On Religion

Oscars

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Superstar Denzel Washington has officially claimed the freedom to preach

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Superstar Denzel Washington has officially claimed the freedom to preach

When describing his life, Denzel Washington often notes a mysterious encounter on March 27, 1975, offering it as a parable about his Christian faith and his acting career.

The young Washington was in his mother's Mount Vernon, New York, beauty parlor, after horrible grades forced a leave of absence from Fordham University. An elderly church woman, who many believed had unique spiritual gifts, looked him in the eye and asked for a piece of paper.

Scribbling the details, Ruth Green announced: "I have a prophecy. Boy, you are going to travel the world and speak to millions of people."

Sharing this story at Dillard University in New Orleans in 2015, Washington added pulpit friendly advice: "What she told me that day has stayed with me ever since. I've been protected. I've been directed. I've been corrected. I've kept God in my life."

The actor stressed these words: "Put. God. First.”

After a press screening of "The Book of Eli" in 2010, he added another wrinkle, pondering the prophecy's implications. At one point, Washington, a member of the giant West Angeles Church of God in Christ, wondered if he was supposed to have been ordained.

Washington said his pastor noted: "Well, aren't you talking to millions of people? Haven't you traveled the world?"

That question recently surfaced, once again, when the two-time Oscar winner received a minister's license at the Kelly Temple Church of God in Christ in Harlem, a congregation he attended as a child. During this December 21 baptism rite – broadcast online – Washington rededicated his life to God and moved one step from full ordination. As a licensed minister, he can preach, perform weddings and lead some religious services.

"We celebrate the addition of Minister Denzel Washington into the clergy … in a truly uplifting moment," Archbishop Christopher Bryant wrote on Facebook.

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What did Denzel Washington tell Will Smith after the slap heard round the world?

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What did Denzel Washington tell Will Smith after the slap heard round the world?

Moments after the Academy Awards slap heard 'round the world, Will Smith huddled during a commercial break with Denzel Washington, another of the Best Actor nominees.

No one could hear what Smith discussed with the man who is both an A-list player and the rare Hollywood superstar who has – after years in hot press spotlights – emerged as a mentor on issues of faith and family.

But Smith appeared to have Washington on his mind during his emotional remarks after winning the Oscar for his work in "King Richard." Smith apologized to his peers for slap-punching Chris Rock after his jest about his wife Jada Pinkett-Smith's shaved head. The comic apparently didn't know she was suffering hair loss with Alopecia.

“In this moment, I am overwhelmed by what God is calling on me to do and be in this world. … I'm being called on in my life to love people and to protect people," said Smith, tears on his face. "I know that to do what we do, you gotta be able to take abuse, you gotta be able to have people talk crazy about you. In this business, you gotta be able to have people disrespecting you. And you gotta smile and pretend that that's OK."

When Washington offered quiet words of encouragement from offstage, Smith thanked him and added: "Denzel said a few minutes ago: At your highest moment, be careful – that's when the devil comes for you."

This was not ordinary Oscars God-talk.

This drama triggered waves of social-media angst, with critics and millions of viewers debating who to blame for this crisis during an otherwise meandering Academy Awards show shaped by politics, pandemics, gender, race and low ratings.

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Tyler Perry preaches tolerance to 'woke' congregation assembled for 2021 Oscar rites

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Tyler Perry preaches tolerance to 'woke' congregation assembled for 2021 Oscar rites

It was just like one of those inspiring Tyler Perry movie scenes when a believer does the right thing and helps a struggler have a come-to-Jesus epiphany.

Perry was walking to his car after some Los Angeles production work when he was approached by homeless woman.

"I wish I had time to talk about judgment," said Tyler, after receiving the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award during the 93rd Academy Awards. "Anyway, I reach in my pocket and I'm about to give her the money and she says: 'Excuse me sir, do you have any shoes?'

"It stopped me cold because I remember being homeless and having one pair of shoes," he added. "So, I took her into the studio. … We're standing there [in] wardrobe and we find her these shoes and I help her put them on. I'm waiting for her to look up and all this time she's looking down. She finally looks up and she's got tears in her eyes. She says: 'Thank you Jesus. My feet are off the ground.' "

Perry, of course, is a movie mogul who has built a 330-acre studio facility in Atlanta used for all kinds of work, including parts of the Marvel epic "The Black Panther." He has created many profitable films of this own, such as "Diary of a Mad Black Woman," "The Family that Preys" and "Madea's Family Reunion," part of a series in which Perry, in drag, plays a pistol-packing, Bible-quoting matriarch at the heart of Black-family melodramas.

It was logical for Perry to receive the Jean Hersholt award, in part because of his rags-to-riches life and his efforts to help churches and nonprofits help the needy. At the same time, it's unlikely that he could ever win a regular Oscar statue since critics and Hollywood elites have long mocked his movies as soapy parables crafted to appeal to ordinary church folks – Black and White. It isn't unusual, in the final act of Perry movies, for weeping sinners to pull their lives together during Gospel-music altar calls.

Thus, Perry's sermonette was an unusual twist in an Oscar rite packed with political messages and wins by films that few American moviegoers saw or even knew existed.