Denzel Washington is the latest in a string of actors to surprise Hollywood by speaking up about his religious beliefs.
“I read the Bible every day, and I read my Daily Word,” Washington told one reporter, adding that his father was a preacher. “He wasn’t a taskmaster, but there were certain things you couldn’t do. He had his own church, and it was a long Sunday, because you had to be there all day.”
“Everyone I grew up with didn’t have a father,” Washington continued. “I had a father. My father was a decent man. He was a very spiritual man and a gentleman.
Washington admits that he began to rebel again Christianity is his teens, when he started to feel that church was becoming more of “a job.” It wasn’t until his twenties that Washington made the decision to welcome religion back into his life.
“The minister was preaching, ‘just let it go,’” Washington recalled. “I said, ‘I’m going to go with it.’ And I had this tremendous physical and spiritual experience. It did frighten me…it almost drove me away. I called my mother and she said I was being filled with the Holy Spirit.”
Washington continued to discuss his own thoughts about following his father’s footsteps.
“A part of me still says, ‘Maybe, Denzel, you’re supposed to preach.’ Maybe you’re still compromising,” Washington told reporters, before wrapping his interview with this advice. “Put your slippers way under your bed so when you get up in the morning, you have to get on your knees to find them. And while you’re down there, start your day with prayer. Ask for wisdom. Ask for understanding.”
