By Movieguide® Staff
Patricia Heaton was brought to tears after finding a parallel to hit sitcom EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND in a Bible story.
“I couldn’t believe it was in there,” she told the crowd she was addressing at the kick-off ceremony for the America Reads the Bible event.
Heaton recounted a story at the end of the book of John, when Jesus met Peter on the beach and gave him three chances to reverse his previous denials. The actress said she noticed something funny when she was rereading the story; when Jesus tells Peter he will be martyred for the gospel, Peter points at John and asks, “What about him?”
“It was like Ray and Robert arguing,” she joked, referring to the characters from EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND. “And I started, like, laughing. And then it kind of turned into, like, I started weeping. And this is in my kitchen at like 10 o’clock in the morning. And I was like, ‘Lord, what is going on inside me? Why am I weeping?’ And He said, ‘You’re weeping because it’s true.’”
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Heaton continued, “If you were writing a fictitious story, you would have Jesus coming in on a flaming unicorn, and you would have had Peter and John just flying off with Him. But instead, Jesus is walking down the beach, and Peter’s being impulsive, and John’s being vindictive. John could have said, ‘You know what? I’m going to do Peter a favor. I’m not going to write down that he said that.’”
“But what did John do?” she laughed. “‘It was like this. Uh huh. The whole world for the rest of eternity is going to know that you said, ‘What about him?’”
Heaton then shared the message she took away from the story — “I thought, I’m an idiot too. But He can use me. He can use all us idiots. Because it’s not us that does it, it’s Him. All we have to do is say ‘…here I am.’”
Speaking to Fox News about her part in America Reads the Bible, Heaton said, “It’s an incredible honor. I was thrilled to be asked.”
Doug Deason, chairman of Great American Media, also spoke to Fox News about the event, telling the outlet, “This started out as an idea in Dallas a little over a year ago, and here we are — it’s remarkable.”
“I think we’ve just forgotten what our country is founded upon,” he continued. “We’re a Christian nation — we’re not trying to become one, but we are one. Really, the Bible — I look at it as our founding document. It’s just so important we get back to our basic roots of who we are.”
America Reads the Bible will continue through April 25 and can be livestreamed on Great American Pure Flix.
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