Actor Chris Pratt said that he “wouldn’t change a thing” about his 2018 MTV Speech in which he told audiences that God loves them and stressed the importance of prayer.
In a recent Instagram post, the “Jurassic Park” actor reflected on his speech after accepting the Generation Award at the MTV Movie & TV Awards. In the speech, he outlined several pieces of advice for his audience, much of it infused with biblical wisdom.
“I was given three minutes to impart wisdom to the next generation,” he shared. “Given the chance to do it again, I wouldn’t change a thing. Except maybe I wouldn’t try to eat the popcorn backstage,” the actor captioned a video of the event.”
The advice included: “You have a soul, be careful with it. God is real. God loves you. God wants the best for you; believe that I do. Learn to pray. It’s easy, and it is so good for your soul. Grace is a gift. Like the freedom we enjoy in this country, that grace was paid for with somebody else’s blood. Do not forget that. Don’t take that for granted.”
“God bless you,” the actor concluded his speech, drawing cheers and applause from the audience. The 43-year-old actor, who recently welcomed his second child with his second wife, Katherine Schwarzenegger, has been open about his Christian beliefs and how they have guided him throughout his life. Pratt and his family attend Zoe Church, pastored by Chad Veach.
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Pratt told Esquire magazine in 2014 that he was introduced to religion as a rebellious teenager in Maui, Hawaii, by a stranger. “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,'” Pratt said.
“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.”
He also shared how his faith sustained him when, during his first marriage with Anna Faris, their son, Jack, was born five months premature and with significant health issues. “We were scared for a long time. We prayed a lot,” he told People magazine. “It restored my faith in God, not that it needed to be restored, but it really redefined it.”
Pratt’s boldness hasn’t come without a cost. In 2019, actress Ellen Page, who now identifies as Elliot Page, claimed in a tweet that Pratt’s Church was “infamously anti-LGBTQ.”
Pratt later denied the allegation in an Instagram story: “It has recently been suggested that I belong to a church which ‘hates a certain group of people’ and is ‘infamously anti-LGBTQ.’ Nothing could be further from the truth.”
In an interview with Men’s Health, he also clarified that while he loves God, he takes issue with how people have misused religion for evil purposes.
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