Kelsey Grammer says there’s no price he’ll pay to avoid admitting he believes in Jesus Christ, and he’s not interested in soft-pedaling it to stay in the culture’s good graces.
The Emmy-winning Frasier star laid it out in an interview with The Christian Post, tying his faith to America’s 250-year history and making clear where he stands if pressed.
“Jesus said, ‘You know, you will suffer so for my sake.’ Okay, bring it on,” Grammer said. “It’s all right. There’s bigger things out there than whether or not our neighbor thinks we’re the best guy in town.”
Grammer said he doesn’t preach at people or lean on church-speak in everyday life, but he draws a hard line when it comes to denying his belief.
“We have a lot of things to do, and some of them are just to stand up for Jesus,” he said. “I don’t go around proselytizing. I don’t spend a lot of time in the sort of fundamentalist lingo of … ‘God bless you,’ ‘Jesus this, Jesus that.’ I don’t tend to traffic in those worlds or travel in those circles that much. But if somebody asks me to deny that I believe in Christ, I’m not going to do it.”
He also said he thinks the country is living through a genuine spiritual turnaround right now.
“I think we are in [an awakening],” Grammer said. “I think I can go biblical just a little bit here. The enemy is always at work, but so is God. So is our team, so to speak. I like to think I’m part of that team. The good news is, it’s not going away. We’re not giving up the fight.”
Grammer, a longtime California resident, also spoke up for the Virgin Mary, saying he sees a deliberate push in the culture to diminish her.
“Most people don’t know this in California, but the patron saint of California is Mary, the Virgin Mary,” he said. “There’s definitely an energy that is devoted to tearing down Mary in our culture, and we’re not going to let it happen.”
He was quick to add that believers aren’t claiming to have it all figured out.
“We’re always going to fall short, right? Because we’re not perfect. That’s okay,” he said. “We’re going to get concerned about money; we’re going to get concerned about advancement. We’re going to get concerned about perception, how we’re viewed. We’re going to get concerned about what people call us.”
