Morgan Freeman Says Curiosity About Jesus Started NatGeo's 'Story of God' (Interview)
The second season of National Geographic's "The Story of God with Morgan Freeman," is now underway and Academy Award-winning actor Freeman says his quest began because of his lack of knowledge that other religions acknowledged Jesus Christ.
The series premiere of "The Story of God" premiered on Jan. 16 and kicked off with an episode titled, "The Chosen One" in which Freeman explores chosen people from different religions.
During an interview with The Christian Post, "Story of God" executive producers Freeman, Lori McCreary and James Younger explained how their pursuit of truth in relation to the "Story of God" commenced.
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"We were in Istanbul some years ago at the Hagia Sophia, a museum there that used to be a church and then a mosque. On the wall there, some of them had pictures of Christ, his resurrection and stuff like that," Freeman explained. "Lori asked the [tour guide] that when it was a mosque if they covered those paintings up, of Jesus? And he said, 'No because in Islam Jesus is a prophet.'"
The 79-year-old said he and his partner had no idea that Jesus was a figure in Islam and that wet their appetites to learn more about it.
"That was complete news to us, astounding!" Freeman said.
After a few years of sitting on the information, he and McCreary then decided to do something about it.
"How come we didn't know stuff like that and why doesn't the world know stuff like that?" he pondered. "We eventually came up with the idea of doing a show that would air these kinds of information. 'Let's go see what we can find out about God in the rest of the world.'"
Younger then was brought on board at Freeman and McCreary's company, Revelations Entertainment, and then the three of them started on their journey to tell "The Story of God" as they perceive it.
Younger said their company wants to reveal "truth" and "things that people don't know. "There's so much ignorance about other people's faith tradition's that we felt it was really important to get the message out," he commented. "So people could see other's faith and realize how much similarities there is between their beliefs and some of the ones that on the surface is different, but deep down are very similar."
McCreary chimed in and pointed out that judgement and hate is oftentimes a result of "lack of knowledge."
"We were hoping to spread this knowledge around so these judgements could be less," she said.
Following the pattern of season one, Freeman again tackles specific topics in the new installment of "Story of God." He believes learning about each of the topics is greatly advantageous.
"The purpose to do a program around the world's acceptance of the notion of creation, and God and afterlife, etc. ... that it would be beneficial; knowledge is beneficial," he concluded. "Not that you go into this, at least me - thinking all these altruistic thoughts; I just want to do a show and get paid but if it has a positive message also, what's wrong with it."
In season two, Freeman meets with faith leaders, scientists, archaeologists and more to help him understand different themes such as "The Chosen One?" "Proof of God" and "Heaven and Hell."
Season one of "The Story of God with Morgan Freeman" is now available on DVD.
For more information on the second series, visit National Geographic.
