It’s been a rough week for Chris Pratt.
During a recent interview with Stephen Colbert, the Passengers star boasted about being a member of the vehemently antigay Hillsong Church. His remarks caused quite a stir in the media, and prompted actress Ellen Page to call out Pratt not once but twice on Twitter for affiliating with what many consider to be a hate group.
Related: Ellen Page isn’t finished yet, slams Chris Pratt over antigay church in yet another tweet
It took almost a week, but Pratt finally responded to the scandal yesterday. In a post to his Instagram story, he flat out denied his church is homophobic and insisted he’s never witnessed any discrimination happen there.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
“I go to a church that opens their doors to absolutely everyone,” he wrote. “Despite what the Bible says about divorce my church community was there for me every step of the way, never judging, just gracefully accompanying me on my walk.”
“They helped me tremendously offering love and support. It is what I have seen them do for others on countless occasions regardless of sexual orientation, race or gender.”
Unfortunately for Pratt, his defense of the church wasn’t received well on Twitter…
The fact that Chris Pratt's church refers to being gay as a "lifestyle" should be your red flag.Thats christianese for "being gay isn't real, this is just a phase, and we plan to pray it out of you so come on in and let us gaslight you until you hate yourself enough to give us $"
— No Hoots Left to Give (@sweaterzzz) February 12, 2019
less coverage of chris pratt and more coverage of the woman who escaped his religious psychoticness… Anna Faris ??
— homosexuals 4 harris (@90sbaebe) February 12, 2019
Who's gonna tell Chris Pratt Jesus said more about divorce than being gay?
— Jon Cozart (@joncozart) February 10, 2019
Marvel firing James Gunn for his stupid tweets when he was younger despite his full apology but keeping Chris Pratt despite him funnelling money into his gay conversion therapy church is a bit iffy
— adam (@RummHammm) February 12, 2019
Chris Pratt trying to get through to the gays. pic.twitter.com/rCA5CFOoaQ
— Bebe Sharque (@TheLuisFernando) February 11, 2019
But it doesn’t stop there…
referring to Chris Pratt as "the star of 'Passengers'" is frankly what he deserves
— JuanPa (@jpbrammer) February 11, 2019
I just Chris Pratt's response to Ellen Page and BOY its ugly. He constantly says his church is "no judgement." That implies that being gay is something wrong that they overlook. I've heard it before, along with "hate the sin love the sinner" I AM THE SIN. The sin is my existence.
— more like Valid-Cryins Dais (@thegoodolddais) February 12, 2019
ellen page: hey chris, you go to this church that is known for not being accepting of the lgbt community so maybe address that
chris pratt: b-but 🙁 this church was understanding when i, a straight man, divorced my straight wife 🙁 why are u attacking me 🙁— paul rudd (@philsadelphia) February 12, 2019
chris pratt: my church isn’t racist or homophobic because it accepted me, a PoD (Person of Divorce).
— alanna (@finnsspilot) February 12, 2019
“chris pratt is not his church!”
anything to defend your white male fav, huh? his church does conversion therapy. if he’s a part of this church, he supports it. it’s that simple. and if he didn’t know anything about it, he’s just ignorant af and should leave. but did he? nope. pic.twitter.com/hqcwmlkmBy
— kaz. (@galensdeathstar) February 11, 2019
In addition to its fierce opposition to all things LGBTQ, Hillsong Church founder Brian Houston is currently under investigation for covering up sexual crimes committed by his father, Frank Houston.
Not only that, but the church has also come under fire for misappropriation of funds, abusive church leadership, and connections to fraudulent faith healer Michael Guglielmucci.
Related: Chris Pratt calls for “less hate” as he defends his homophobic church
Chrisk
So he goes on national television boasting about his affiliation with a very anti gay church. His response to Page was their not discriminatory because he hasn’t seen it. Brought up that he was divorced and they still took him in. Hint to Pratt. Not one time in history has any church discriminated against a divorcee.
LuckyCelt777
To be fair, the Roman Catholic church had a problem with it. Kinda the reason the Church of England exists under Henry the 8th.
uberhund
Actually the Catholic Church still won’t allow divorcees to remarry, or even grant a divorce, and many conservative Christian churches take a similar line. Most other Christian sects thought pretty much the same until about 30 years ago when they realised that they would lose too many people if they kept up their firm anti-divorce stance. So Pratt is understandably grateful to be in a church that was nice about his divorce (hey, he’s a celebrity and they’re glad to have him), but is still, at best, shockingly naive about its other works.
ModeI
Not only that, but the church has also come under fire for misappropriation of funds, abusive church leadership, and connections to fraudulent faith healer Michael Guglielmucci.
crowebobby
That’s it, Chris. You’ve lost your chance at this hot 82-year-old bod!!!
PinkoOfTheGange
Didn’t Pratt follow a lot of Hillsong’s LA congregation to Zoe?
BTW At no point does Pratt name any church or refer to who his pastor is during the interview.
iamru2
Whats with the obsession over this guy jeesh there are far worse people and injustices people could be going after.
Hussain-TheCanadian
Honestly, the way many people are responding to this story is extremely unwise. The man is an actor, not a politician, or an ultra-rich business man, he didn’t attack our community, and this “guilty by association” nonsense isnt a way to deal with this topic either, nor is it a good way to deal with an ally.
DumpTrump
This kind of reminds me of the Golden Girls episode where Dorothy’s author-friend, Barbara, was going to take everyone out to the Mortimer Club for dinner. When it was revealed Sophia wanted to bring her friend (Gutzman?), Barbara took Dorothy into the kitchen and said he couldn’t go because the club didn’t allow Jews. Dorothy asked Barbara why she would ever belong to a restrictive club like that and Barbara replied something along the lines that she didn’t make the rules and they serve a great meal.
nitejonboy
Gutman…I remember that episode like it was yesterday..
Apolodorus
Yes! I remember that one 🙂
piriblue
I like Mr. Pratt in his movies. His personal beliefs are none of my business. Yes I am gay. I see so many homosexuals discriminate against one another. They carry on about drag queens, they carry on about fem queens. They dislike black queens or something or other. Hate against Asian gays. Why don’t we concentrate on fixing ourselves instead on going attacking people who complete are at a loss understanding how we feel. We just go and attack our own people and think nothing of it. Let us clean our own houses before we decide to clean the neighbors house. Some people just don’t get it.
Apolodorus
We can do both. It’s called multi tasking ?.
PanzerRider
Yet another situation which reminds us how damn good we have it in the United States. We have the time, resources, and ability to complain that some random actor, an actor 99.99% of us has no type of personal interaction with, is attending the wrong type of church. God how I love First World problems.
Geeker
I knew there was a problem when it came out that Amy Poehler thought he was an asshole.
Prax07
We should ignore guilt by association? Have you not read the other articles queerty has published saying the exact opposite about other people? He is guilty by association, just as he’s apparently guilty by not doing any actual research on his hate group church. All he had to do was google it. He’s pretty, that shouldn’t get him any sort if pass in this day and age.
pavel20
This is my issue with Mr. Pratt. If you want to go to an anti-LGBTQ church then man up and own it. Don’t try to defend yourself by putting out statements that are entirely untrue about your church being open and inclusive. His church like any other Evangelical Church will never accept someone who is LGBTQ, who does not believe it is sinful and has no desire to change who they are, even if that were possible. You will never be fully accepted in that church community.
The reason you’re all seeing some passionate responses to this issue is that there are many of us that lived through the hell (pun intended) of coming to a realization of being LGBTQ in this kind of environment and are still recovering from the damage done to us. I don’t respond to many things on this site, but I can’t be silent and abide this man’s lying. No more people, who are struggling with their sexual identity or who are solid in who they are and want to find a place where they can worship God, need to be drawn into churches like this with false claims of acceptance. Too many people have been deeply hurt already.
moonie
What a lot of sad Queens defending Chris Pratt because they think he is hot. Let’s just hope he won’t be homophobic and bash your face in when he sees you leering over him like a sad bitch.
mvcy89
I’ve had enough of these people creating controversies. Chris Pratt is a Christian, as am I. I can understand Christians being ignorant of the LGBTQ community-they are taught early on to believe the Bible as the authoritative Word of God. I have a problem with people who hate LGBTQ folks because their hearts are full of hate. Ellen Page should go after them.
Xzamilloh
OR… Ellen Page can keep doing what she’s doing and you can live in your own denial about what being a part of a religion rooted in anti-gay bigotry means for you, a self-proclaimed Christian. You can understand the ignorance? Good for you. I understand it as well, and it’s still messed up and wrong and deserves to be called out. Passive homophobia just less hurtful, but hurtful still the same.
sydboy007
Had anyone asked ilham Omar or Rashida Tlaib on their mosques view of the LGBT diaspora? Probably less favourable than their views on Jewish people.