Brad Pitt - who I've had a crush on forever - has caught a great deal of flack about some recent comments about his former marriage to Jennifer Aniston. But the actor has much more to say about religion and same sex marriage in a new Parade interview. I'm sure Pitt's views will cause hyperventilation and flying spittle among the Christianist and professional Christian set, but what he says is 100% true. Hopefully, more will come to agree with Pitt's reasoning. Here are some highlights, the first dealing with same sex marriage:"Can you believe that we’re still fighting for equality in America? To be against marriage for everyone is utter discrimination. I feel strongly about that because if equality of marriage doesn’t happen now, the next generation will have to deal with it.
“It is an amazing thing that New York has finally gotten same-sex marriage. But the real problem is that the federal government hides behind states on this issue. It is blatant, ugly bigotry, and the federal government shouldn’t be doing that. You’re denying some Americans the right that all Americans have, to live their lives as they choose.
"What are you so afraid of? That’s my question. Gay people getting married? What is so scary about that? It’s complicated. You grow up in a religion like that and you try to pray the gay away. I feel sadness for people like that. This is where people start short-circuiting—instead of being brave and questioning their beliefs, they are afraid and feel that they have to defend them. I don’t mind a world with religion in it. There are some beautiful tenets within all religions. What I get hot about is when they start dictating how other people must live. People suffer because of it. They are spreading misery."
He also has some spot on views on religion in general and seems to have made a spiritual journey that it took me longer to embark upon. Here are snippets of those statements:
There’s a point where you’re un-tethered from the beliefs of your childhood. That point came for me when it was finally clear my religion didn’t work for me. I had questions about Christianity that I could not get answered to my satisfaction, questions that I’d been asking since I was in kindergarten. I realized it didn’t feel right to me, that one question just led to another. It was like going down a rabbit hole, each answer provoking another question. There were things I didn’t agree with.
“My religion was telling me what not to do—what not to even think about doing. Those are the things I would try, because that was my nature. I had to experience things to know what would work for me . . . . You say that something is wrong for me to do? Well, I know it’s not wrong because I just did it. Then you say something else is also wrong? Yeah, I did that too, and you’re right, it is wrong for me. But it wasn’t wrong just because you told me it was.”
Brad is definitely much more than just a pretty face. And, unlike so many Christianists, he puts his money where his mouth is in terms of true charitable works.
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