In Rolling Stone, Chris Heath discusses religion with mega-movie star Brad Pitt:

There is one subject he refers to time and time again, and that is religion. "I would call it oppression," he says, "because it stifles any kind of personal individual freedom. I dealt with a lot of that, and my family would diametrically disagree with me on all of that."

It's only when we later drift into an unlikely debate about one of the New Testament parables that I realize just how different a kind of God Pitt grew up with. To him, the parable of the Prodigal Son is an authoritarian tale told to keep people in line. "This," he explains, "is a story which says if you go out and try to find your own voice and find what works for you and what makes sense for you, then you are going to be destroyed and you will be humbled and you will not be alive again until you come home to the father's ways."