Angelina Jolie Preaches the Love of the Father
I have never paid much attention to tabloid news, so I have no idea what Angelina Jolie believes about God or religion. Maybe she’s one of those scientologists, like Tom Cruise. Who knows?
Here is what I do know. Angelina has, numerous times, presented the gospel. She likely does not even know she is doing it! She is beautiful, famous, and fabulously wealthy. She has the means to choose her life and live it as she pleases. She could attempt to keep herself in the news by pulling Brittany Spears type of stunts. But she doesn’t.
It seems to me that she goes along, and other than dating Brad Pitt, lives her life outside of the media. And then she hones in on an extremely poor country. An orphanage. A specific child. She swoops in and adopts the child. Nobody knows why she chose the child she did. Before she came into Pax Thien’s life, he was a nobody. An orphan. Nobody knew who his mother was–he was completely abandoned. There was nothing he could do to change his status.
Angelina came in and chose him to be her own. Her fame, her wealth, her position, her nationality become his. He now has a family, and it is made up of other orphans, just like himself. He now has a future and a hope.
And so, even without intending to do so, Angelina has preached the love of God for His children by mirroring His adoption of us. I am blown away by the ways God allows Himself to be mirrored in nature and in His fallen world.
“I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”
“The whole earth is full of His glory.”
“The heavens declare the glory of God.”
And so does Angelina.
March 23rd, 2007 at 4:02 pm
I love this view you have of her actions.
March 24th, 2007 at 11:21 am
On Adoption…
Congratulations to Jodi and family, on their child-to-be! Also, Rebecca has some interesting thoughts to share on adoption, and ChewyMom points out the Gospel in unexpected places…….
March 24th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
Thanks for that! I appreciate your thoughts.
March 26th, 2007 at 8:51 am
Like you, I don’t know about Angelina Jolie’s relationship or lack of one with Christ. And, like you, I think she is doing a lot of good through her various charitable organizations and her adoptions of underprivileged children. And, her actions do parallel the teachings of the Gospel. But, your blog also made me think about how people who do “good” things (and who are seen as “good” people by others) don’t see the need for Christ in their lives. As I said, I can’t make any judgments about Angelina’s faith, but I could see how someone in her position might think she has it all without Jesus. She’s wealthy, she’s giving tons of money away to the needy, she is being a mother to motherless children, she’s being GOOD in societal terms. Why would she need a Savior? As believers, we know the answer to that question. But does she?
March 26th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
Actually, I was looking at a celebrity list of athiests on http://www.wnbc.com just a few minutes ago. Angelina Jolie was one of the more prominent members.
March 27th, 2007 at 6:13 am
Thanks, Smock and Carla and TG!
Rutatita, I think that even believers often forget our need of Christ. And you are right–when you have everything and you are a “good person” on top of it all, you really don’t see any need for a savior. The lifestyle of the rich and famous is what everyone seems to want, because we just don’t like to be needy.
Erin, Thank you for visiting my blog! Interesting that even atheists can mimic the love of Christ, thereby declaring it!
March 27th, 2007 at 8:23 am
Chewy, I agree–we Christians often do forget our need for Christ. Society, our egos, Satan all tell us that we are self-sufficient and we end up depending on our own limited power instead of God’s awesome LIMITLESS power. In my previous comment, I was thinking of the most basic need we all have–salvation from our sins so we can have an eternal relationship with Christ. Even though we believers often get caught up in we own lives and forget to keep Christ as our focus, we do have a hope and a future because we have given Christ Lordship of our lives. We have realized our most basic need and have found the ULTIMATE solution in Jesus. Regardless of the good or bad we do, we are sure of our eternal salvation. But, the non-believer who has never seen or understood his/her need for Christ will never have that assurance regardless of how much good he/she does. And, that is a truly sad place to be.
March 27th, 2007 at 9:34 am
Rutatita,
Preach it, sistah!
May 17th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Stumbled across your page, and found it interesting not from the God perspective, but because I read so many opinions about Angelina’s adoptions and all the predictions for how the children are going to be affected in the future. I’ve even made some predictions of my own; but your comment about how Angelina has given these children a future and hope has inspired me to question why I would want to look for a bad side in something hurts no one and helps innocent children.