Samuel L. Jackson. Photo credit: CNS Staff Reporter
Veteran actor Samuel L. Jackson has thanked God for his stellar Hollywood career.
As he picked up a lifetime achievement award at the annual Black Entertainment Television (BET) ceremony, the Jurassic Park, Star Wars and Pulp Fiction star offered his words of faith: “First I want to thank God for giving me this opportunity even in the beginning. A young man who grew up in a segregated Tennessee, nobody told me I could be this. So, here I am, and here you are. Thank God for that.”
Having struggled against drugs during the early part of his acting career, Jackson has become one of cinema’s leading stars, surpassing even Harrison Ford in 2005 in terms of film earnings, all the while remaining focussed on his Christian faith.
He donates regularly to his Baptist Church and has become the voice of an audio Bible project, The Bible Experience. Ironically, Jackson’s most well known film quote, from Pulp Fiction is his alternative recitation of the Bible’s Ezekial 25:17: “The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.”