How a Childhood Tragedy Strengthened Roma Downey’s Faith
By Movieguide® Contributor
TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL star Roma Downey recently shared how a childhood tragedy strengthened her faith in God.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Downey shared how she unexpectedly lost her mother from a heart attack when she was a child.
“My mother died when I was just a little girl. I was only 10. And I can honestly say if we hadn’t had our faith to support us and our church community to surround us…Life brought us to our knees,” she shared. “But while we were down there, we prayed. We prayed for strength, we prayed for understanding, we prayed for comfort. And the Lord provided. [Faith is] central to who I am and in my work.”
Although she may be America’s favorite angel, Downey has set her sights on other faith-based projects. Most recently, she starred in Prime Video’s THE BAXTERS.
Downey shared more about the new show in a video posted to her Instagram.
“They come together because they love each other, and they come together because they love God, and they’re a family that’s not afraid to grab hands and pray together. And so it’s how they deal with the issues, it’s not that the issues are different,” she explained.
Downey also spoke about how current TV is lacking in faith-based family stories.
“We don’t get to see a lot of that on television and I think that’s going to be very exciting, particularly for people of faith, to see families representing the values and the morals that they hold dear in their own hearts,” she added.
In 2016, Downey and her husband, Mark Burnett, launched a faith-based media company called LightWorkers. Their mission is to shine “a LIGHT on the GOOD all around us through hope-filled, uplifting, and inspirational content.”
“God is the light. We’re the workers,” she said. “And our mantra always has been that it’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. So, stories of hope interest me. So, making THE BAXTERS a hope opera is certainly something that is part of my life’s purpose, part of the calling on my life really, to help people feel connected and closer to God.”
Movieguide® previously reported:
Kathy Lee Gifford, her daughter Cassidy and Roma Downey recently spoke with Movieguide® about why people need Amazon Prime’s new show, THE BAXTERS…
Downey believes it’s important to address hard topics like infidelity from a faith-based perspective.
“As a community of believers, we don’t often get to see a churchgoing family who are dealing with issues. I mean, this is not a perfect family. They have plenty of challenges being thrown at them, but we know…that even in our brokenness, you know, our God welcomes us home,” she told Movieguide®.
“And so this show has, you know, a beautiful dealing with themes that are important. It’s dealing with pertinent social issues too. It’s dealing with loss and longing. It deals with infidelity and divorce, and, you know, I mean, it doesn’t shy away from things that we’re all dealing with,” she added.
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