Sam Sorbo and Nancy Stafford Open Up About Putting Faith Before Fame
By Movieguide® Staff
While much of Hollywood may seem like a conglomerate of people who do whatever they want and reject any form of Christianity, there’s a remnant of Christians who know that you can have faith and fame, as long as you put Jesus Christ first.
For actresses Sam Sorbo and Nancy Stafford, it all boils down to following the call God has put on your life.
The two spoke with Kathleen Cooke ahead of the National Radio Broadcast Convention to talk about how they’ve found success in Hollywood while not bowing to a secular agenda.
“We cannot underestimate the attraction of fame, money, notoriety, power,” Stafford said. “So we have to be cognizant of that all of the time. And that’s going to inform the choices we make.”
Though Stafford grew up in a Christian home, when she first started working in the entertainment industry, she let her faith fall by the wayside. At the time, she’d just landed a role on ST. ELSEWHERE.
“This whole time, I am really not following the Lord, but I hadn’t totally abandoned Him either,” Stafford said. “Then when I had a crisis in my life, the Lord had just opened up every door and pushed me through it. The business was going well, but I had a health challenge, a health crisis, and suddenly I found myself faced with [asking], ‘Where does my security really lie?’ It caused me then to have a very radical conversion back to the Truth of Jesus Christ instead of the Buddhism and Hinduism and New Age philosophies that I’d begun to follow. Since that time in the early ’80s, I have just fallen hard and been running hard after Jesus, and it’s just been a remarkable season in time.”
Stafford has continued to see success in Hollywood, and even came to the Movieguide® Awards in 2020.
“My heart is for people to know who they are–their identity–so everything I work on and speak about or write about tends to do with remembering you are who God says you are, because we can do the impossible for Him if we always stay grounded into who He says we are and what He has for us,” Stafford said.
Sorbo also opened up about her testimony and how prayer played a significant role in her finding her future spouse and building her family.
When Sorbo first entered the entertainment realm, she was able to book a few small jobs and worked her way up the ladder to appearing on one of the most popular television series at the time, HERCULES, starring Kevin Sorbo, who would become her future husband.
Sorbo said she’d spent several years praying for her future spouse and family and the Lord gently told her that she was going to have to compromise somewhere.
“I had prayed about finding a man because I wanted to be married and I wanted to have children, and I prayed to God, and I finally realized I can’t have everything,” Sorbo said. “Society teaches us that you can have everything, you can have the career, you can have the kids, you can have the family life, and you can have the big success and and all of that, right? It simply isn’t true, and so I finally reconciled myself with that after a lot of prayer.
“I said to God, ‘OK, I get it. There has to be a compromise just tell me what the compromise is, just tell me, is he going to be short? Is he going to be dumb? What’s the compromise so that I know what I have to settle for in order to get it all,'” Sorbo said.
When she met Kevin, though, she said it was love at first sight, and she began to forget about that compromise.
About four months after the couple got engaged, he had three major strokes that landed him in the intensive care unit. At the same time, Sorbo landed one of the most lucrative roles of her career.
“I realized, that’s the compromise! I trade my career, done and that’s it,” Sorbo said. “I was so grateful because it was a binary choice, and it was very clear to me if I loved this man then I would give up this other thing, and I did. I loved my work. I didn’t love my work, not like I loved this man, and my work wasn’t going to give me children or a family.”
Now, Sorbo is a vocal advocate for homsechooling and standing up for your convictions despite societal pressure.
Both Stafford and Sorbo are examples that you don’t have to compromise your convictions and can make a difference without sacrificing your faith.
Watch their full interview in the video below.
Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
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