He’s no fool, and he certainly doesn’t need pity.
In a Huffington Post Live interview [1] yesterday, Mr. T was asked about everything from the origins of his career to his recent success battling cancer. What the interviewer discovered? All was thanks to God and family.
Normally on a Huffington Post Live interview, you can expect a minor-league celebrity espousing his or her support for a liberal agenda item, peppered with some self-praise, repeated for 20-plus grueling minutes.
Yesterday was a welcome departure from the norm.
Mr. T repeatedly thanked his family for teaching him responsibility for his actions. “If I loved my mother, I couldn’t do that, going to jail. My momma didn’t clean up floors so I could be a thug … so I could wear my pants down.”
He also echoed another value that came from his mother and drove his work ethic: “’Son, if you want something, you work hard for it. Save your money and get it.’”
Mr. T thanked God for his early success and donations to his church and philanthropic causes. “That’s God. When you give, it comes back to you…Why am I here? I’m not lucky. That’s God.” His testimony to charity, the central principle of Christianity, resonated many times over.
The interviewer asked Mr. T if he had a moment when he became Christian. To this he responded with his typical vigor, “I always was a Christian …whatsoever a man thinks in his heart is who he is.”
On surviving T-cell lymphoma, he once more thanked God. “I got cancer. My money couldn’t save me. My gold couldn’t save me…That’s God.”
Though a few Hollywood stars [2] have publicly thanked God for their success, most don’t take the time, and they certainly don't take it to HuffPo Live.