5 film stars you (probably) didn't know are Christians

1.       Hugh Jackman

Speaking to Parade magazine, the Australian film star confirmed, ‘I'm a Christian’, adding ‘I used to go to different evangelists' [revival] tents all the time. When I was about 13, I had a weird premonition that I was going to be onstage, like the preachers I saw’. Drawing a comparison with Christian runner Eric Liddell who said ‘when I run I feel His pleasure’, Jackman said ‘I feel that pleasure when I act and it’s going well, particularly onstage...Before I go onstage every night, I pause and dedicate the performance to God, in the sense of ‘Allow me to surrender.’ Jackman will play St Paul in a film about the Apostle’s life, expected to be released in 2017.

2.       Mark Wahlberg

The star of Shooter and The Perfect Storm spent much of his youth in trouble with the police. He was arrested for assault and battery and spent time in prison. Today the 44 year old Catholic credits his faith with helping him get back on the straight and narrow: ‘Being a Catholic is the most important aspect of my life. The first thing I do when I start my day is, I get down on my hands and knees and give thanks to God… I pray to be a good servant to God, a father, a husband, a son, a friend, a brother and uncle, a good neighbour, a good leader to those who look up to me and a good follower to those that are serving God and doing the right thing.’

3.       Pierce Brosnan

It was Pierce Brosnan’s faith that sustained him when he lost his wife of 17 years to cancer. ‘[Prayer] helped me with the loss of my wife to cancer and with a child who had fallen on tough times. Now prayer helps me to be a father, to be an actor and to be a man,’ he said. Brosnan also admits his faith is, for him, a private matter. ‘I don’t preach it, but it’s a faith that is a comfort to me when the night is long’.

4.       Megan Fox

Having been raised in a Pentecostal church, seeing miracles and speaking in tongues is normal for Megan Fox. She once told Esquire, ‘I have seen magical, crazy things happen…I've seen people be healed. Even now, in the church I go to, during Praise and Worship I could feel that I was maybe getting ready to speak in tongues, and I'd have to shut it off because I don't know what that church would do if I started screaming out in tongues in the back.’ The actress cares about Christian unity and says she’s been ‘repulsed’ at how divisive denominations can be toward each other ‘despite their obvious commonalities’.  Fox says the church she now attends ‘does not close its doors to anyone’.  

5.       Denzel Washington

The star of Training Day and Flight currently attends the West Angeles Church of God in Christ. His father was a Pentecostal minister, but Denzel’s faith is very much his own. He once said ‘I believe that Jesus is the Son of God. I’ve been filled with the Holy Spirit. I know it’s real…The fundamental message is in the Bible, which I’ve read three times from front to back… If you don’t practice love, you’re missing the point.’

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