Actor Chris Pratt said in an interview this week that he was not a religious person and denied reports that he ever attended Hillsong Church.
Pratt made the remarks in a wide ranging interview with Men’s Health magazine when asked about comments that he made at the MTV Movie & TV Awards as the recipient of a Generation Award in 2018. “God is real. God loves you,” Pratt said. “God wants the best for you.”
“Maybe it was hubris. For me to stand up on the stage and say the things that I said, I’m not sure I touched anybody,” he said. “Religion has been oppressive as f*** for a long time. I didn’t know that I would kind of become the face of religion when really I’m not a religious person. I think there’s a distinction between being religious—adhering to the customs created by man, oftentimes appropriating the awe reserved for who I believe is a very real God—and using it to control people, to take money from people, to abuse children, to steal land, to justify hatred. Whatever it is. The evil that’s in the heart of every single man has glommed on to the back of religion and come along for the ride.”
Pratt then denied reports from a couple of years ago that he attended Hillsong Church, which has been plagued with scandals in recent years.
“It has recently been suggested that I belong to a church which ‘hates a certain group of people’ and is ‘infamously anti-LGBTQ,’” Pratt said at the time. “Nothing could be further from the truth. I am a man who believes that everyone is entitled to love who they want free from the judgment of their fellow man.”
When asked why he did not specifically mention Hillsong Church in the statement, Pratt said, “I’m gonna, like, throw a church under the bus? If it’s like the Westboro Baptist Church, that’s different.”
“I never went to Hillsong,” he said. “I’ve never actually been to Hillsong. I don’t know anyone from that church.”
Source: Dailywire
