'The Bible' continues to be hot topic: controversy over Satan looking like Obama

The third episode of the History Channel’s “The Bible” rolled out its outstanding subject on the brutal rule of King Nebuchadnezzar, the trials of the Jewish prophet Daniel, and the introduction of Jesus’ birth and beginning Earthly ministry.

However the focus of interest revolved around protagonist Satan and the strong resemblance to President Barack Obama. Twitter was ablaze around the first hour of the presentation with chatter on the similar features of the actor portraying the devil looking like the United States president.http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/03/18/twitter-explodes-over-history-channel-resemblance-of-obama-and-satan/?hpt=hp_t2

Producer Mark Burnett dismissed the talk as “utter nonsense”, but it still didn’t quiet the chit chat about the devil having the same physical facial attributes as Obama. Burnett’s wife and executive producer Roma Downey was also dismayed at the observation and added in an interview to Dan Merica of CNN,

“Both Mark and I have nothing but respect and love for our President, who is a fellow Christian. False statements such as these are just designed as a foolish distraction to try and discredit the beauty of the story of the Bible”.

The resemblance to Obama may not have been intentional, however it is not too far off the perception of many that the devil played by accomplished Moroccan actor Hohamen Mehdi Ouazanna does show features of our current American president.

This side issue does not take away from the Biblical stories being presented during “The Bible” presentation. The stories that supplemented King Nebuchadnezzar’s sacking of Jerusalem and captivity of the Jews was extremely well done. Enough story line development was done to even tell the story of Daniel and the lion’s den, with the refusal of the three Hebrew children Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to bow down to Nebuchadnezzar’s golden statue.

Sunday’s episode did jump forward to tell the story during the birth of Jesus and King Herod’s brutal order to slay all the male children two years and below in hopes of killing Jesus at birth. The killing of John the Baptist was presented during the time Jesus was to begin his ministry. There are slight deviations to the Bible story in the interest of time perhaps, but the main focus of the story is very well presented.

The next two episodes which will incorporate Jesus’ three and a half year ministry culminating on Palm Sunday and concluding on the following Resurrection Sunday should be compelling television. The flap about the devil looking like Satan will give way to the greatest story ever told.

The ratings back up the viewers’ interest as “The Bible” has been soundly beating the competition during its Sunday time slot. It is the most watched program by far.