In an interview with Esquire, actress and sexpot Megan Fox describes her surprisingly devout Pentecostal background and familiarity with speaking in tongues.
In the piece written by Stephen Marche, the "Transformers" star reveals her childhood growing up in Tennessee, where she faithfully attended a local Pentecostal church. The interview will be featured in the magazine's February 2013 issue.
As the BBC notes, Pentecostals are Christians who emphasize the direct presence of the Holy Spirit. They also believe that speaking in tongues, prophesying and healing are "gifts of the Spirit" bestowed on worthy believers by God.
Fox told Esquire that she began speaking in tongues when she was 8 years old.
"The energy is so intense in the room," she said, "that you feel like anything can happen. They're going to hate that I compare it to this, but have you ever watched footage of a Santeria gathering or someone doing voodoo? You know how palpable the energy is? Whatever's going on there, it's for real."
Fox also said she had witnessed healings and other "magical things" in church, and that the experience, called "getting the Holy Ghost," feels like "your whole body is filled with this electric current."
While this is one of the first times Fox has spoken publicly about her faith, she actually shares her Pentecostal beliefs with pop star Katy Perry.
In a 2010 Rolling Stones feature, Perry said "Speaking in tongues is as normal to me as 'Pass the salt.'" Perry went on to say that her parents, Christian ministers from California, often spoke in tongues in her presence, CNN notes.
In 2006, The New York Times reported on a study of 1,000 evangelical Christians in England that found that Christians who spoke in tongues "were more emotionally stable than those who did not."
Pentecostalism is a rapidly growing portion of Christianity, and in the U.S., the movement is spreading among the middle class, the Christian Post reports.
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