The lead stars of "God's Not Dead 2," which released to theaters on April 1, are taking the opportunity to speak out about their own journeys of faith.
Melissa Joan Hart plays embattled high school teacher Grace who got into legal trouble after answering a question about Jesus Christ posed by one of her students in class. Film and television actor Jesse Metcalfe plays her lawyer Tom Endler who defends her from charges of promoting her faith in school.
Hart, in an interview with C-Pop podcast, said that she was raised as a Catholic and kept up an interest in studying God's Word. She was already in her 20s and starting her own family when she was able to finally find a community in which she could delve more into the meaning of God's word.
"As I had children and reached my 20s and moved to Connecticut and had a little bit more time where I wasn't working, I was always searching for a Bible study group, and I found one in the last six years, and I've really just been able to dive into the Word and been able to study it and discuss it with other people and find a real fellowship community and sisters in Christ that I can pray with," she said.
Metcalfe, in an interview with Fox News said he started to find God when he was getting sober and joined Alcoholics Anonymous in 2007.
"A large part of that program is giving the will and character life over to God—or a God as you understand him—and prayer is also a big part of that program as well. I feel that that really helped me overcome a difficult time in my life and since then has really deepened and enriched my life in a lot of ways."
He said that the foundations of faith he developed in the program helped him with his role in the faith based film but still, he had to dig deep into his faith to do his role justice.
"Discovering my own faith and my own connection with God, I brought some of that emotional foundation to the character so the character would be really connected and really fighting for something on a deeper level and that the emotion would come through," he explained.
