Only one Person can cast out Satan and He’s so much more than a film maker

Almost a year after some 100 million cumulative views in the biggest selling TV on DVD in the past five years and the biggest miniseries of all time on DVD in its first week of release, featuring a Satan who had a passing resemblance to President Barack Obama, Roma Downey and Mark Burnett decided to leave the lookalike character out of their upcoming movie, Son of God, based on The Bible miniseries.

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Mighty merciful of the Reality-TV producers now that millions have already viewed the Obama-Satan lookalike in The Bible miniseries. To some people--not the least of them the hugely popular Glenn Beck--Mohamen Mehdi Ouazanni, who played Satan, and Obama were “exact” lookalikes, undoubtedly one of the main reasons why the controversy about Obama and the Bible miniseries devil got to go viral from the get-go. “Anyone else think the devil in #TheBible Sunday on History Channel looks exactly like That Guy?” Beck tweeted on Sunday, March 16th, 2013. On March 19, 2013, Beck was trying to “relax” media “hyperventilating” over the supposed Obama-Satan lookalike, saying the Sunday night Tweet he had sent out had been all in fun, “not an indictment”.” (The Blaze, March 19, 2013) There was nothing wrong with Beck’s eyesight as Ouazaani and Obama--or at least they way Ouazanni was made up for his role in The Bible-- did share an eerie resemblance, attested to by the thousands of commenters that followed the Beck Tweet. The “controversy” which made Downey and Burnett eager to avoid another one about the devil looking like the president in the upcoming movie Son of God didn’t seem to bother either party when The Bible miniseries was in demand by churches last Easter because On March 18, Obama personally congratulated Downey at the White House. “Downey met with the president and first lady at the White House on Monday. She said the Obamas were thankful that the show has “engaged the country in a conversation about the Bible”. (AP, March 19, 2013) “The actress, who plays Mary the mother of the adult Jesus, in the miniseries, said she was upset that some people claimed the actor who played Satan looked like the president. She dismissed that as “nonsense” and a distraction. “Both Mark and I have nothing but respect and love (for) our President, who is a fellow Christian,” Downey said. “False statements such as these are just designed as a foolish distraction to try and discredit the beauty of the story of the Bible.” How’s that? People who thought the devil in the miniseries was a dead ringer for Obama were trying to “discredit the beauty of the story of the Bible”? (Here’s hoping since the Reality TV producers missed the Obama-Satan “false connection” first time out, no one gets the idea that Mary Magdalene has a vague resemblance to Michelle.) Flash forward to a year later and the devil, now that he’s had his long-lasting debut, is on the cutting room floor. “It gives me great pleasure to tell you that the devil is on the cutting-room floor. This is now a movie about Jesus, the son of God, and the devil gets no more screen time,” said Roma Downey, who produced the movie with her husband Mark Burnett. (Hollywoodreporter.com, Feb. 17, 2014) “A year ago, bloggers immediately noted the similarities between the Satan of The Bible miniseries and Obama and side-by-side comparisons went viral. Burnett, Downey and History, which aired the show, each issued statements supporting the president and slamming those that made the “false connection”, as History put it, between Obama and Satan. “This time around, though, Downey says she’s eager to avoid a similar situation, even though Jesus and Satan both made their appearance in The Bible miniseries during the same episode, so it would have made sense that Son of God also include Satan. “Someone made a comment that the actor who played the devil vaguely resembled our president, and suddenly the media went nuts,” Downey said Monday. “The next day, when I was sure everyone would only be talking about Jesus, they were talking about Satan instead” “She added: “For our movie, Son of God, I wanted all of the focus to be on Jesus. I want his name to be on the lips of everyone who sees this movie, so we cast Satan out. It gives me great pleasure to tell you that the devil is on the cutting-room floor.” Hype notwithstanding, movies are only movies and miniseries only miniseries. True Christians know the blessed and revered Name of the One who could cast out the devil in the desert and drove him away. Meanwhile, for some, leaving the devil on the cutting-room floor after a year-long of publicity just doesn’t cut it.