Over the past 10 years, many stars of the first magnitude have begun to speak openly about their faith (or lack of it).
Many people are grateful to celebrities who are open about their Christian beliefs. And there are many more of them than you might think!
Denzel Washington
Denzel Washington never hid his religious convictions and begins each day with a Bible reading. The actor grew up in the family of a priest but admits that going to church as a child was sheer torture for him because he was forced to do it. Nevertheless, for a time he even considered the option of following in his father’s footsteps and becoming a pastor. But then something strange happened.
As Washington once said in an interview, in 1975, while he was sitting in a hairdresser, an unknown woman wrote down a prophecy for him, according to which he would travel the world and talk with millions. This happened – very soon Denzel decided to become an actor and became world-famous.
Tom Hanks
The Hollywood star, known all over the world for his movies: “Forrest Gump”, “Terminal”, “Outcast”, “The Green Mile”, “Saving Private Ryan” and many others, belonged to the Catholic society in the United States and went to Orthodoxy already in adulthood, thanks to second wife Rita Wilson. Rita’s ancestors – Bulgarians and Greeks who moved to America – arranged to pass on to her the wealth of the Orthodox faith, which she, in turn, shared with her husband.
Tom received Orthodox baptism in the Greek Church. In his own words, he is married and his children are also baptized in Orthodoxy. The Hanks family attends an Orthodox church in Los Angeles, and the actor himself is its active guardian.
Tom himself told about his religious way: “When you choose your life that you need to get married and have children, it is important at this step to decide on the spiritual heritage of your future family.”
Hanks remarks that “it is essential and wonderful to be able to go to church and reflect on the important questions that Orthodoxy asks you and the answers it offers.”
Milla Jovovich
Another celebrity Mila Jovovich was born in Kyiv back in the days when Ukraine was part of the vast and united USSR.
Being in the USA, Mila remembered her roots and not only visited the church herself but also led her family to faith. In 2015, the second child of the popular actress Dashiel, with the Christian name Daria, was baptized at the Transfiguration Orthodox Church in Los Angeles.
The Transfiguration Church of Los Angeles, in which Archpriest Alexander Lebedev is rector, belongs to the Western American Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church.
James Belushi
James Belushi, remembered by many Russian boys for the role of the charismatic detective with the dog Michael Dooley in the K-9 series of films, regularly visits one of the churches of the Albanian Orthodox Diocese of America, the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The kids of James were baptized by the vicar of this diocese, Elijah.
A descendant of Albanian émigrés, Belushi is deeply rooted in the Orthodox tradition. Once, while on holiday, Belushi and his family even attended the current Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.
Chris pratt
Actor Chris Pratt and his wife Anna Faris, having experienced a truly frightening situation, also spoke openly about their faith. It happened in 2012 when their son was born prematurely and fell into a coma. However, he miraculously came to his senses and in 2014 the Guardians of the Galaxy star publicly stated in an interview with People that the experience “gave the new meaning” to his belief in God.
Their son Jack was born in August 2012, the birth came 9 weeks ahead of schedule and the worried parents felt helpless. “We’ve had fear for a long time. We prayed a lot, ”Pratt admitted. Parents prayed, and little Jack spent a month in the intensive care unit.
“It restored my faith in God, not that it needed to be restored, but it took on a new meaning,” the actor continued. “For us, the child was so beautiful, now I look at his photographs taken then, and I think that it was not easy for people to come and look at him, but for us, he was so beautiful, just perfect.”
