HANNIBAL – The man who was TV’s “Hercules” and an atheist professor in the film “God’s Not Dead” spoke on faith, freedom, and hope at the Hannibal-LaGrange University annual booster banquet, Nov. 20.
Kevin Sorbo talked about making faith-based films and his health struggle that almost killed strongman Hercules.
He credits “an uptick in production quality and writing and cheaper cameras’ for increased popularity in faith-based films.
Sorbo played Professor Radisson in “God’s Not Dead.” He prepared to play an atheist by “thinking of Christians ,and I took away all reason and hope. I find it amusing. Atheists get upset about something they don’t believe in.”
He considered a role in the upcoming sequel “God’s Not Dead 2” despite – spoiler alert – the professor’s demise in the first film. He read one screenplay for the sequel with a “Heaven-is-for-real” take, but the producers shot the idea down.
He has finished “Joseph and Mary,” to be released around Easter 2016.
“I play Joseph to some step-kid named Jesus,” Sorbo said at a press conference before the banquet.
Sorbo’s acting resumé includes 45 movie roles, plus producing, directing, and writing other films. He played Holt Blanchard in “Soul Surfer,” and various ministerial roles. For seven years, Sorbo played Hercules, and for five years played Captain Dylan Hunt on Andromeda, plus various TV bit parts.
Production has begun one TV series about miracles. “It’s not ‘Touched By an Angel,’ but more like ‘Punched by an Angel.’ I hope and pray it gets picked up,” he said.
Sorbo said faith “hurts his career, but Hollywood is slowly waking up that this audience is out there. People want a message of their loving creator.”
“God’s Not Dead,” made with a $2 million budget was the 2014 top-grossing independent Christian film, making $140 million.
Hercules really kicked off Sorbo’s career. He met his eventual wife, radio talk-show host/author/actress Sam Sorbo, on the set. But it all came crashing down.
“In 1997, I had a tremendous health crisis. I developed numbness that moved down my left hand and shoulder. I used to do all my stunts, work a 12-14 hour day, and then work out for two hours at the gym. I’m a jock. I didn’t pay attention to the numbness. My career was taking off. I didn’t have time to be sick.
“The studio sent a doctor to my hotel room. He told me to get it checked (at a hospital) but I blew it off.”
After he could no longer hold a 60-pound weight, he went to a Los Angeles doctor, who found a lump on the shoulder and wanted to do a biopsy.
Sorbo later went to a chiropractor .
“A voice in my head told me twice not to let him crack my neck. The chiropractor cracked my neck. The knot on my shoulder was an aneurysm. I had three strokes. It cost me three years of health. I spent the next couple of months learning how to walk and balance again.”
The “Hercules” production was altered. Sorbo could only work one hour a day.
“When I closed my eyes I could see lightening strikes. I couldn’t read, I couldn’t play golf, I couldn’t look at a computer screen. I had long talks with God that seemed capricious. In arguments, God wins every time.”
The opposite of Christianity isn’t atheism, but it is secularism, it is apathy. The majority of university professors teach their agendas instead of subjects. – Kevin Sorbo
Sorbo credited his wife holding her faith and “New York/Pittsburgh toughness” seeing him through the ordeal. She encouraged him to write his story in “True Strength: My Journey from Hercules to Mere Mortal and How Nearly Dying Saved my Life.”
“She had faith in a loving creator when mine faltered. I always had a faith (growing up in a Minnesota church). I just never needed it until this incredible challenge. If life is perfect, wait awhile.”
“The voice that told me not to let the doctor crack my neck was God’s. We tend to call on God like he’s 9-1-1. It’s okay to come to God when things are going well.”
Sorbo also talked about the importance of freedom and Christian education.
“The opposite of Christianity isn’t atheism, but it is secularism, it is apathy. The majority of university professors teach their agendas instead of subjects.
“Christ came to adopt us all in his loving arms. Why do parents want to send their children to a Christian College? Their purpose is the hope for children. Give children the faith they have in Christian education.
“If we survive as a nation, (we must)bring children up with Judeo/Christian basis or it (the nation) will crumble. I’m here to fight for hope!”
“Who would have thought after the election of 2008 and the reelection in 2012 of the nation’s first black president we would be having race riots ion the nation’s cities? Would they do this if Christ’s presence was in their schools?”
Sorbo told the HLGU faithful the push for people to “surrender your God so government can grow, is what Lenin and Stalin pushed on their people.”
He said polls show 70 percent of the Christians didn’t vote in the last election, and urged Christians to vote in the next elections.
“Thomas Jefferson wanted to protect the church from the state and instituted prayer in the capitol rotunda.”
“Christ came to adopt us all in his loving arms Why do parents want to send their children into a Christian College? Their purpose is the hope for children. Give children the faith they have in Christian education.”