Lord of the Rings star John Rhys-Davies declared that the world owes Christianity “the greatest debt of thanks” for making the world a better place.
Rhys-Davies who is described as a “rationalist” and “skeptic,” declared this on the red carpet at the 28th annual Movieguide Awards, last month at the historic Avalon Theater in Hollywood. The awards show celebrates faith and family content in movies and television. His voice was featured as Evangelist in the animated film “Pilgrims Progress,” which was honored at the gala.
“I count myself a rationalist and a skeptic, and I find myself constantly defending Christians and Christianity,” Rhys-Davies said in an interview. “I find that wonderful because we seem to forget that Christian civilization has made the world a better place than it ever was. One of the great glories was the abolition of slavery, for instance. And there is still slavery and that makes me very mad.”
John Rhys-Davies is a well-known Welsh actor, famous for playing the role of Gimli in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, he is also acting in the upcoming faith-based film, I Am Patrick, which releases for St. Patrick’s Day. Fathom Events will screen the inspirational docudrama nationwide on March 17 and 18. It is about the life of the fifth-century missionary saint also called the Apostle of Ireland.
The movie got positive feedback from Lisa M. Hendey, author of The Secret of the Shamrock, who said the film is “faithfully rooted in his own writings and historically accurate storytelling.” “St. Patrick overcame his own failings and experienced a challenging yet profound conversion and then devoted his life to share the Gospel with zeal, joy and love,” Hendey said. “This film tells his story with truth, candor and beauty.”
Sister Helena Raphael Burns, a movie reviewer for Life Teen & The Catholic Channel said the remarkable transformation of St Patrick. “The strong takeaway is the almost unbelievable hardships Patrick endured, as well as his transformation from a nominal Christian to a close friend of God during his times of extreme privation,” she wrote. “There is much for us to imitate regarding his profound prayer life and zeal for souls!”
Rhys-Davies spoke about the early history of Christianity in bringing forth the ideology of democracy while on the red carpet, “All the things that we value, the right of free speech, the right of the individual conscience, 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.’ From that our whole idea of democracy and the equality that we have has developed,” the actor said.
“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.”