On Wednesday, Oscar-winning actor Jamie Foxx told Entertainment Tonight that he was only joking when he called Barack Obama “our lord and savior” during Sunday's broadcast of the annual Soul Train awards.
“I'm a comic,” he said, “[and] sometimes I think people get a little too tight. And, it's getting a little tougher for us comedians [because] some people take it and want to make a huge story out of it, but it's a joke.”
But it certainly didn't seem like a joke last weekend when he opened up the award ceremony.
“It's like church over here. It's like church in here. First of all, give an honor to God and our lord and savior Barack Obama. Barack Obama,” he said.
“Some Christians,” ET said in perhaps the understatement of the year, “blogged and tweeted that they found Foxx's comment offensive.”
Foxx's comment sparked a firestorm of criticism from a number of Christians who, like pastor and author Rick Warren, saw it as blasphemy.
“That sent shivers up my spine,” Warren told Fox News' Todd Starnes. “There’s a word for that – it’s called blasphemy. It’s wrong.”
Warren told Starnes that the deification of any individual is wrong and goes against the Ten Commandments.
“That’s called creating an idol,” he said. “Idolatry is forbidden by the first two commandments of the Ten Commandments.”
“Foxx's epiphany is startling,” said Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.
“It just goes to show that even though Obama did not succeed in stopping the oceans from rising (as he promised to do in 2008), he did succeed in convincing Jamie Foxx, and no doubt legions of others, that God exists. Whether God can survive an ACLU lawsuit accusing him of violating church and state grounds remains to be seen,” he added.
Fox News' Sean Hannity took offense at the comment and said that it's a “reminder of how obsessed left-wing celebrities really are with President Obama.”
This is not the first time some have attempted to deify the president. Since his appearance on the world stage, a number of people have attempted to make him something other than a mortal man occupying a temporary position of power.
After Foxx's comment, for example, news broke of a painting by Michael D’Antuono called “Truth” that portrays Obama in the same pose as a crucified Jesus Christ, complete with a crown of thorns.
According to D'Antuono, the painting is a metaphor not intended to compare Obama to Jesus Christ. That, however, may prove to be a tough sell for many Christians.
Last weekend, we brought you the story of Florida A & M Professor Barbara Taylor, whose new book calls Obama an “apostle” sent by God to create a political heaven on earth. The attempts to deify Obama go back to the 2008 election.
“Obama is, of course, greater than Jesus,” said a 2009 editorial in a Danish publication, calling him “the practical saviour of our times.”
What do you think? Was Foxx really joking or not? Watch the video and give us your opinion in the comments below.
A FOOL!!!!
He wasn’t joking. However, he must have realized he has a movie coming out December 25th, I guess he needs all those Christians so he can make a living. BOYCOTT HIS NEW MOVIE
PERHAPS,,,,,,,,,,the young man needs to see the movie “LINCOLN” to who does he owe his success really to….NOT THE DEMOCRATS FOR SURE.,
Jack, your comment is so ignorant, on so many levels, that it’s embarrassing. First of all, to suggest that someone see a Hollywood interpretation of history in order to understand history makes me weep for the future. Second, to suggest that Lincoln freed the slaves and is in ANY way responsible for the success of Jamie Foxx is hilarious to the point that you should be ashamed for even suggesting it. Lincoln didn’t free the slaves. At all. The Emancipation Proclamation didn’t free the slaves. It literally didn’t. It freed the slaves in THE STATES THAT SECEDED. It was their punishment for seceding. In the middle states, the states that stayed in the union, slavery was upheld. Lincoln literally said, in a well documented letter, that if he could save the union by abolishing slavery, he would do it. And if he could save the union by upholding slavery, he would do it. He cared FAR LESS about slavery than he did about preserving the union. That’s a historical fact that apparently doesn’t fit with the narrative of Lincoln as a hero who freed the slaves, so we don’t teach it anymore. Which doesn’t make it less true.
Also, your “NOT THE DEMOCRATS FOR SURE” paints a picture of complete ignorance of the history of the political parties of this country. Lincoln was a Republican. That’s well documented and without argument. However, if you do any research at all, you’ll discover that the Republican party of the 19th century was LIBERAL. They were literally the radicals of their time. Republicans didn’t become conservative until the 20th century.
Here’s a link to the letter Lincoln sent, for the intellectually lazy: http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/greeley.htm
Joking or otherwise you do not refer to anyone as Lord and Savior that is reserved for the one and only true God! To do so even joking is blasphemy and will be taken so by the true Lord and Savior who is a very jealous God!!!
I can’t tell if this article was written for the Onion or the author is really that oblivious. L-O-L.
It is difficult to comment on this article. Perhaps he commented like because to gain more popularity for his upcoming film. I don’t think there will be no other reason behind that.
WHAT a hoot…Barack Obama is NO man’s hero. A non-American who’s got all the ignorants on his page….who elected him for all the wrong reasons.
Oh my god, you people are ADORABLE!
The arrogance of both Obama and Foxx ought to scare the living daylights out of anyone who gives a thought to the peace and safety of this country.
Great