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So About Chris Pratt's Bullsh*t Response to Ellen Page

By Mike Redmond | Celebrity | February 12, 2019 |

By Mike Redmond | Celebrity | February 12, 2019 |

chris-pratt-passengers.jpg

Thanks to the fact that he’s been called out by a celebrity, Chris Pratt has finally responded to Ellen Page’s correct statement that he attends an “infamously anti-LGBTQ” church. It probably didn’t hurt that Page dipped back over the weekend to make it clear she’s not playing around when it comes to actors being complicit in the spreading of hateful beliefs that leave dead children in its wake.

To the surprise of no one, Pratt’s response failed to address the core of Page’s criticism, and instead, opted for a bunch of vague, flowerly nonsense about love that not only reads like an inspirational quote on Facebook, it practically is one.

Look at this shit.

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What Pratt doesn’t seem to understand is that, of course, an organization that demands 10 percent of your income is going to be accommodating AF to a rich, Hollywood actor who is clearly all kinds of gullible. If you can’t spot the mark, you’re the mark. It’s also supremely f*cked up to suggest that divorce carries anywhere near the societal stigma of being LGBTQ. That said, has Pratt witnessed his church welcome all kinds of members regardless of their sexual orientation? Absolutely. The problem isn’t letting them in the door (and taking their money). The problem is how you view them as a human being, which is not so much.

From a GQ profile on Hillsong:

Pastor Carl doesn’t like that he’s considered a bigot simply because he doesn’t share the views you tend to find in blue-state big cities—that you can be gay, you can abort your fetus, you can do whatever you’d like with your body, really. He’s happy to discuss about it, but he doesn’t like being challenged on this by people who don’t believe in the God of the Bible, because how could they possibly understand why he’s reached these conclusions if you’re not starting from the same place? He says that if he could just show a person how to walk with Jesus, really walk with him every day, it would be easy to resist the temptation of loving someone of your own gender. But, Carl begs me, don’t miss the point: It’s important to him that we know that everyone is welcome at his church—that homosexuality isn’t a different kind of sin to him than, say, tithing at 9 percent instead of 10 percent, or gossiping or telling a lie. Everyone should feel welcome at Hillsong.

And everyone is, but with footnotes. Earlier in the year it came out that a male leader of the New York choir was in a committed Christian relationship with a male singer in the choir. Whether or not this was an open secret within the church is not completely clear, but when it came out publicly, Joel’s father, Pastor Brian, was forced to clarify out loud that, yes, the church is against two men in a relationship.

“These two men in particular are amazing human beings,” Carl continued, and he starts to cry at this, at how painful this was for everyone involved. He is an easy crier, and the memories are hard for him. “And they are going through a really amazing journey called life. Yes, their sexuality is involved with it, but it’s not as cut-and-dry as you think it is. And if they make a decision to live as gay men, they are going to get married, our stance in this church is there’s going to be a limited involvement when it comes to leadership, because you don’t believe what I believe. This would create friction that wouldn’t be fair to the people that we’re serving. If you believe that homosexuality is God’s will for your life, and I disagree, well, what if you’re a leader and, you know, a young man comes up to you, and he has questions about his sexuality? What are you going to tell him? What I believe or what you believe?”

Hello, that’s out-and-out homophobia, and it makes people kill themselves because you’re literally telling them that they were made wrong, and nothing can fix them outside of lying about the very fiber of their being for the rest of their lives. Super welcoming stuff, right?

So Chris Pratt can say that he “believes everyone is entitled to love who they want free from the judgment of their fellow man,” but when he pours his money into the coffers of a church that preaches otherwise, that’s called hypocrisy. It also doesn’t help that the sentence directly before those words is aimed at Page and adds an entirely different context: “We need less hate in this world, not more.” Because apparently real hate is asking, “Hey, why are you bankrolling bigotry?” and not, oh I dunno, the goddamn bigotry.

Source: Vulture