The producers of the hit TV miniseries “The Bible” have released a statement calling recent claims that they intentionally made the devil character look like President Barack Obama “utter nonsense.”

Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, the husband-and-wife executive producer team behind The History Channel miniseries, released the statement Monday amid many claims that the miniseries’ depiction of Satan and Obama looked alike.

“The actor who played Satan, Mehdi Ouzaani, is a highly acclaimed Moroccan actor. He has previously played parts in several Biblical epics – including Satanic characters – long before Barack Obama was elected as our President,” said Burnett and Downey.

“This is utter nonsense.”

Watched by millions, “The Bible” miniseries aired its third part Sunday evening, as it went through the early life of Jesus. When the devil made an appearance in the script, social media was abuzz with claims that Lucifer was purposely made to look like President Obama.

The United Kingdom publication the Daily Mail credited conservative radio and talk show host Glenn Beck with being the first to publicly announce the similarity on Twitter.

“‘Anyone else think the Devil in #TheBible Sunday on History Channel looks exactly like That Guy?” tweeted Beck, adding a link to a picture.

From there the Tweets accelerated, with many wondering and agreeing with Beck over the similarity.

For its part, The History Channel also released a statement in response to the outcry, saying the claim of the Satan-Obama resemblance is a “false connection.”

“History channel has the highest respect for President Obama. The series was produced with an international and diverse cast of respected actors. It’s unfortunate that anyone made this false connection. The Bible is meant to enlighten people on its rich stories and deep history,” reads the History Channel’s statement.

“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,” added Downey.

The Bible miniseries is a 10-hour docudrama of the stories of the Old and New Testaments, divided into five two-hour episodes. The last episode will air on Easter Sunday.

It is time.

No, it is past time.

Christians must stop saying the following things.

1. The Bible is the inerrant, infallible Word of God.

It isn’t inerrant and not likely even in the “original manuscripts.” But then, I cannot say that with absolute certainty, anymore than anyone else can either.

Why? Because no such “original” manuscripts even exists. That’s like saying, “We believe there are aliens on other planets!”

Good for you. Now, prove it.

As we have it, no matter what translation you favor, the Bible is replete with errors. To pretend otherwise is your right. To say otherwise is a lie. You are entitled to your opinions, your assumptions, even your beliefs. What you are not entitled to is a misrepresentation of the facts.

A corollary to this that Christians should stop saying is this:

2. We just believe the Bible.

That, too, is false. What you really believe is your interpretation of the Bible. And the last I checked, the history of the Christian church is the history of disagreement over “interpretation.” How else do you explain the scores of denominations within Christianity alone? It would be patently more honest of Christians to say, “The following represents our understanding and interpretation of the Scriptures, but we are also aware there are many equally sincere Christians who interpret the Scriptures differently from us.”

A third thing Christians should stop saying:

3. Jesus is the only way to heaven.

What you are really saying is, “The way we interpret John 14:6 is that Jesus was clearly drawing a line in the sand and telling his hearers and the world: ‘If you do not believe in Me, you won’t go to the Father when you die.’”

For this, I refer back to No. 2 above: what you and your group of believers reallymean to say is, “It is our interpretation of John 14:6 that Jesus is saying that He is the only way to heaven.”

There are scores of Christians, however, and I am one of them, who do not interpret Jesus’ words in John 14 the same way. Just because I do not makes me no less Christian than you are. So stop drawing lines in the sand, please, between equally sincere followers of Jesus.

When I read the 14th chapter of John, I see a context that yields an alternative reading of the text. Instead of Jesus starting some new religion here and saying, “OK, fellas, I’m going to go away soon” — referring to his death — “but, before I go, you should know that where I’m going you, and others who believe just like you, will one day be, too — that is, of course, if they believe like you believe that I am the only way to heaven. That is to say, if the people around you and who come after you don’t believe that I am the only way to heaven, then, of course, they’ll have to go to hell. Is all that clear?”

I offer an alternative interpretation: When Jesus spoke to them about leaving them, they were understandably shaken.

How could they not be? After all, they had left everything to follow him. Now, just a year, or two, or three years later, Jesus is saying he’s getting ready to leave them?

But, of course, they’re upset. So Thomas, speaking on behalf of the others, asks, “But where are you going and why can’t we go with you? Furthermore, how will we know the way?”

Jesus responds in tender, reassuring ways. Sensing the fragility of their faith, seeing the anxiety on their faces, he reassures them that, in God’s house are many rooms, “mansions” or places. Yes, He’s going away but where He’s going they, too, will go. Just as He has led them this far, He will lead them further still (and what follows in the latter part of John 14 is the beautiful reassurance of the on-going presence of God in the Holy Spirit).

So, for me personally, and many other Christians, too, Jesus is no more pointing to himself as the “one-and-only-way” to God than Thomas is expressing in his question concern for Hindus, Muslims or Buddhists and whether they’ll go to heaven? I can assure you that Thomas, and the others, were only concerned about themselves. And yet, even at that point, Jesus is tender in His care of them and seeks to reassure them that, just as He and the Father were one, and just as they had trusted the things He had been saying to them during his time with them, so they could trust him and what he was saying at this time, too. Yes, he was leaving them. But no, they would not be left alone. Where he was, they would be. He had shown them the way to the Father. But, even after He’s gone from them, they will know the way then, too. The Comforter would guide them.

And so, the Church is here today. But not because Christians declare, “There is no way to go to heaven if you don’t believe in Jesus.” The Church is here today because when people do trust the things Jesus said about HImself, about HIs relationship to the Father…when people believe and so live the teachings of Jesus they, too, are changed — they, too, become “new creations in Christ,” as Saint Paul put it (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Now, I took longer with this one thing Christians need to stop saying because many Christians seem stuck here, thinking that there’s only one way to interpret Jesus’ words about being the way. It is my hope these Christians will know there are equally sincere Christians like myself and others who do not believe Jesus was drawing a line in the sand between him and some new religion he was creating and all the other religions of the world.

Again, it’s your right to “believe” or, more accurately, interpret Scripture as you wish. You do not, however, have permission to arrogantly assume your way of interpreting the words of Jesus are the only way to understand His words. Last I checked, no one’s interpretation of anything is infallible. Not yours. Not mine.

A fourth thing Christians need to stop saying:

4. The rapture of Jesus is imminent.

Again, if you want to believe in some secret rapture of Christians from the earth just before the Tribulation, if you want to believe in and carry around in your hip pocket detailed charts and graphs of how its all going to happen, then so be it. But do the rest of us a favor and stop saying so in public.

So far, your record of correctly predicting the future earns a flunking grade. And I and scores of other Christians are frankly tired of apologizing for your arrogant — and so far, absolutely wrong — predictions as to when it’ll happen.

My recommendation? Burn up your charts and go live like Christ. Quit masking your real fears by calling them faith. It isn’t faith that leads you to sell all you have, give the proceeds to some wacko, and go camp out on Mount Horeb as you await the rapture. It’s stupidity instead. It’s embarrassing, too. It makes thoughtful Christians have to apologize to the world and explain that we’re not all off-our-rockers, at least, not yet, anyway. So, please, please. If you want to believe in the charts that Hal Lindsey and Tim LaHaye and other “get-rich-off-the-stupidity-of-Christians” have duped scores into believing, then have at it. Just stay out of the news please! Go quietly to your campsites and do your waiting.:

5. Homosexuality is a chosen lifestyle and it is a sin against God.

This one issue, my friend, is on the outs. If you don’t know that, you are more blind than the Republicans were in the last election. They misinterpreted the political environment and so completely blew it when it came to getting their candidate elected. And you, my friend, are misinterpreting the moral, spiritual and religious environment — and the changes that are coming.

My son said it well the other day. We were discussing homosexuality and same-sex marriage and he observed, “Dad, it’s your generation that’s hung up on these issues. Once you guys get out of the way and the younger generation moves into the decision-making arena, these issues will disappear. The day will come when, just as slavery is unthinkable in our consciousness today, it will be equally unthinkable to deny anyone the right to be who they are or the right to same-sex marriage.”

You can still revere the Bible, my friend, but move beyond the prejudice of Paul or anyone else. You don’t need to make Saint Paul infallible to treat the Bible as important.

Finally, please, please Christians stop insisting that…

6. The earth is less than 10,000 years old.

If you want to believe that Genesis is a scientific description of the origins of the universe, then have at it. Just stop insisting that those myths be taught in our public schools. You do no service to the Bible nor to the morality of this country by demanding school administrators include textbooks that teach that nonsense or by demanding courts hang the Ten Commandments on chamber walls or classroom walls.

If this democracy is going to survive, get over your silly, misinformed notions that our forefathers were all Bible-believing, Bible thumping, Genesis-affirming Christians who came to this country to establish your kind of Christian nation and then expect everyone else to conform to your misguided assumptions.

Whew! I feel better. Thanks for letting me get a few things off my chest.

Now, there is one thing I think all Christians, including me, should remember — no, should practice (and we should practice this between ourselves first, too) — and that is the one simple thing Jesus once said would be the one-and-only thing the world would know us by…

Not our beliefs.
Not our doctrines.
Not our denomination’s distinctions.
Not even our declarations.

Jesus said, “They will know you are my disciples by your love” (John 13:35).

When we love, what more needs to be said?

WASHINGTON – First there were satellites in the sky that could read license plates from space.

Then there were cameras on every major street and highway.

Then there were full-body scans at airports.

Then came the proliferation of drones over the skies of America.

Barack Obama announced today the next phase of government national surveillance – with a budget of billions.

It’s called “the National Strategy for Biosurveillance.”

But, don’t worry, it’s all for the public good, health and safety, officials say.

The announcement came in the form of a short press release from the White House press secretary today:

“As a nation, we need to protect the health and safety of our people from naturally occurring or intentional threats. Early threat detection and sustained situational awareness are critical to saving lives and improving outcomes when there is a national health emergency. The administration’s new National Strategy for Biosurveillance aims to unify national effort around a common purpose and establish new ways of thinking about providing information to enable better decisionmaking.

“The strategy promotes an all-of-nation approach that brings together federal, state, local, and tribal governments; the private sector; non-governmental organizations; and international partners to identify and understand threats as early as possible and provide accurate and timely information to support life-saving responses. The strategy calls for focusing on the most important information, and shaping the enterprise to meet that need, so that we can do more with less.

“The strategy emphasizes four key biosurveillance functions which are critical for the effectiveness of the biosurveillance enterprise. They are:

• Scan and Discern the Environment
• Integrate and Identify Essential Information
• Alert and Inform Decisionmakers
• Forecast and Advise Impacts

“Advances in technology, the advent of social media, and new science provide opportunities to strengthen our national biosurveillance enterprise. As a next step, during the next 120 days, the administration will lay out specific action steps going forward in an implementation plan. It is by working together that we can best promote the resilience of the nation and act to protect the American people.”

But what does it all mean?

It’s one more way America’s life changed as a result of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the homeland.

A few days ago, PositiveID Corp., which describes itself as “an emerging growth company and developer of sophisticated airborne bio-threat detection systems for American’s homeland defense,” announced it was preparing a request of $3.1 billion from the Department of Homeland Security for ‘BioWatch Generation,’ an early warning system designed to detect the intentional release of airborne biological agents.”

The Department of Homeland Security already uses 600 secret air filters to detect lethal pathogens – either naturally occurring or those intentionally released in a bio-attack. Local health officials in the roughly 30 cities that have the filters manually retrieve them every day and take them to labs for testing. But, if terrorists released something deadly into the air, it would still take about 36 hours before the toxin was identified.

PositiveID seeks to sell to Homeland Security computerized “labs-in-a-box” that that can quickly detect deadly pathogens in the air anywhere.

The Obama administration wants to upgrade the technology, known as BioWatch, to cut the response time to six hours or less. Estimates to buy and maintain the new sensors have surged to $5.7 billion – six times the initial price tag.

The 2,500 new sensors and bio-attack alert system Homeland Security wants to buy from PositiveID or other companies would be fully automated. Air sniffers would collect samples at least four times a day, and an internal computer would run a DNA test on the particles for traces of anthrax, smallpox, Ebola, and other pathogens. The so-called labs-in-a-box would then send the results immediately over a secured network to local and federal officials, who would verify them and dispatch drugs to hospitals in the event of an attack.

According to reports, Homeland Security has already spent at least $30 million trying to develop the new system. It was originally scheduled to go live this month, but a series of bureaucratic delays and tech glitches have held up progress.

PositiveID and Northrop Grumman say they’ve worked through these problems and Homeland Security is ready to open bidding on a $3.1 billion contract for the labs-in-a-box before October.

Under Homeland Security’s plans, 2,500 labs would be installed in 30 cities, including Boston, New York, Las Vegas, and Houston.

The BioWatch program began 10 years ago – in the aftermath of the anthrax scare on Capitol Hill and at major media outlets. Over the last decade, however, there have been many false alarms and other problems that have led some to question the efficacy of expanding the program. In that time period, the government concedes that of the dozens of Biowatch “actionable results,” none were connected with evidence of bioterrorism or even cases of human illness.

But that hasn’t stopped plans to greatly expand the program in the form of billions of dollars.

One of the problems for the program, according to the National Academy of Sciences, is that pathogens and their close genetic relatives exist naturally in water and soil.

“Distinguishing natural background levels of endemic agents from a bioterrorism threat and separating genetic ‘near neighbors’ from the target agent present technical challenges,” reports the academy.

BioWatch has already cost the U.S. taxpayers approximately $1 billion. The next phase – Generation 3 – is expected to cost $3.1 billion over the next five years. These costs, along with perceived false alarms, have led some to question whether the program is a potential waste of funding or research.