Jonathan Roumie, who plays Jesus in the popular series “The Chosen,” spoke at the 50th annual March for Life on Friday, Jan. 20. Roumie warned his audience that Satan is at work in the world deceiving people about abortion and also encouraged attendees that God is real and that he loves them.
“God is real,” said Roumie, “and he is completely in love with each and every one of you.” The actor said he knows these truths, not because he views all of life through his faith or because of the miracles he has experienced, but “because you are all here today.”
“Having lived under a grim cloud of darkness for the last 50 years,” said Roumie, referencing the overturning of Roe v. Wade, “the world has once again been given a glimmer of hope, and I pray that with this recent step in protecting life, despite the grievous nature of what we’ve allowed, that God might still look upon us in his infinite mercy and see the hearts of those of here in support of life today and say to us in this hour, ‘It is good.’”
Jonathan Roumie: ‘As God Is Real, Satan Is Also Real’
This year’s March for Life was the first to take place after the fall of Roe v. Wade, which in 1973 made abortion legal throughout the U.S. Other speakers at the event included football analyst and NFL Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungy and his wife, Lauren.
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Jonathan Roumie took the stage as some in the crowd chanted, “Jonathan! Jonathan!” After warning he might go over his time, Roumie jumped into his talk, proclaiming, “God is real!” When he asked, “How do I know that?” someone in the crowd responded, “Because you’re him.” Roumie and the audience laughed, and he said, “I’m not him. I’m not the real Jesus, let’s just get that out of the way.”
The actor emphasized how much God loves the people attending the March for Life, and he celebrated what their presence at the event meant.
“History has been made,” he said. “Life has triumphed in an extraordinary way, and the light of the world who is Jesus Christ, the author of life, his light has burned so very brightly within each and every one of you, irrespective of your specific beliefs, compelling you forward for one reason or another to stand together today and fight the noblest and worthiest cause possible, which is to allow the unborn the right to enter into the world and defeat those earthly forces that wish to destroy the very evidence of them.”
Quoting Psalm 139:13-16, Roumie said that the work to protect life is “far from finished,” and he focused on the spiritual forces that make that work challenging. Just as it is a law of physics that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, he said, the same is true in the “spiritual realm.”
“Just as God is real,” said Roumie, “Satan is also real. And I’m not talking about the simplistic cartoon of some dude with horns and a tail. I’m talking about the father of lies, the great deceiver, the diabolical slanderer who pushes you to doubt when you know in your heart the right thing to do.” Satan is not giving up, he said, but is fighting harder because “his time is limited.”
