As this Christian TV Examiner watched the most-recent episode of The HIstory Channel's "The Bible" on Sunday -- and loved the way they portrayed that scene of Satan tempting Christ Jesus with a crown and servants washing his feet interspersed with horrid visions of his crown of thorns -- I don't know if I thought the devil looked liked President Obama at all.
Watch video for yourself of "The Bible," from this CBS Sunday Morning segment titled "Making The Bible," which shows clips from The History Channel epic miniseries and interviews with the creators, Roma Downey and her husband, Mark Burnett.
"Why does the devil in 'The Bible' look exactly like President Obama?" asks The Daily Mail, providing plenty of Twitter screenshots from conservatives like Glenn Beck, who claim to see a striking resemblance to Beelzebub and President Barack Obama.
Okay, I see it once they put photos side-by-side like that. And I'll admit to counting the characters in our Commander-in-Chief's first, middle and last names at least once -- making sure they each didn't contain six -- before eschewing those fears. I guess it depends on your visage.
"It's a movement; it's the Bible," says Mark Burnett
Roma Downey, star of the TV series "Touched By an Angel," says that it was over a cup of tea that the idea came to her to pitch her husband on bringing the Bible to life in their "little slice of heaven" home in Malibu.
"I did go for a bike ride after that and thought about it and prayed. Roma was right. We hugged and hardly looked back," says her husband, reality show producer Mark Burnett.
About the hit History Channel miniseries "The Bible," the couple credits the Creator with its success.
"I would say it was God's idea placed in my heart," Downey says, repeating the plea from their children, who told their parents, "Please, when it comes to the special effects, will you make sure it's not lame?"
Regarding his critics and whether or not it was a hard pitch, Burnett says, "I don't think that way. I just knew we were making it. We were making it no matter what. Even if you don't want to go to church or believe, you should know this story."
In the wake of the runaway and unexpected ratings this show is getting, this reporter can only imagine the knock-offs that will be rushed to the big and small screens in coming months and years.
"If the critics were so good they'd be making it themselves, wouldn't they?" Burnett says. Touché.
I can barely wait till they get to The Revelation. As I mused this morning, perhaps the amazing viewership this miniseries has drawn is like God's final call to repentance in these last days -- a major cable-channel and YouTube warning to not duplicate Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon's actions when he finally began digging through old parchment warnings from prophets from long ago, and Jeremiah told him it was too late.
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