Metro Voice News Celebrating Faith, Family & Community
Hollywood is an often-overlooked mission field where a Christian can have a powerful impact on the culture.
One actor who is outspoken about his faith is John Rys-Davies, who portrayed Gimli in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy and the Indiana Jones’ sidekick Sallah . The British actor, who returned last year as a voice actor in the animated version of “Pilgrim’s Progress,” urged people to view Christianity as a force for good in the world.
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“I count myself a rationalist and a skeptic, and I find myself constantly defending Christians and Christianity,” Rhys-Davies said while on the red carpet at the 28th annual Movieguide Awards. “We seem to forget that Christian civilization has made the world a better place than it ever was.”
Rhys-Davies referenced the abolition of the slave trade as one of Christianity’s great accomplishments, along with championing the rights of free speech and individual conscience.
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“These evolved in first- and second-century Roman Christendom, where the individual Christian said, ‘I have a right to believe what I believe and not what the Emperor tells me,’” he said. “From that our whole idea of democracy and the equality that we have has developed. We owe Christianity the greatest debt of thanks that a generation can ever have, and to slight it and to dismiss it as being irrelevant is the detritus of rather ill-read minds, I think.”
An interview with John Rys-Davies
Rys-Davies suffered severe reactions to the prosthetics used during filming of The Lord of the Rings, and his eyes sometimes swelled shut.
For Rhys-Davies, a Christian in Hollywood means appearing in good movies. He makes his return to faith-based entertainment as the lead in the upcoming movie about the life of Ireland’s patron saint, Patrick.
“I Am Patrick” will be in theaters for two days only, March 17-18, 2020 with tickets available from Fathom Events.
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice
