Chris Pratt’s Countercultural Message: Faith Matters More Than Fame
(ANALYSIS) Superstar Chris Pratt was enduring a messy, painful time in his life when he was selected to receive MTV's 2018 Generation Award, saluting his impact on popular culture.
Pratt decided to take a leap of faith during his on-camera remarks.
“I’m going to say to this young generation the things that I want to say," he said, in a recent appearance on the “Not Dead Yet” podcast co-hosted by former U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse and political analyst Chris Stirewalt. “God has saved me multiple times. I'm gonna put my money where my mouth is and stand on this stage and say this to these folks. And so, I did it.”
The star of “Guardians of the Galaxy,” the “Jurassic Park” reboot movies and myriad blockbusters — grossing more than $14 billion globally — outed himself as a Christian. His advice included, for example, “Learn to pray. It’s easy, and it’s so good for your soul” and “God is real. God loves you. God wants the best for you. Believe that. I do.”
This immediately fueled speculation about how his faith would affect his cultural clout. Then, in 2020, Pratt started Indivisible Productions, with a nod to the phrase “one nation under God, indivisible” in the Pledge of Allegiance. The company’s mission is to “create entertaining content, focusing on themes which will help to bridge the growing divide in our country and world.”
Pratt said it's hard to look at American life right now without feeling worried and grateful at the same time.
“I’ve got to be careful about this because I love America,” he said. “I believe in God's providence that, you know, we have something really extraordinary here. And I love Hollywood as well. I love movies.”
However, he added: “As human beings, our hearts are designed in such a way that we have a spot reserved in them to be in awe of God.”
Truth is, he added: “I work in a business where we create idols. And we worship them. And no one is worthy of worship. And so not only do we create idols to worship, we create idols to burn. ... It's not an indictment on the system that they would look at me and say, 'You know what, he said this, so let's burn him.’”
Pratt said he agreed to do the podcast because of his admiration of how Sasse has handled public life after the former U.S. senator, just before Christmas, announced on X: “I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die.”
During the hour-plus podcast, Sasse and Stirewalt asked Pratt to describe his journey from a gritty blue-collar background to his life as an A-list actor who can deliver box-office success. In particular, Sasse asked if it was hard raising children while surrounded with the glitter and stress of Hollywood.
“First of all, it's completely God,” said Pratt. “It’s 100%, the answer is ‘Jesus.’ I promise you that.” He also noted that his wife, Katherine, is the daughter of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, part of the extended Kennedy family. Together, Pratt said, they have plenty of hard-earned experience surviving in hot spotlights.
If Hollywood culture teaches anything, said Pratt, it demonstrates that there is more to life than success, power and money.
“Look how many people ... drank themselves to death or have been estranged from their children or had met tragic ends or have lost their minds,” he said. “All of them, dude. ... The truth is, you know, there's a certain brand of hopelessness that exists in people who have it all but still lack joy.”
As for his family goals, Pratt said, the “main thing I can do ... as a dad is just love their mom and just be bold in my belief and in my faith in Jesus. ... I think that's an embarrassing thing for a lot of people, you know. ... I get it. It's kind of nerdy and it's obnoxious and people feel judged and people feel, you know, cringy about it. ... I don't care. I'm going to try not to make it cringy, you know, but it is who I am and it is who I want to be forever.”
COPYRIGHT 2026 ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION
Terry Mattingly is Senior Fellow on Communications and Culture at Saint Constantine College in Houston. He lives in Elizabethton, Tennessee, and writes Rational Sheep, a Substack newsletter on faith and mass media.