Wm Dwight McKissic, Sr. is the pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, TX. He blogs at Wm Dwight McKissic, Sr.
While watching the Dallas Cowboys versus the Washington Redskins on Thanksgiving Day, I was excited to see the advertisement of the Christmas Day release of a movie featuring Jamie Foxx entitled, “Django Unchained.”
I am not a movie-goer. I am a man in love with my wife, and she loves to go to movies. Therefore, from three to six times a year, we make our way to the movies together.
One of our favorite times to go together is during the Christmas Holidays. This Christmas, I decided on Thanksgiving Day, that we were going to see “Django Unchained,” because I was so impressed with the trailer.
Family movies, historical documentaries, biographies and Black oriented movies are usually my preference in movie selections if I must go. The internet descriptions of “DJANGO UNCHAINED” captured all of my motivations for going to see a movie. Django was a freed slave in the 1850’s who set out to reclaim his family that he’d been separated from.
My wife and I plan to go to New York in February to see the Broadway Play entitled, “Scandalous: The Life and Trials of Aimee Semple McPherson.” Against the backdrop of William Joseph Seymour (May 2, 1870 – September 28, 1922)—the Patriarch of the Azusa Street Revival and the Pentecostal church emerges Aimee Semple McPherson. Her play is a biographical church history documentary that, again, captures most of my motivation for seeing a movie or play.
However, as of today, I’ve decided to personally boycott the “Django Unchained” movie for one reason, and one reason only: THE BLASPHEMOUS REMARKS OF JAMIE FOXX referring to President Barack Obama as “our Lord and Savior.”
During the Soul Train Music Awards this past Sunday evening, Jamie Foxx made the following comment:
“It’s like church over here. It’s like church over here. First of all, giving honor to God and our Lord and Savior Barack Obama.”
It’s highly possible that Foxx, being a comedian, was simply joking by his paraphrasing of a highly familiar greeting or preface statement often spoken in many African-American churches where the words “Barack Obama” appear in the above quote, the greeting would normally say, Jesus Christ.
But that begs the questions: Is this acceptable comedy to those of us who believe that Jesus is simply off limits to joke about in this manner? Is the Foxx comment a violation of the third commandment, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain” (Exodus 20:7)? Is the Foxx comment an example of what Jesus meant when He said, “for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh…every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” (Matthew 12:34b, 36b)? Was Foxx attributing praise and descriptions to President Obama that biblically only can be said of Jesus, thereby committing some form of blasphemy (Matthew 12:24, 31, 32; 1 Timothy 1:12, 13)? Jesus’ comments about blasphemy were in response to the Pharisees attributing to the power of the devil, the credit for what should have been attributes to the power of the Holy Spirit (Mt. 12:28). Did Foxx, by invoking the name Barack Obama in a place where only the name the Lord Jesus Christ belongs, commit a violation similar to what the Pharisees committed in Matthew 12:24?
I don’t watch Jamie Foxx often, but the few times I’ve caught him on TV, I immediately recognized that he has an affinity to and an intimate knowledge of the Black church. The reason his audience laughed immediately at his “joke,” was because they also readily picked up that this was a familiar expression in the Black church. Therefore, I am going to give Jamie Foxx the benefit of the doubt and assume that he was joking.
Nevertheless, I will personally boycott “Django Unchained”; and I believe all believers should as well, so that we can send a message to Hollywood that using our Lord’s name in vain, and—in a serious or comical blasphemous manner—is simply unacceptable.
If Foxx was joking, it was a very bad and inappropriate joke; if he was not joking it is an assault on the Christian faith. At either rate, unless Foxx repents, those of us who know and love the Lord Jesus Christ—including President Obama—ought to boycott “Django Unchained”; and the President should correct and repudiate Foxx’s blasphemous comments. There is one Lord, and his name is not Barack Obama! His Name is Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the Living God, the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords; and He shall reign forever and ever. There is none like Him; not even the highly beloved, respected, appreciated and iconic historical figure, President Barack Obama!