Alleged Christian Chris Pratt has claimed he’s actually not religious and said he was never part of Hillsong in a new interview.
Basically Chris Pratt had a cover interview in Men’s Health magazine where he, in essence, tried to get people to like him as much as they did when he was in Parks and Rec.
Men’s Health reflects on Pratt’s rep as “the Worst Chris”, a moniker given to him on social media which essentially names him as the worst famous white man called Chris. I’m talking Hemsworth, Pine and Evans as his competition.
According to Pratt, he reckons the reason why there’s been so much backlash to him is partly thanks to a speech he gave in 2018 at the MTV Movie & TV Awards.
Pratt said he was told to say something inspiring.
“God is real. God loves you. God wants the best for you,” he famously said. Pretty religious if you ask me.
Now, Pratt’s kind of walked back those statements.
“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 told Men’s Health.
“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.”
Pretty harsh words for someone who’s basically the poster boy of evangelical Christianity in Hollywood.
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Pratt is religious though — I mean who can forget *that* picture of his wife that sent the internet into a fucking shitstorm for weeks.
“Look how she’s looking at me! I mean. Find you somebody that looks at you like that!! You know!? We met in church,” he wrote.
“She’s given me an amazing life, a gorgeous healthy daughter, she chews so loudly that sometimes i put in my ear buds to drown it out, but that’s love!
“She helps me with everything. In return, periodically, I open a jar of pickles. That’s the trade. Her heart is pure and it belongs to me. My greatest treasure right next to my Ken Griffey Jr Upper Deck Rookie card.”
It copped loads of flack online for coming off as possessive and disrespectful. After it got roasted, Pratt responded with a video.
“I knew that if I put on my Christian music playlist and I got out in the woods and ran, that I’d feel better. But I just didn’t want to,” he said, per CBN.
But he did, in fact, put on that Christian playlist and run.
“It felt amazing,” he said.
“God sat there right next to me.”
So it kind of makes sense that Pratt has become, in his words, the “face of religion”.
Pratt brought up the backlash he received to the post, particularly a comment he made in it about his wife “[giving] him a beautiful, healthy daughter”. That comment was widely criticised because he and his ex-wife Anna Faris‘ son Jack was born premature.
“I’m like, ‘That is fucked up’. My son’s gonna read that one day. He’s nine. And it’s etched in digital stone,” Pratt said.
“It really fucking bothered me, dude. I cried about it. I was like, I hate that these blessings in my life are—to the people close to me—a real burden.”
He also confirmed to Men’s Health he’s “never actually been to Hillsong” and doesn’t know anyone from the church. Scott Morrison has been found absolutely shaking.
Chris Pratt does attend Zoe Church though. Its pastor is Chad Veach and as pointed out by Forbes, Veach told The New York Times he modelled Zoe Church after Hillsong.
Interesting, very interesting.
In short: the whole interview is a wild ride. And whether Pratt considers himself religious or not, his personal brand is ultimately really connected to evangelical Christianity. As much as he can try to rebrand, that big Insta post of a cross is pretty hard to argue with.
Author’s Note: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported Chris Pratt starred in The Office— he actually starred in Parks & Recreation.
