Homeless To Hero: How Chris Pratt Became Hollywood’s Leading Christian Voice
Perhaps people are simply surprised to find any celebrity that worships someone other than themselves. Perhaps it’s his almost-too-weird-to-be-true conversion story. For whatever reason, these days Chris Pratt is known almost as much for being a Christian as he is for being a leading Hollywood actor. This fact has caused quite the controversy over the years, but it has also earned Pratt a great deal of respect from some unlikely places.
The 42-year-old father of two is outspoken about his beliefs and what led him to his faith. His story began after dropping out of college and taking a friend’s advice to purchase a one-way ticket to Hawaii.
“It’s a pretty awesome place to be homeless,” he told The Independent of his time living in a van or a tent by the beach. “It would be different if I lived on the streets of Chicago and ate garbage from a dumpster. We just drank and smoked weed and worked minimal hours, 15-20 hours per week, just enough to cover gas, food and fishing supplies.”
Then came the moment that changed his life.
As the “Guardians of the Galaxy” star recounted to Esquire in 2014, “This guy came by and was like, ‘What are you doing tonight?’ I was like, ‘Oh, I dunno…’ So he’s like, ‘Will you fornicate tonight?’ I was like, ‘I hope so.’ ‘And drugs and drinking?’ It’s like, ‘Most likely, yeah. Probably all three of those things. I mean, at least two of them, possibly all three.’”
The encounter happened in a Safeway parking lot in Maui. The man speaking to him was a roadside evangelist affiliated with a group called Jews for Jesus, an organization focused on converting those of the Jewish faith to Christianity. Pratt was raised Lutheran, but the man felt called to speak with him.
“He was like, ‘I stopped because Jesus told me to stop and talk to you. He said to tell you you’re destined for great things.’ My friends came out, and I was like, ‘Hey, I’m gonna go with this guy.’ I gave my soul to Jesus within, like, two days. I was stuffing envelopes for his organization, Jews for Jesus,” Pratt recalled.
It wasn’t long after that Pratt was discovered by a director while waiting tables at the chain restaurant Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. Whether the chance interaction was by coincidence or divine intervention, he achieved fame and fortune soon after devoting his life to Jesus. Either way, his success helped affirm Pratt’s conviction that he was on the right path.
The actor’s faith has come up on multiple occasions over the years. He married actress Anna Faris in 2009, but the pair divorced eight years later. A source told Page Six that the couple was “very competitive with each other” and claimed that “at parties they [would] compete over who [was] funniest and get insecure if they [were] not.”
More importantly, Faris reportedly didn’t share Pratt’s fire for the faith. “When he started getting big roles and losing weight, she wasn’t the big star anymore,” the source told the publication. “He’s also very, very religious, and she’s not religious.”
It wasn’t a real surprise that the “Jurassic World” star met his second wife, Katherine Schwarzenegger, while attending church. Pratt is a member of Zoe Church in Los Angeles. Headed by popular pastor Chad Veach, the congregation is composed largely of a younger audience.
The actor’s faith journey came under scrutiny when he shared a faith-filled message about his wife which some on social media saw as a diss to his first son, whom he shares with Faris.
“Guys. For real. Look how she’s looking at me! I mean. Find you somebody that looks at you like that!! You know!? We met in church. She’s given me an amazing life, a gorgeous healthy daughter, she chews so loudly that sometimes I put in my earbuds to drown it out, but that’s love!” he wrote in an Instagram post lauding Schwarzenegger and their new baby, Lyla.
The “Avengers” leading man faced immediate backlash for describing his daughter as “healthy,” considering his son, Jack, was born prematurely with medical conditions.
After Jack’s arrival, Pratt had said that his son’s difficult birth and extra needs had renewed his faith in God.
“We were scared for a long time. We prayed a lot,” Pratt said. “It restored my faith in God, not that it needed to be restored, but it really redefined it.”
As for the controversy that followed the “healthy daughter” comment, the actor turned, once again, to Jesus to sort things out.
“I went to bed last night really kind of upset and depressed,” Pratt said in an Instagram story after the headlines blew up, MSN reported. “And I woke up feeling crappy and I didn’t want to work out.”
“I knew though that if I put on my Christian music playlist, and I got out of the woods and ran that I’d feel better, but I just didn’t want to,” he continued. “And I did it anyways and, gosh, was I right. It felt amazing. I got out of the woods, got my blood pumping.”
Pratt went on to explain that listening to Christian music helped him find peace.
“That moment, it really captured me and so I just want to say, all glory to God,” Pratt said. “Get some exercise, maybe listen to some good worship music or maybe get the word in because it really helped me this morning,” he concluded.
Somehow, Pratt has managed to remain neutral on politics, despite being married to the oldest daughter of former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, the niece of President John F. Kennedy. It’s understood that the “Zero Dark Thirty” star probably leans more to the right and identifies more with conservative values. He doesn’t address politics directly, but he does drop hints.
“I don’t see personal stories that necessarily resonate with me, because they’re not my stories,” Pratt told Men’s Fitness in 2017, according to People. “I think there’s room for me to tell mine, and probably an audience that would be hungry for them. The voice of the average, blue-collar American isn’t necessarily represented in Hollywood.”
“I really feel there’s common ground out there that’s missed because we focus on the things that separate us,” he continued. “You’re either the red state or the blue state, the left or the right. Not everything is politics. And maybe that’s something I’d want to help bridge, because I don’t feel represented by either side.”
Perhaps the best indication of how Pratt is perceived in Hollywood is how vehemently his co-stars jumped to his defense in the wake of yet another scandal just ahead of the highly contentious 2020 election. Pratt never publicly indicated support for Trump or Biden, but that didn’t stop followers from making assumptions, especially after he declined an invitation to attend a Biden fundraiser along with other Marvel actors.
After massive social media backlash for what fans took as tacit support for Trump, Pratt’s co-stars jumped to his defense.
“You all, @prattprattpratt is as solid a man there is,” staunch liberal Mark Ruffalo tweeted in reply. “I know him personally, and instead of casting aspersions, look at how he lives his life. He is just not overtly political as a rule.”
“What a world… The ‘sinless’ are casting stones at my brother, Chris Pratt… A real Christian who lives by principle, has never demonstrated anything but positivity and gratitude,” Robert Downey Jr. shared on Instagram.
He continued, “AND he just married into a family that makes space for civil discourse and (just plain fact) INSISTS on service as the highest value.”
Downey Jr. went on to say anyone taking “issue” with Pratt should “delete” their social media accounts. He concluded, “Sit with your OWN defects of character, work on THEM, then celebrate your humanness.”
Could Chris Pratt be the moderate voice of reason Hollywood so desperately needs? At least, for now, he’s able to find a place to worship beyond looking in the mirror.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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