Video After The Jump
A joke that Jamie Foxx made while onstage during the 2012 Soul Train Awards has gotten him in hot water with some religious groups.
"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," Foxx said on the show, which aired on November 25th.
Many in the audience found humor in the joke, but not Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in southern California and author of "The Purpose-Driven Life."
“That sent shivers up my spine,” Warren said, according to The Examiner. “There’s a word for that – it’s called blasphemy. It’s wrong. That’s called creating an idol. Idolatry is forbidden by the first two commandments of the Ten Commandments."
Bill Donahue, the president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights in the United States issued a statement regarding Foxx's comments.
"Foxx’s epiphany is startling. 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," Donahue wrote. "Whether God can survive an ACLU lawsuit accusing him of violating church and state grounds remains to be seen."
Donahue also points to a 2011 interview where a reporter asks Foxx what God means to him. He responded by saying: “What does God mean to me? I don’t know, what does he mean to you?"
Fox News also got in on the debate during a recent segment on the Sean Hannity Show.
"The intellectually superior don’t need the crutch of religion," said radio host and Fox News commentator Mary Walter. "Those of us clinging to our guns and religion… we’re somehow less evolved. It’s about a societal religion as opposed to a church religion, because if the government gives you everything, the government becomes your religion, and he’s our leader.”
Foxx has responded to the uproar in an interview with ET's Nancy O'Dell.
"I'm a comic," Foxx says, "[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."
Is this all a big fuss over nothing? Or do the religious groups have a point?
Jamie Foxx calls Barack Obama "our Lord and savior" at the Soul Train Awards
Sean Hannity panel debates Jamie Foxx' "Lord and savior" comment
Information from the Huffington Post was used in this article
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