A massive 155-foot statue of a Hindu god is being built in North Carolina, and the project is already underway.
The world's tallest statue of "Murugan" is being planned in Moncure in Chatham County, NC, the Indian Eagle reports.
The "warrior god" will be at the center of the Carolina Murugan Temple Campus, which will be on 130 acres of residential land.
During the first phase of building, the main temple, three gopurams (entrances to a Hindu temple), and a road surrounding the campus will be completed and will cost around three to five million dollars, the outlet notes. By the project's completion, the statue will be taller than the Statue of Liberty, which is about 151 feet when not including the pedestal.
In total, the project will cost around $10 million. Currently, organizers are requesting $1.9 million to complete phase 1 of the project.
Despite Hindus comprising only a small religious minority in the U.S., North Carolina has become an emerging prime destination for native Indians. In the town of Cary, which is on the outskirts of Raleigh, sits the 87-foot Tower of Unity and Prosperity, inaugurated in 2022, LifeSite News reports. Meanwhile, Hindu tourists travel far to come to the state to visit two prime temples.
Reports about the city's plans are gaining national attention.
Texas Senate candidate Alexander Duncan, whose state erected a 90-foot-tall statue of the monkey-headed Hindu god Hanuman on the outskirts of Houston in 2024, shared a video of the site, writing, "This is not what the Founding Fathers envisioned when they wrote the First Amendment."
Others commented on the video, speaking against a statue that promotes the worship of a false god. "This is unacceptable in America. A Christian nation," wrote one user on X.
"We can't even display a 100-foot American Flag in America. We are in big trouble," another argued.
As CBN News has reported, Jonathan Cahn, a prophetic Messianic Christian leader in the U.S., teaches that as a nation turns away from God, it embraces ancient pagan "gods" or "idols," just as ancient Israel did.
The Bible makes clear that pagan "gods" are demons and should not be worshipped.
That includes scriptures like Psalms 95:5, which reads: "For all the gods of the Gentiles are devils: but the Lord made the heavens," and 1 Corinthians 10:20, which reads, "What pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons."
CBN News spoke with an ex-Hindu who agrees. Mayuri Sharma was born and raised a devout Hindu from the Brahmin priestly caste. She had a supernatural encounter with Jesus that changed the trajectory of her life and spiritual walk.
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However, she told CBN News that without God's supernatural intervention, she would have remained deceived about the darkness behind Hinduism.
"We have this concept too in Hinduism that you have to pray every morning and get right with God. So I started praying and fasting to the Hindu idols. And I was really getting into it," she recounted.
Sharma shared that a friend gave her a Bible. Initially, she wasn't interested in it, but after talking with her friend for a while about God, she decided to open it.
"They said to me, ask Jesus if he's real...ask Jesus if He's actually God and if He's the one who really made you," she shared.
Sharma said she began to have supernatural dreams, and one of those dreams showed her the demonic power behind Hinduism.
"I had a vision that I was blindfolded and that I was being led down a dark stairway, and when I took off the blindfold, I looked at what I believed was Satan," she described. "I was like, 'Where are you taking me?' And then I had that kind of realization like, whoa, I might be in the wrong thing."
Sharma told CBN News that at one point, she received a supernatural deliverance. While receiving prayer from believers, she saw a vision of a "demon burning" and the "ropes" to Hinduism severed.
After that, she knew what she had to do.
"I took away all the idols in my home, which was a huge step for me because they were family idols. They've been passed down for generations throughout my family. But I took the chance, and I said, 'Jesus, if this is you and you're extending your hand to me, I'm going to meet you right where you're at. I'm going to extend my hand back.'"
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