Brad Pitt Discusses His Christian Upbringing in New ‘GQ’

By Maggie from Palm Springs, United States (Brad Pitt) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
By Maggie from Palm Springs, United States (Brad Pitt) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Brad Pitt discusses how his religious upbringing led him to becoming an atheist.

Brad Pitt is unhesitatingly open about his lack of belief in God. Pitt has revealed more about his Baptist childhood in the latest issue of GQ magazine.

Brad Pitt Discusses His Christian Upbringing in New ‘GQ'[/tweetthis]
Raised as a Baptist and now an atheist, Pitt describes his upbringing as too religious. Pitt revealed that his father represented everything that “Christian guilt” meant, which means focusing heavily on sin and seeking pardon from God for not being a perfect Christian. For Brad Pitt, it was his strict religious upbringing that drove him to become an atheist.[/tweetit]

Pitt insists that his Southern Baptist father had a very soft side to him. However, because he followed the principle that everyone should look out for his own, he made sure that his children too were trained to be tough enough to face challenges by themselves. He also said that his father did not impose such rules on his daughters because he believed that they were less likely to do something wrong.

Pitt revealed in the interview that his family was First Baptist. First Baptists stress on a more rigid adherence to Biblical rules. When he reached high school, his friends had begun getting into charismatic Christian prayer groups, which were less conventional but more spiritually inclined. However, this form of religious practice did not appeal to him either because he felt there was no truth in things such as “speaking in tongues” that were often a part of these prayer meetings.

And yet, Pitt’s ex-wife, Angelina Jolie has always been a believer in the existence of a higher power. She has been reported as having said that there is something greater, a higher existence that is responsible for bringing all of us together. She added it is on this higher existence we should draw strength from in times of adversity so that we can rise above them gracefully.

Resources

Follow the Conversation on Twitter