Actor Woody Harrelson has made an extraordinary appearance on Jimmy Kimmel, opening up about his struggles with the Christian faith, and hanging out with a young Mike Pence while studying theology. Harrelson told Kimmel that he had received a “Presbyterian scholarship” to study at Hanover college, the same institution where the now Vice Presiden Mike Pence once attended.
Pastor Detained at ‘Avengers’ Screening for Peaching and ‘Scaring’ Moviegoers
“I knew him. We were both very religious,” Harrelson said. “It was a Presbyterian college at the time. He was involved in the Church activities.”
The “Cheers” star even revealed that he thought about going into fulltime pastoral ministry.
“I was actually considering being a minister,” he explained, much to Kimmel’s surprise, “and then I just kinda’ went a different way.”
When pressed about what he thought of the young Pence, and with the audience predictably baying for some throwaway derogatory remarks to have a cheap laugh at, Harrelson replied: “I remember I actually quite liked him. I thought he was a pretty good guy. He was very religious, very committed.”
“I don’t know how we’d get along,” the actor admitted, saying that he things “he’s still quite religious. Just a whole different brand of religious.”
“That kind of fervor that you really don’t want,” Harrelson continued. “Certainly, it was good for me at the time that I started to shift off.” In some candid comments on his personal religious convictions, Harrelson added that he’d “studied theology” but “started re-thinking.”
“I started to see how man made the Bible was. The Nicene Council and all that,” he added. After coming to his own conclusions on the word of God, the actor decided to put it all “on hold” while he enjoyed his young adult life:
“I said, ‘you know I can put this whole thing on hold for a while. Like I don’t know if God exists. I said let’s just put this whole idea on hold so I can have 20’s and 30’s of extreme hedonism.'”
“Is it still on hold? Or has it been canceled?” Kimmel asked, to applause and laughter from his adoring audience.
“I do believe there is a God now,” Harrelson replied, to stunned silence from the studio.
Watch the interesting exchange below: