Is your goblin throwing hissy fits at himself now? Or was he aiming at something else? Was it a case of "Christ, I missed!" followed by "Oh my God!"?

'A six-storey-tall statue of Jesus Christ with his arms raised along a highway was struck by lightning in a thunderstorm Monday night and burned to the ground, police said.

'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.

'The sculpture, nearly 19 metres tall and 12m wide at the base, showed Jesus from the torso up and was nicknamed Touchdown Jesus because of the way the arms were raised, similar to a referee signaling a touchdown in a game of football.

'It was made of plastic foam and fibreglass over a steel frame, which is all that remained early Tuesday. ...

'The 4000-member, nondenominational church was founded by former horse trader Lawrence Bishop and his wife. Bishop said in 2004 he was trying to help people, not impress them, with the statue.

'He said his wife proposed the Jesus figure as a beacon of hope and salvation and they spent about $250,000 to finance it.'

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/a...