An Australian man who a year ago posted online backyard video footage of clouds he thought were shaped like Jesus is suddenly in the spotlight now that his local paper put the story in it's front page yesterday.
The amateur videographer, identified only as "tubeoffroad," believes his footage is an image of Jesus with his arms stretched out from his sides.
The cloud was seen in the Sydney suburb of Raby, Australia, and has received more than 8,000 hits on YouTube since its posting.
Rev. Craig Hooper, a minister at Eagle Vale Anglican Church, told the Macarthur Chronicle he was keeping an open mind about the cloud.
"There's nothing to say that it couldn't have been the face of Jesus in the cloud but we don't really know what he looked like because there were no photos when he walked the earth 2000 years ago," he said.
"If it raises interest in Jesus then people can read one of his biographies in Matthew, Mark, Luke or John in the Bible, that's where you really see a true picture of Jesus."
Mike Rochfort, an elder at Jehovah's Witness St. Andrew's congregation, told the Chronicle he didn't believe the cloud was a holy apparition.
"From our biblical point of view it would be just a coincidence. There is no biblical evidence to suggest that Jesus would manifest himself like this deliberately," he said.
Father John McGinty of the Mary Immaculate Catholic Parish at Eagle Vale noted, "It's not always easy to explain and I wouldn't say these types of things are automatically nonsense."
"There is a certain element of keeping an open mind when things like this happen," he added.
Comments posted online include:
- Keeping an open mind? It's a freakin' cloud!
- Can I have some of what he's smoking?
- The cloud was clearly the "melting" Nazi from the end of "Raiders of the Lost Ark"
- Ooh look, it's the Cloud of Turin!