Ohio Gov. John Kasich criticized actor Daniel Radcliffe for being an atheist, asking “What the hell is wrong with him?”
The Republican governor and former presidential candidate was touring downtown Exeter, New Hampshire, last week when he walked into a local bookstore and came across a copy of the latest Harry Potter book, the Concord Monitor reported.
“You know that Daniel Radcliffe has declared himself an atheist?” Kasich said, according to the Monitor. “I’m serious. What a weird thing. Why would a guy who has had all that success just, I mean, what the hell is wrong with him?”
Radcliffe, a successful former child actor and star of the Harry Potter movie series, has been open about his atheism in the past. In 2009, he told Esquire Magazine, “I’m an atheist, but I’m very relaxed about it. I don’t preach my atheism," the Chicago Tribune noted.
Kasich was raised Catholic and has been going to Bible study every other week for the past two decades. He had a lapse religiously in his earlier adult years, but after losing his parents, who were killed by a drunk driver in 1987, he recommitted himself to religion, the Tribune reported.
Kasich also has written two religious books focusing on the subject of faith.
For those familiar with Kasich’s past actions — like trying to “teach Judaism to a group of Jewish Talmudic scholars” in a bookstore — his reaction to Radcliffe’s decision to be an atheist shouldn’t come as a big surprise, Politics USA noted.
Radcliffe, who tries to stay out of the public eye when it comes to his personal life, hasn’t commented publicly on the governor’s comments.
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