The whole cavalcade of Bible treats was founded by the late radio racist Reverend Gerald L. K. Smith.
Mormon Visitor Center, Salt Lake City, Utah
A larger-than-life Jesus stands in the Mormon Visitor Center in Salt Lake
City. According to Mormon beliefs, after his Resurrection this Jesus took
a side trip to America. Next door, you can sit in on a rehearsal of the Mormon
Tabernacle Choir -- another great place to be when God wraps things
up.
Dinosaur Gardens, Ossineke, Michigan
In the parking lot of Dinosaur Gardens, along the western shore of Lake Huron,
you'll find a large homemade statue of Christ clutching the Earth. Perhaps
it is a comment on the fate of the dinosaurs, who are depicted along a wooded
trail attacking each other and battling with cavepeople. When the real Messiah
comes knocking, you'll want to be safely inside the walk-in Aptosaurus, home
of the "The Greatest
Heart."
Christ
of the Deep, Key Largo, Florida
Christ of the Deep is a nine-foot-tall bronze statue sunk in 25 feet of water
at Dry Rocks Reef about eight miles off shore. It's a popular spot for underwater
weddings.
Buddy Christ Statue, Red Bank, New
Jersey
The Buddy Christ statue, as seen in the movie "Dogma," greets visitors to
Jay & Silent Bob's Secret Stash, a comic book store in Red Bank,
NJ, frequented by fans, stars and near-stars of Kevin Smith films. One of
the shorter Messiahs on our list, he is certainly the biggest wiseacre, and
in the worst place for the Lord to find you on Judgment Day.
September 2004: Jesus Bustin' Out, Monroe, Ohio - Built in 2004, a 42-ft. high (also reported in the
media as 62 ft. high) sculpture of Christ appears to
explode from the dirt behind the amphitheater at Monroe's Solid Rock Church.
From the
waist down,
he's underground....
