Kevin Sorbo and Wife Sam Make Film on Famous Atheist Who Finds 'the Light' After Near-Death Experience
Popular actor Kevin Sorbo and his wife, Sam, are gearing up to release their new faith-based film, "Let There Be Light," and Sam says that like the atheist in the film, she hopes everyone comes to the "knowledge of a loving God" after seeing the movie.
Sorbo directed and starred in "Let There Be Light" along with his wife, who plays the leading female role. The script was originally written by Sam, who said her inspiration behind the movie came from "God."
"Let There Be Light" hits theaters Oct. 27 and follows the story of Dr. Sol Harkens (Kevin Sorbo of "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys," "God's Not Dead") who has never known faith. "After suffering the traumatic loss of his youngest son to cancer, he heads down a path of darkness. Distancing himself from his ex-wife Katy (Sam Sorbo of "Twenty Dollars"), and their two remaining sons, Sol turns to alcohol to numb his pain. Soon his bad habits catch up to him and Sol is involved in a serious car accident that leaves him dead for four minutes before he is resuscitated. What Sol experiences during this time changes his outlook on life and brings him closer to his family and faith."
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Sam Sorbo admitted that she could relate to the atheism of the character in her film because she too was once an avid nonbeliever.
"I was agnostic when I was really young. I was raised with this idea that God is only for weak people that need that crutch. There's nothing wrong with that, if you're weak and you need a crutch, that's an okay crutch to have," she told The Christian Post. "I was also raised as a Jew so I went to Jewish Sunday School and I quit that when I was 12 because I wasn't learning anything. For me, I was interested in knowledge and that's not what this Sunday school that I attended was about."
Sorbo began her search for a higher being as a teenager because once she started working and could support herself, she sought to find the meaning and purpose of life. That quest eventually led her to faith in Jesus Christ and she now wants to spread the hope of her faith through her work.
"Society in the anti-church crowd has this idea that somehow church will solve all your problems. Like somehow if you believe in Jesus then you'll be carefree, and that of course, as Christians, we know that nothing can be further from the truth. In fact, Christ promises that there will be times of trial and times of struggle," the Pittsburgh native shared.
"In this film, you have somebody that struggling from a traumatic event, a grief-stricken event and he decides to go at it alone, that's what that looks like," she explained of the atheist approach. "And then you have his wife, who's a Christian, who decides to walk with her loving Savior and that grief looks a lot different when you rely on God."
"Life looks a lot different when you can understand and rely on your knowledge of a Supreme Being of God the Father, a loving God, not just some disjointed spirit in the sky. No, a loving God who has an interest in you, who knew you when you were in your mother's womb. That kind of God."
In "Let There Be Light," the entire Sorbo family plays a role, which was suggested by the movie's co-writer, Dan Gordon. Along with the couple, their two sons, Braeden and Shane, are also featured on the silver screen. Sam Sorbo maintained that her boys, however, were not at all shown any favoritism. They had to audition for the part.
"I didn't want to compromise the movie in any way, so I wasn't going to hire my kids and have them turn in mediocre performances. I'm too much of a purist for that. But they auditioned and they actually blew me away," the proud mom gushed.
The 51-year-old revealed that her sons have been taking acting lessons for years but she had no idea how much improvement they had actually made until their audition.
"I was more than happy to cast them and then I discovered how much money we saved," she laughingly testified. "I didn't have to get them separate living arrangements, I didn't have to fly their parents in. So we saved a lot of money, which was a benefit."
It turns out that on the first day of filming, due to inclement weather, they actually had to shoot their sons' scene before anything else in the film. To their surprise, the kids knew all of their lines and that set the tone for the rest of the cast and crew.
"The attitude on set was like, 'Oh, this is a serious thing, they're taking this seriously. This is for real,'" she described.
Sam Sorbo has been an outspoken advocate for homeschooling and she said that's one of the ways to ensure a godly future for the next generation.
"I'm trying to convince the world not to do public school. Public school is against Christianity," she declared. "Why? Because when they removed the Bible from public schools, they did not remove religion. Therefore, they're teaching a different religion in school than Christianity. You can't have two competing religions; you have to pick one. So they're forcing Christian children to pick their religion. This is what's happening in our schools today."
The actress said parents wonder why their children are having problems with morals and are turning to atheism. But what they do not realize is that it's because of the learning institution many people are putting their children in.
"They're not being taught morals in public school and they're being indoctrinated in the anti-moral, the amoral, humanist, secular belief system, which holds that children are an accident of nature. You try telling a child that he's an accident of nature, you're devaluing him and at the same time, you're telling him survival of the fittest. Darwin!" she explained.
She poked fun at the fact that people do not want their kids to bully others but then allow them to learn how to look out only for themselves in this world.
"If you're raising your child with the understanding that survival of the fittest is the way of the land, then you'd have to answer to me, what's wrong with what ISIS is doing? What's wrong with the attack that just happened in Vegas?" she posed, adding that it's all because of what is taught. "Survival of the fittest! Do not send children to an institution for eight hours of a day, unless it's a Christian institution."
In addition to the book about this new film, the actress has written two books on the subject of homeschooling and parenting — They're Your Kids and Teach From Love, a devotional and a book that chronicles her family's experience with homeschooling.
Ultimately, she said she wants her movie to offer believers and nonbelievers alike the takeaway of "the knowledge of a loving God."
"My hope for this movie is that people open themselves up to the light of the world," she concluded.
Produced by Fox News political commentator Sean Hannity, "Let There Be Light" hits theaters nationwide on Friday. For more information, visit the movie's website.