Just recently, I had a chat with my friend Terri Hardin over tea and desserts. A sculptor (for Disney) and puppeteer (in the movie industry and more popularly known as a Foster Farm Chicken) by trade, Terri is also an actress who teaches pumpkin-cutting every Halloween season. A Jack-of-all-trades. She’s far from boring, indeed. A spitfire with constant energy bursts and a hearty laugh and good spirit to go with it.
Our talk was focused on life, more specifically, her spiritual beliefs. I was curious what this amazing woman believed in. During our time working together (on shows that I’d produced), Terri had never mentioned anything about God or spirituality. I had no clue what I was going to hear, but was excited to hear her point of view.
I was surprised to hear of her enthusiasm for God, Jesus, and the Bible. I thought, does this mean she’s a Christian? She points out that if she has to label herself, then yes, she would call herself that. She talked about her faith from all angles. As a more conservative Christian, myself, I agreed with most, but not all, of what she voiced. However, this isn’t a debate. It’s dialogue between 2 women friends sharing what’s in our spirits. I was most grateful to her for her complete honesty. She shared so much with me. Thank you, Terri, for sharing so much of yourself.
All of this has been organized by me, a few in my words, most in Terri’s words. I wanted people to get a raw, genuine look at Terri. Some you’ll agree with, some you won’t. The point is to listen.
Her Overall Belief
“I believe in God. I believe in Jesus. I do not believe in organized religion.”
On Different Religions
“Organized religions I don’t get. They all have some sort of rule that hurts in my opinion.”
Terri didn't like Catholicism because she felt it was the “I’m sorry” religion. Constant guilt.
She had an experience at a Baptist church where they voiced no one could enter the church barefoot or wearing shorts…. “So I said, ‘A woman comes up to the church and it’s very obvious that this lady needs Christ but she’s barefoot. So are you telling me you aren’t going to let her into your church ‘cause she doesn’t have the right shoes?’ I got a problem with this.”
She was staying at a Mormon friends’ home in Utah. Out of respect to them she agreed to go to church with them, but made it clear that the Mormon church was something she wasn’t into…. “One of the things I find fascinating about the Mormon religion is that their churches are like family picnics.” However, at some point in the service, everyone divided into groups – men, women, newcomers. Terri ended up, of course, in the newcomers group. There, they were read a parable. Terri questioned the parable. She and the pastor went back and forth on their very different viewpoints. After a while, the pastor asked (as quoted by Terri), “Don’t you want to be with your husband…forever? You can’t be with him forever if you’re not a Mormon.” Terri’s view, “OK, here’s a problem ‘cause what you’re telling me is the only way I can be with my husband forever is to be Mormon. And the only way I can be Mormon is to completely convert and once I completely convert that’s the only time I can do it, because then I have to go into a building with some golden fool on top. That’s why I’m going to be with my husband all this time? That’s nuts!”
Her Viewpoints on God, Jesus and the Church
God made you to have a brain. Brain means you think. I think the Lord knew that we were going to be difficult children when He gave us a brain. If you don’t want people thinking you don’t give them a brain. I think you always want your children to think and question so that you can teach, and so they can, with their whole heart, follow because of your example. And we look at the example of Jesus. And did He say, ‘You, not you’? He didn’t complain…..If you just look at the way He lived His life.”
“I will not and do not go to church. That’s because church is run by people and people are fallible.”
“My feeling is you can find Jesus in a church – there are people who need that group association, ‘I need to be with others who believe like I do’ – and I think that’s why church is really good, but the church can be a shack. It doesn’t have to be the Crystal Cathedral. But it can also be, and most of the time for me, it happens when you’re hiking, for example, on the top of the world. I’ll tell you a huge God/Jesus moment for me was in the middle of Utah in a snowstorm when I held my first snowflake because when you see a snowflake….it is so amazing and you go, ‘God is God’. Because who in the heck could do that? Another moment I’m at Disney and I’m trying to create sculpt mountains. Well, if they tell you they want Horse-Head Rock or Papoose Rock that [they’ve] seen, [then] you’ve gone and looked at formations that God’s created and you try to create that as a sculptor. It looks like crap. It looks fake. Because God is God and you are you. That’s when you realize the barriers between where you are and where God is. If you’re just open to those, you’re in church every single day. It doesn’t have to be a building. It doesn’t have to be 10 am on Sunday. It can be anywhere.”
Terri sees God in the beauty of the world, not necessarily in a church building – the birth of a baby, snowflakes, poppies, lilies….
“Church doesn’t have to be so rigid. Maybe if you made it more fun for people to get together. I thought the Mormons had a great idea allowing kids to kind of play around their feet because God is about family. So, to let the family kind of be a family while you’re sort of chatting about God. I mean why do we gotta dress up? Why do we have to have the monkey suits and the high heeled shoes and the hairs gotta be coiffed to go talk about God?”
On the Word of God
Terri thinks the language of the Bible is beautiful (King James Version), yet believes the Word of God has been "messed" with. She believes it's been translated from the translator's viewpoint.
"I think it's a wonderful book and I think every one should read it. And the reason I believe it is because it really has some situations in there that are uplifting and inspiring....it has some really strong points."
“I love the story of Moses.”
“If you’re mixed races, as I am mixed races, and you hear about Moses. And Moses who was raised Egyptian, found out to be Jewish. This is huge. This is a huge dilemma for him. People who loved him suddenly hated him because they found out his background…They still hated him because of something he could not change. So if you’re someone who’s having that issue now, as a mixed person….if you read and see what’s going on you’ll understand, ‘well, look, I’m not alone in this. This happens. People are like this.’ And you’re not the problem. They’re the problem.” “It’s not purely to entertain, it’s got a lot of good lessons.”
“I think it’s more you remember the essence and the spirit of men and people, than what passage it is.” “The Bible gives you perspective.” “When you read it, it doesn’t judge you.”
“I have a fabulous set of Bible stories that my dad keeps asking me if I want and every time I’m like, ‘Yes, if you get them to me. Yes, don’t throw them away. Yes, yes I want them. Those are the Bible story books I want because I wouldn’t read the Bible when I was a little kid, but I read those stories over and over again. Those are dog-earred those books because of the way they presented the stories were a way for children to understand the blessings.”
On Using Drama in Church
“Perhaps you do do a church that’s funny, that’s comical, that uses comedy. Or you do enact scenes, participatory – as opposed to one man/woman ‘talking, talking, talking’ to people who sit and fidget and listen. Because there are many people who go to church because they did it as a kid and somehow in their head that’s the way they’re supposed to do it and they hate it. Absolutely hate it….What’s going to happen is you’re going to overdose on church and you’re not going to go again. You don’t want not to go again happen. And the reason I bring this up is because I hated history, until high school when the woman taught history through acting. We enacted….I never forgot points in history where we acted them out. You understand it better…Maybe that’s the thing is not that you modernize it, and please don’t change the lingual of the Bible, learn it because that’s the beauty of that day and age.”
Heaven, Angels, and the Enemy
Terri believes no matter what your religion – as long as you’re a good person – you will go to heaven. “I like Christianity because the ending to the story is so much more beautiful than most of the endings of other religions. I believe heaven is a wonderful and beautiful ending and makes sense to me.”
With tears and passion, Terri talked about the joyful idea of seeing loved ones in heaven and horrified by the thought that they’re just lying in the ground as “some religions believe”.
She believes in angels and believes she has a guardian angel. “I think you’re an idot if you don’t believe in someone taking care of you,” she says.
“Hell is not a guy with a tail and a pitchfork. Hell, to me, is your worst nightmare, eternally.So, for me, it would be in a room with a million spiders.”
Jana asked, “If there was a perfect church, what would it be? What would make you feel welcomed?
Terri answered, “There would be no pastor, minister, reverend. There would be no men or group of people that run it. I think it would be a gathering of people who need to relate to each other spiritually….Some people need that organization [informal gathering with one another] and some need a leader. And a lot of leaders have a lot of good things. It’s just not for me. Like now, you and I sitting at a table and we’re having a coffee and we’re just talking about God, that does me so much better than if I’m in a room with a bunch of people.”
On Sharing One's Faith
“To stand on the corner, holding the Bible and say, ‘Repent’, doesn’t work. People don’t like it to be in your face.” “Religion isn’t ‘cool’. So many people are so worried about looking cool’, being ‘cool’. There’s too much emphasis on this ‘cool’, for lack of a better word. They may love God and they may love Jesus, but when they’re around their peers….you know.”
“You’re going to bring more people to Christ by sharing….by seeing your joy, by seeing your commitment.”
“Yes, I believe in God. Yes, as a matter of fact, I do. [People ask] ‘Do you go to church?’ No, I don’t. I don’t believe in organized religion. That really sparks people. Atheists, they gotta know what that’s about ‘cause that just sounds crazy. [Atheists ask] ‘What do you mean that you’re religious but you don’t believe in organized religion?’ [Terri answers them] ‘I’m glad you ask that question. (Terri laughs) Let me tell you.’….Now they’ve motivated it. They don’t realize they’ve motivated it. Is it a form of manipulation? Originally it wasn’t intended to be, but God made me the good sense to realize it could be.”
On Christians
She feels many Christians are Christians on their own terms.
“When I was young I went to a lot of churches trying to understand whether or not Christianity is what I really wanted to be. I came across a lot of not so good Christians. People doing mean things in the name of Jesus.”
Terri worked on a project with a guy who claimed to be a Christian, however, witnessed some hypocritical behavior from this gentleman.
“And yet we were working together on a project and he had told this person a certain amount of money it would cost to create this particular thing and he screwed around I think for weeks on the project and when he didn’t have time to [do] what he promised he just told them there wasn’t enough time to do it and therefore still charged them full price.”
On Life and People
We touched upon many areas. From baptism to abortion to births. Some personal for Terri, some not.
Terri’s mother never had her baptized because she believed that was a personal choice. However, as an adult, Terri felt a strong desire and got baptized.Terri talked, with enthusiasm, about being present at the birth of her friend’s baby. Describing it as a spiritual experience for her.
On losing loved ones: “You’re gonna find a pocket in your heart because God gave you a big heart. It can love so many people and care about so many people.”
Terri talked about putting her beloved dog “down” in Burbank, while she was working in San Diego. During lunch she got the call from the vet’s office letting her know when it was done. She was incredibly hurt and upset. At some point, during the lunch, a black labrador came up to her, on his own, and rested his head on her knee, looking up at her….. Terri believes, “The angels on earth are dogs.”
“I want to inspire people to not be afraid and I think art is a great way to do that. That’s my major goal.”
*Terri Hardin is a phenomenal actress, sculptor and puppeteer having worked on such films as Men in Black, The Flinstones, and The Country Bears to name a few. A popular sculptor for Disney, many of Terri’s designs are collectibles. On the west coast, one of Terri’s characters (as a puppeteer) is a wacky, beloved chicken in the popular, outrageously humorous Foster Farm Chicken ads.
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