Chris Pratt has a theory for why a lot of people don’t like him

Chris Pratt once again graces the cover of Men’s Health for the magazine’s July/August issue, just as the 43-year-old actor is coming up on the end of an era with the third and final films of both his Jurassic World and Guardians of the Galaxy trilogies wrapping up.

But fame and notoriety go hand-in-hand with backlash, and Pratt has seen his fair share. Particularly after splitting with his ex-wife, the near-universally beloved Anna Faris, with whom he shares a son Jack, the cracks in his public favor began to show. Pratt’s affable, everyman persona took another hit after he remarried Katherine Schwarzenegger, whom he also now shares two children with, and the couple began attending a Los Angeles church associated with the allegedly LGBTQ+ unfriendly Hillsong Church.

All in all, the controversy led the internet to dub Pratt “the worst Chris” in various debates comparing the actor to Chris Hemsworth, Chris Pine, and Chris Evans.

When asked why he thinks fans have been turning on him for the past few years, Pratt recalled a particularly Jesusey speech he gave at the MTV Movie & TV Awards a few years back. “God is real. God loves you. God wants the best for you,” he said at the time. Although he also notes that he did throw something else into the speech about not being “a turd,” Pratt now acknowledges why it may have rubbed some folks the wrong way.

“Maybe it was hubris. For me to stand up on the stage and say the things that I said, I’m not sure I touched anybody. Religion has been oppressive as fuck for a long time. I didn’t know that I would kind of become the face of religion when really I’m not a religious person. I think there’s a distinction between being religious—adhering to the customs created by man, oftentimes appropriating the awe reserved for who I believe is a very real God—and using it to control people, to take money from people, to abuse children, to steal land, to justify hatred. Whatever it is. The evil that’s in the heart of every single man has glommed on to the back of religion and come along for the ride.”

In response to the backlash, Pratt issued a statement. “It has recently been suggested that I belong to a church which ‘hates a certain group of people’ and is ‘infamously anti-LGBTQ.’ Nothing could be further from the truth,” he said at the time. “I am a man who believes that everyone is entitled to love who they want free from the judgment of their fellow man.”

Now, Pratt says that not only has he never been to Hillsong, but he doesn’t even know anyone from the church. When asked why he didn’t simply say so at the time, the Parks and Recreation star had a diplomatic answer.

“‘I’m gonna, like, throw a church under the bus?’ he replies, before reconsidering. ‘If it’s like the Westboro Baptist Church, that’s different.’ No one’s suggesting that. But he could have, ya know, read up on Hillsong. Pratt tells me he attends Zoe Church, but I’m not sure the distinction will satisfy his critics. Zoe, also popular with celebrities like Justin and Hailey Bieber, was founded by pastor Chad Veach. He executive- produced a 2017 film that equated ‘sexual brokenness’ with ‘same-sex attraction.’ Pratt also mentions that he doesn’t go to Zoe exclusively. When it came time for Lyla to be baptized, he and his wife chose a norm-y Catholic church in Santa Monica where she worshipped as a kid.”

At any rate, controversy or not, as the interviewer points out, it has certainly done little to hurt Pratt at the box office. In addition to Jurassic World Dominion, which has grossed $746.7 million and counting — as well as his upcoming MCU projects — next Pratt will voice Nintendo’s Mario and the popular comic strip cat Garfield in two new computer-animated films. Even if Pratt was fudging the truth about his relationship with the church, hopefully, it can be chalked up to a lesson learned.