{"id":48029,"date":"2025-12-04T17:34:52","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T22:34:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=48029"},"modified":"2025-12-05T09:15:49","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T14:15:49","slug":"the-chosen-star-describes-how-the-show-brought-atheists-to-christ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/12\/the-chosen-star-describes-how-the-show-brought-atheists-to-christ.html","title":{"rendered":"‘The Chosen’ Star Describes How the Show Brought Atheists to Christ"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Fred Duval \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe Chosen\u201d can be a dividing show amongst the faithful, with some claiming the show\u2019s excellent production value, moving storylines, and loveable characters makes it the perfect vehicle for inspiring interest in the Bible. Others, however, have grave concerns that some of the creative licenses the showrunners have taken give the wrong idea about the true Biblical account.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Roumie, who plays Jesus, however, has no questions about the show\u2019s effectiveness. \u201cEvery so often, I randomly go through DMs on Instagram, for instance, because that’s the platform I’m most active on and I just randomly will just pick – I pick two different people and both of these people that wrote to me, happened to have been lifelong atheists and never had any interest in God,” Roumie told the hosts of \u201cThe View.\u201d \u201cAnd somehow, somebody sent them the show and all of a sudden it’s like that first episode just kind of grabs hold of you. And if God wants to, He will find you. He will follow you. He will go after you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roumie went on the detail the progression of these two atheists\u2019 move toward faith. \u201cThrough the process of the show, they became interested in the Bible and then they started going to the church and they had both converted to Christianity,\u201d said Roumie. \u201cLifelong atheists. To me, that’s remarkable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roumie said that his own faith, as a Catholic, informs his depiction of Christ. \u201cI don\u2019t think it would have the same kind of authenticity. I think what I bring to the role is my relationship to Christ, is my relationship with Jesus, and my love for him,\u201d he told them. \u201cAnd so, by taking on his love for humanity and trying to recreate that, it\u2019s made me a better person. It\u2019s made me want to love people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The upcoming season sixth could be the toughest one yet for Roumie as it deals with the crucifixion. \u201cAnd so it\u2019s not just the physicality of recreating that, it\u2019s the emotional impact that that has, it\u2019s the mental, the psychological impact of entering into Christ\u2019s crucifixion and his torture, that once you participate in that, and I asked God to allow me some sense of what that would be like, and He didn\u2019t disappoint,\u201d he said. :And it\u2019s something that I\u2019m still actively processing right now.\u201d In an Instagram post, Roumie opened up about the difficulty of the upcoming season. \u201cI’d be lying if I said it’s ‘business as usual’. Or easy. Or ‘fun scenes to film.’ It’s not. It’s heavy. It’s humbling. And it’s holy,\u201d he wrote. \u201cBut in preparation for, and amidst this profound responsibility, I’ll be uniting myself more intentionally to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the very heart that broke for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe Chosen\u201d can be a dividing show amongst the faithful, with some claiming the show\u2019s excellent production value, moving storylines, and loveable characters makes it the perfect vehicle for inspiring interest in the Bible. Others, however, have grave concerns that some of the creative licenses the showrunners have taken give the wrong idea about the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":48044,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-television"],"yoast_head":"\n'The Chosen' Star Describes How the Show Brought Atheists to Christ<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jonathan Roumie says \u201cThe Chosen\u201d has led lifelong atheists to Christ, sharing how Jesus\u2019 message of love continues to change lives.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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