Today in shade: Actress Ellen Page has called out actor Chris Pratt for membership in a church hostile to the LGBTQ community.
The out-gay actress and political activist took to Twitter to vent her frustration after seeing Pratt talk about his church in an interview. While appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Pratt discussed his faith and his attendance at Hillsong Church. The Australian-based congregation, which has expanded into worship centers around North America, has a history of anti-gay positions.
Related: WATCH: Ellen Page confronts antigay preacher outside D.C. protest
“Oh. K. Um. But his church is infamously anti lgbtq so maybe address that too?” Page said in a tweet.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Oh. K. Um. But his church is infamously anti lgbtq so maybe address that too? https://t.co/meg8m69FeF
— Ellen Page (@EllenPage) February 8, 2019
Though Page’s followers praised her for speaking out, at the time of this writing, Pratt has yet to respond.
Founded by Brian Houston, Hillsong Church has faced a number of controversies over the years, including a firm anti-queer stance.
“Hillsong Church welcomes ALL people but does not affirm all lifestyles. We do not affirm a gay lifestyle and because of this we do not knowingly have actively gay people in positions of leadership, either paid or unpaid,” Houston said in a 2015 statement.
Related: Chris Pratt attends an anti-gay church with a history of child molestation and ex-gay therapy
Besides opposition to the LGBTQ community, Houston and Hillsong Church have faced other criticisms over their practices. Houston is currently under investigation in Australia for his role in covering up sexual crimes committed by his father, Frank Houston.
In addition to the family woes, Hillsong Chruch has come under fire for misappropriation of funds, abusive church leadership and connections to fraudulent faith healer Michael Guglielmucci.
Vince
Love Ellen Page. She’s absolutely right. It’s a good question for Pratt since he himself brings it up. Silence is also a statement btw.
Watched her the other night also on Steven Colbert and she really got into it talking about the VP and Dotard. Colbert was speechless for once.
Chrisk
Let’s face it. If you just replaced any other minority with gay Pratt would be falling all over himself apologizing and distancing himself from this church at every opportunity.
Yes he should definitely be commenting on this asap. Remember Chris you can easy be replaced.
gymmuscleboy
@Chrisk To add another angle to your relativist approach: Replace Christianity with Islam and we wouldn’t even be here. If we are concerned about social forces harming our community, people will not even draw the prophet Muhammad, let alone complain that Islam is anti-gay. Are we also calling out Janet Jackson or Dave Chapelle or Dr. Oz for having anti-gay faiths (Islam)?
scotshot
@gymmuscleboy
Off topic. Islam is the driving force in the Middle East and other countries around the world. In America the driving force is christianity. There are hundreds of thousands of christians in America who will gladly throw LGBTQ off a roof. They would like to see medical research and healthcare denied to LGBTQ, housing, adoption, jobs – this list goes on forever. Much of the above is already in effect in America, with other states in line to erase us. Deport us, put us into detention camps, execute us, conversion therapy, assault us, there are parents who have tortured and murdered their children. There are many more plans to rid the world of LGBTQ.
It seems that there are more people to be called out for their anti-gay faiths than islam.
gymmuscleboy
@scotshot Consider the wider context of rapidly shifting demographics across the western world. According to Pew Research, in a “medium migration scenario”, 17% of the UK will be muslim by 2050. Muslims overwhelmingly say that homosexual behaviour is morally wrong while 54% of Christians in 2014 said it should be accepted. So if our western cultural heritage has lead us to break away from religion and continue to win the culture war, but muslims rarely leave Islam (the death penalty for apostasy is popular), which would you say is the bigger threat for our community into the future?
I would prefer to be making these comments on an article criticising Islam on a gay site. Unfortunately our community has yet to see the bigger picture on religion and such articles are rare at best. Well before 2050, the western world will be significantly influenced by Islam, and gay people need to be aware of what that means today, and be prepared to openly criticise it as we do Christianity.
QueerTruth
Thanks Ellen. I’m grateful you had the courage to ask the obvious.
I would also call out other celebrities who belong or have attended the church service. Like:
Justin Bieber.
Bono.
Selena Gomez.
Kim Kardashian.
Kyle Kardashian.
Vanessa Hodgens.
Nick Jonas.
Chrisk
Excellent point
gymmuscleboy
@QueerTruth. OK, and are you going to call out every muslim celebrity too? We live in a global world now and this is a double standard.
JJinAus
Hmm, good point. They are all morons.
Xzamilloh
I’m sorry, what’s the problem? You want a progressive religion? Make one up. Let’s not pretend abrahamic religions aren’t anything other than outdated nonsense full of contradictory morally repugnant sentiments and commandments… that is, what isn’t platitudes that can be found in doctrines that precede it by centuries.
Chrisk
Agreed but Pratt opened himself up to critism by going on national television and identifying himself with this church. It was the perfect opportunity for Page to comment.
Knowing her I’m sure she would totally agree with you and would love to comment on that too.
Billy Budd
The bible is just a tribal book on etiquette, written by people who heard voices in their heads or hallucinated seeing “god”, that has been outdated for centuries. How can people still refer to it on how to behave?
Herman75
So the magic parts aren’t true? Serpent in the tree, and gigantic boulders moving by God’s will?
iamru2
I could give a f*ck what either of these 2 actors think or say f*ck both of them. I bet Ellen chooses who she goes after very carefully though!
Ashke113
Yes by all means let the gays dictate where people should live, eat, drink, walk, talk, shop, sit, drive, fly, shit, piss & pray. Because lord knows we like like nothing better to do than demeaning others and bullying them on literally everything, but hate when it’s done to us……real smart thinking there you idiots. Mind your own business and do your own thing and let others live their lives for once, it’s called free choice……
Chrisk
No one said that he’s not free to do whatever he wants just like others are free to criticize him for it. That’s how freedom works.
This kind of logic is something you conservatives always get effed up..
Ashke113
Never said I was a conservative. Never assume anything you know nothing about
PinkoOfTheGange
Is shining a light on something not good*?
Did she demand he leaves this institution or merely asking why is he there?
Maybe her goal was to get him to institute change within the church to be at least neutral on the tribe.
(*save unexposed photo reactive paper at the wrong time and such)
TobyTaz744
Dude. People are calling homophobic, gay-bashing churches, religions and stars connected to same because LGBTQIA folks are getting attacked and murdered because ALL of the f’d up rhetoric fuels the hate. So yes, Ellen Page and anyone else who stands up gets to do exactly what they’re doing – calling it what it is.
Calin
Thank you Ellen Page
Morrisson
Unfortunately American leftists view society as being composed of many different groups based on perceived levels of victimhood. They place these groups into hierarchies ranking from most powerful to least powerful, and claim more powerful groups exercise power over weaker groups through the medium of systemic or institutional racism. An unintended consequence of identity politics is tribalism, and tribalism leads to cannibalism. Within this imaginary hierarchy, just after the straight white male is the westernised gay. The homosexual is now the most privileged of the remaining groups and also the group requiring the least amount of effort to attack. The amount of effort required is important here; it would require much more effort in terms of blow back and consequences for Ellen to call out a Muslim for throwing a gay off a building in Raqqa, as Muslims come after westernised gays in the social victimhood hierarchy. As the straight white male precedes the western gay within this hierarchy it is safe and requires only a tweet. The part i cant figure out is; as it is now 2019 does Pratts’ belief in an imaginary man upstairs indicate a mental illness and if it does, does the white male with a mental illness now fall into a group further down this hierarchy than the western gay. Has Ellen now victimised an individual over which she possesses more institutional power. I’m confused, i think i will stick to being a liberal.
PinkoOfTheGange
Didn’t we go over this a few weeks ago?
Jack Meoff
The comments section of this website is so full of anti-gay trolls trying to stir discord and other general freaks with bizarre agendas that it has become irrelevant. The moderation on this website is severely lacking.
iamru2
In other words if someone says something you don’t agree with then they are a troll and should be silenced! The smug arrogance and hypocrisy is truly astounding!
truckproductions
Yeah, that man is about as bright as a box of hair.. Such a dumb sh$t… Good for Ellen for calling him out. we need more strong backboned LGBT to point out things like this in public.
gymmuscleboy
@truckproductions Backboned? Criticise Christianity in 2019 and you will have hordes of SJWs applaud you. Tell me when she criticises a muslim for their anti-gay mosque. Until then, she has taken no risk and hardly demonstrated backbone with this.
gymmuscleboy
To Ellen I would say: Islam represents a harm to our community many orders of magnitude greater than Christianity. If you really care about the community, why not use your platform to highlight this far greater threat? Because right now it looks like maybe you are just going after an easy target for attention.
scotshot
We prefer looking at the largest threat face-on. Christianity.
How’s the weather in Moscow?
gymmuscleboy
@scotshot As per my comment above, I would encourage you to become familiar with the 2050 European demographic forecasts by Pew Research. I strongly encourage us to continue criticising Christianity, but in a global world, we must be aware of far greater emerging threats in our own countries. That means we need to also make articles and noise about such threats, and I do not see that happening.
JessPH
Ellen did the right thing. If you claim to support LGBT people but continuously affiliate yourself with a church that opposes LGBT “lifestyle” then you’re a hypocrite. Or perhaps Chris Pratt doesn’t really support LGBT so screw him.