Chris Pratt is on the latest cover of Men’s Health and wherever Pratt goes, there must also go a conversation about his faith. This one took a bit of an unexpected turn, with Pratt declaring that he is “not a religious person.” That appeared to send a few fans and pop culture outlets into an existential crisis, given Pratt’s propensity for talking about being a Christian.
“Religion has been oppressive as f*** for a long time,” he said in the lengthy profile. “I didn’t know that I would kind of become the face of religion when really I’m not a religious person.”
Of course, if you dig into the piece a little further, Pratt makes it clear that he does believe in God — he just rejects the “religious” label, as many Christians do. As he puts it: “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.”
For several years now, Pratt has suffered from some guilt-by-association energy to the Hillsong Church scandals, thanks to a tweet from actor Elliot Page blasting him for the church’s opposition to same-sex marriage. However, as Pratt says in the interview (and as we at RELEVANT noted at the time), he has never actually attended a Hillsong church. “I never went to Hillsong. I’ve never actually been to Hillsong. I don’t know anyone from that church.”
Pratt and his family actually attend Zoe, pastored by Chad Veach. Zoe’s stance on LGBTQ issues is a little elusive, but Pratt himself has said he supports the LGBTQ community. The reporter spoke with some of Pratt’s past colleagues like Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn, who has stood by Pratt throughout some of the online pile-ons. “It absolutely infuriates me,” Gunn said. Chris is unspeakably kind to people; he goes out of his way to help kids. He’s an especially loving father. And there’s a lot of stuff that people have literally just made up about him—about his politics, about who he is, about what he believes of other people, you know?”
Pratt’s had a busy summer, starring in Jurassic Park: Dominion and clocking some MCU duty as Peter Quill for Thor: Love and Thunder. Next up, Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 and a new series for Prime Video called The Terminal List, in which he’ll depart from his aw-shucks goofball routine to try his hand at a psychological thriller.
