Oprah’s longterm on/off boyfriend, Stedman Graham, was doing an interview with a local news station in Chicago and tried to express his frustration that Chicago hadn’t kissed Oprah’s ass like he’s done over the past few decades. As Radar Online points out, he misquoted a biblical passage about how prophets aren’t appreciated on their home turf or something. The interviewer mentioned that Oprah is leaving Chicago after filming her show there from the beginning and how that reality hadn’t really set it yet. Stedman said “I really don’t think they appreciate her. I don’t think they understand the value of who she is and what she’s done. The prophet has no honor in his hometown… and she has brought a lot of national attention to Chicago. She reaches 20 million people in [inaudible number] countries every day.

The work that she does, she’s got a school in South Africa where she’s taken these kids from literally the bush and she’s now taken them on a tour to put them in college and everything else this year. So I don’t think she’s really that appreciated. I think that they take her for granted a lot… I’m just saying from an insiders point of view… she’s just a great humanitarian and a great leader.”

Radar describes the passage that Stedman quoted:

Stedman’s quote is a biblical reference from John 4. The actual quote, according to the King James bible is: “For Jesus himself testified, that a prophet hath no honour in his own country.”

And while Stedman simply may have been trying to express how much more the city should appreciate Oprah, his comments are sure to stir controversy with the religious component.

[From Radar]

This begs the question – did Stedman compare Oprah to God? Maybe some of you who are more familiar with the Bible can clue me in to the significance of the passage. It’s from John 4:44, and here’s the context. (I also found this site that compiles a bunch of quotes from the bible in which Jesus talks about how he doesn’t get respect at home.) I read John Chapter 4, from which Stedman is quoting, and from what I can understand it’s about Jesus traveling around and saving people. So I’m guessing that Stedman did kind of compare Oprah to God in his clumsy way whether he intended to or not. Now Oprah God is going to come down on his ass for revealing how much she thinks of herself behind closed doors. You know that she bitches about how no one appreciates her while she’s wiping her butt with $100 bills.

Another thing I learned from this interview is that Stedman is kind of dim. He has an educational company he runs and supposedly speaks at events around the world but he’s not that articulate or skilled at expressing himself. The concepts he was espousing about establishing a personal identity and taking charge of your life were kind of trite and overdone. Maybe that’s why we rarely ever see the guy on television despite the fact that he’s Oprah’s boyfriend. She doesn’t let him have a platform like Gayle because she’s afraid he’ll screw it up like this.

Update: Many of you have pointed out that this saying is common and might not have anything to do with religion. I still think he’s overestimating Oprah.