As the star of Jurassic World and Guardians of the Galaxy, Chris Pratt has faced his fair share of villains, but a recent tweet of his about prayer has created a new foe—atheists on Twitter.
Early Monday morning, filmmaker Kevin Smith tweeted a photo of himself in the hospital, informing followers he had a massive heart attack.
In response, Pratt tweeted to Smith that he was praying for him because “I believe in the power of prayer.”
He followed that up by tweeting that Smith had been an inspiration and he would continue to pray.
Praying for you. I will continue to. You inspired me with Clerks when I was a senior HS. I’m tagging my Lb/rb football coach who showed me the movie cause he believed in me and knew I’d be inspired. @hodge1916 🙏♥️🙏 https://t.co/syB7BiQaoY
— chris pratt (@prattprattpratt) February 26, 2018
A flood of tweets from atheists challenged Pratt and his stated belief in prayer.
While he has not responded on social media himself, Pratt did get some support from his Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn.
6 I’m not tweeting this to defend Chris – he’s a big boy and can take care of himself. But for me, personally, prayer and meditation are great boons to my life and help me navigate my way through this world, and I don’t want to dissuade others who find those things useful.
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) February 26, 2018