Jesus appears atop cellphone tower in Uganda

Cingular, you may have the iPhone but South Africa's MTN has an exclusive with the Jesus. That's right, the Christian religion's iconic friend of burnt toast and water-stains is making a (second?) comeback at the top of an MTN cellphone tower in Gulu, Uganda. Yesterday, excited onlookers could be heard saying, "Come, come, come look over there, between those two bars, do you see him, do you see him...? He [Jesus] is standing between those two bars." Unfortunately, neither reporters nor the MTN marketing department could see the manifestation so they won't be able to use the Son-of-God on any marketing collateral. They did say "Uganda" and not Germany, right? For that is where pilgrims can find the one true blessed cellphone tower. In the almighty words of Harlo in the comments, "Can you heal me now?"

[Via The Register]

[Jonathan Keim @ Feb 22nd 2007 8:48AM]

Pretty sick in my opinion. Christians are told to keep their beliefs to themselves and keep from playing Christian music at work or hang up pictures of Him. But then someone can go out and put Jesus on a rooftop in a disgusting form for the world to see.

The worse part is that instead of people forcing it to be put down, like all the crosses, nativity scenes and other symbols put up by people of the faith; it is put up on the media and nothing negative is said about it.

[sinjinn @ Feb 22nd 2007 9:23AM]

I really dont see what problem you have with this. it is a true work of art , and I dont understand the christian bashing by this poster . this is a tech blog , dont go bashing peoples religions you idiot.
anyways, that looks really good, i wish there was atuff like that around here . all the statues in my town seem pretty bland by comparison , bland and even modernist , and often made with a lot less skill and commercial looking. prime example is a huge pebble in manchester ....sure it looks great and I like it , but it doesnt have much to say . this however is much better.

[Ray-- @ Feb 22nd 2007 10:03AM]

the biggest problem i have with the statue (in the picture) is that the guy dipicted is dead... and Christ is not in fact dead... so it seems kinda dumb (and sick) to make a statue of a dead guy hanging on a cell tower to dipict someone who isn't dead. It's the wrong way to remember/dipict Christ.... but i know a lot of religions try to promote this imagery to make people feel guilty... when they should be doing more to make people feel loved.

[David @ Feb 22nd 2007 9:26AM]

am i the only one thinking "radiation kills" ?
sorry if i'm atheist.

[ph @ Feb 22nd 2007 9:29AM]

I went to uganda for missionary/humanitarian work last summer. A lot of christains there, I am not surprised at putting Jesus on top of a cellphone tower. :)

Interesting post! :)

[Todd @ Feb 22nd 2007 9:34AM]

Mental note - Make a cardboard thought bubble that says "Can you hear me now?" for Jesus statue and ship it to Gulu, Uganda.

Alternate text for thought bubble "What? No Wi Fi?!??!"

[Matt B @ Feb 22nd 2007 9:42AM]

WTF kind of cell tower is that?

"Sorry honey.. Ya, I dropped the call since I went through that Jesus shadow dead spot."

[Blackster @ Feb 22nd 2007 11:10AM]

that was no cellphone tower, just a ordinary television antenna!
the old pic with the crucified jesus

[Matt E. @ Feb 22nd 2007 4:42PM]

That was Chicago. My train to work went right passed it, so I saw it daily. And why would there be salt deposits on the roads in California? They get no snow, therefore no need to salt the roads, duh.

[R @ Feb 22nd 2007 9:44AM]

Hey you guys,
Read the last sentence . . . That is NOT a pic of the Jesus from Uganda. That one's an "intentional" Jesus in Germany. Sounds like the Ugandan Jesus is an unintentional Jesus, like the potato chip Jesus or the salt formation Jesus under the bypass in California (I think it was).

It pays to read the entire post.

[R @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:21PM]

Okay, I'm replying to my own comment, because Engadget CHANGED the picture I was referring to, so now my post (and those of several others) make no sense, because they're now out-of-context. The origianl pic for this post was a close-up of a bronze (?) sculpture of Jesus hanging on a cell tower in Germany.

Engadget, if you're going to put a pic with every post, at least make it a pic that fits the post and isn't confusing.

And if it isn't a pic that fits the post, and DOES confuse readers, at least have the courage to leave the pic up there, instead of CHANGING the pic later, causing all of our comments to become moot.

[Harlo @ Feb 22nd 2007 9:48AM]

Can you heal me now?

[Jeff @ Feb 22nd 2007 10:00AM]

Pontious Pilot chooses Verizon. Shouldn't you? ;-)

[S11D336B @ Feb 22nd 2007 6:19PM]

First I want to establish something. I’m a Christian. I’m not offended by that and you shouldn’t be either. The issue here is free speech. If you have the right to spread what I would call "Atheistic Propaganda", then I have the right to share my beliefs as well. I don't have a problem having anyone else’s beliefs being displayed in the media. Why should anyone have a problem with mine? Christianity is not offensive. I'm not only entitled to my opinion, I'm entitled to share it as well. The same goes for any citizen of the United States. If you feel offended by Christianity, it is for only one reason. You feel threatened.

[sinjinn @ Feb 22nd 2007 10:24AM]

fair enough .

[Jason @ Feb 22nd 2007 10:04AM]

Huh, and we all thought that Sprint had "The Most Powerful Network". Who knew?

[Thomas Ricker @ Feb 22nd 2007 10:19AM]

Picture swapped and post updated to minimize confusion.

Thomas

[jjr @ Feb 22nd 2007 10:31AM]

I guess god really is everywhere.

[encosion @ Feb 22nd 2007 10:54AM]

Just in you're confused by a very poorly written (read: sensational) post - Uganda is NOT in South Africa... Far from it... There IS however a South African cellular phone provider called MTN, which may or may not be installing cellphone towers in Uganda... Which is many, many, MANY miles away from it!

[Barham @ Feb 23rd 2007 3:12PM]

Actually MTN,that south african Mobile communication provider,has services in uganda.And they do have masts as that shown on the photo.But i dont believe in visions of Jesus like this one

[Brian @ Feb 22nd 2007 11:06AM]

Buddy Jesus says "yo"

[freezejeans @ Feb 22nd 2007 11:08AM]

While I can see the humor in this, continued mocking of Christians in the post is quite interesting. In fact, I wonder if he'd have made fun of Muslims if it were Mohammed up there. Probably not, Christians are easier targets, huh?

[sinjinn @ Feb 22nd 2007 11:50AM]

i dont think he'd care . basic disrepect for 1 religion = disrespect for all . its a shame becos they have all the latest gadgets here , but who wants to go to blog where the blogger is hating on something? "the Christian religion's iconic friend of burnt toast and water-stains " wth ..keep yourself impartial dude

[Matt @ Feb 22nd 2007 11:25AM]

I once went to one of those "six flags over Jesus" churches, you know the ones that seat 100,000+?

Yeah, the guy at the front cured my blindness with the power of Christ, it was crazy!

[Abdullah Eyles @ Feb 22nd 2007 11:27AM]

Lab 14 - that's not funny actually the thread isn't at all funny from the start.

Even if you don't believe in God or His Prophets, don't make fun at them. There are lots of people who will be upset by (your) comments.

After all, life is short and the end of all of us is the same - under a few feet of earth. No-one can deny that.

[SKC @ Feb 22nd 2007 12:22PM]

Hey, this is a serious topic, to many people are dissing Christians. What if Jesus IS God and you guys are just puting him down? Don't you think that there might be some retribution to that?? You guys don't understand how serious this is.. when it comes down to it, its life or death

[Mike @ Feb 22nd 2007 2:56PM]

What if he isn't and you wated all this time hating people who make choices that your silly little book says are wrong.

What retarded logic. Read a book. No, not that one.

[ph @ Feb 22nd 2007 12:23PM]

"After all, life is short and the end of all of us is the same - under a few feet of earth. No-one can deny that."

I can deny it. Our physical bodies may be in the earth for a while, but our souls go to heaven. At the second coming, the dead shall be raised. Those who have not received Jesus go to the lake of fire, while those who have go to heaven.

Can I prove this? No. Can anyone prove that it wont happen? No. In the end, we will find out after we have died.

Not trying to put down your post, I know what you are trying to say, and I appreciate that :)

[granny down east @ Feb 22nd 2007 12:41PM]

please keep the religious comments to yourselves. everyone knows christians are easy targets, good targets for the cowardly and crass.
show yourselves to be men and take off on mohammed. let's see if you got the balls to do it.

[Matt @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:08PM]

If they can say that 75+% of the entire population of the planet is going to hell for being non-believers, they can take a little criticism of their superstitious beliefs.

Remember, you are the chosen ones, us cretins don't matter when the apocalypse begins.

roflmfao

[Brian @ Feb 22nd 2007 1:39PM]

If you believe those stories in the bible (magic tricks, ala water into wine), I'm sure your [strike]gullible[/strike] [strike]stupid[/strike] [strike]childish[/strike] desperate enough to believe jesus appears many places, in your life. Just like those pink elephants.

[Kev50027 @ Feb 22nd 2007 3:09PM]

Anti-Christians can go to hell :-D

[csnoke @ Feb 22nd 2007 4:33PM]

If I could be from anywhere except Uganda, I would be a Scot! I love *everything* about Scotland! Apart from red hair, which your women may find attractive but which in Africa is quite disgusting.

[AlexR @ Feb 22nd 2007 4:34PM]

I would like to say that I find it awesome that Jesus would manifest himself to a nation starving to know him. To the critics and skeptics, I forgive you. Maybe we are easy targets because a believer understands what it means to be persecuted and would suffer through it willingly, because Christ is worth it. You see, Jesus did not go from town to town bringing condemnation upon the people. He came to love and draw people not to himself, but to the Father. If you claim to be a believer, why are you not demonstrating the love that Jesus has for the people. God’s love for His creation that was so powerful, so abundant that He humbled himself and became man, lived with man, and suffered and died like man. And in the end was raised to provide anyone who chooses to believe, not only eternal life in heaven with the Father, but an abundant life on Earth. It is not about going to church, communion, tithing, rules, rituals, or traditions. It’s about a relationship with the living God who transforms lives, and offers mercy, forgiveness, and most importantly love. Jesus is the savior, not Christianity.

[R @ Feb 22nd 2007 5:31PM]

Matt E. -

"Duh?"

All of the hate and religion-bashing going on in these puerile threads, and you single ME out because I didn't have the photographic memory enough to remember that it was Chicago where people thought they saw the Virgin Mary in a salt deposit?

You could've just said "That was Chicago..." etc. and left off the insult at the end. The location was irrelevant to my point anyway.

Nonetheless, thank you for the correction. Have a nice day.

[joefy @ Feb 22nd 2007 6:00PM]

we are talking about this at http://www.cellphoner.net!

[Jonathan Keim @ Feb 22nd 2007 7:23PM]

Exactly. Look at the negative comments and almost all of the have the same theme.

The easiest way to get rid of hard truth is to ignore it, too bad it only works temporarily. Maybe people should stop thinking about what they want to believe, and instead search for the truth.

[Theo @ Feb 22nd 2007 6:56PM]

The Qur'an says, "You shall have your religion and I shall have mine". We can have different beliefs, but at the same time, we can respect each other's beliefs.