SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (ANS) -- Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington told GQ Magazine he reads the Bible daily and had an intense encounter with the Holy Spirit in his twenties.

Denzel Washington

“I read from the Bible every day, and I read my Daily Word,” he told GQ’s Michael Hainey. The devout Christian and son of a Pentecostal minister also talked about his father’s influence in his life.

Washington said it was not difficult to be a preacher’s son. “He wasn't a taskmaster, but there were certain things you couldn't do. He had his own church, and it was a long Sunday, because you had to be there all day.”

While Washington felt some rebellion as a teen when his church attendance began to feel like “a job,” he’s thankful for his father’s presence and influence. “Everyone I grew up with didn't have a father. I had a father. My father was a decent man. He was a very spiritual man and a gentleman.”

The double Oscar winner had an unusual encounter with the Holy Spirit as a young person that left him changed. It happened in the church he still attends, 30 years later. “The minister was preaching, ‘Just let it go,’ Washington recalled.

“I said, ‘I'm going to go with it.’ And I had this tremendous physical and spiritual experience,” he says.

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