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Tim Allen doesn’t take faith lightly.
Over the past year, the comedian has been doing a deep dive into the Bible.
“Finished the entire Bible,” “The Santa Clause” actor wrote on X recently. “it’s been a 13 month word by word page by page no skimming journey.”
The 71-year-old said he was “Humbled, enlightened and amazed at what I read and what I learned. I will rest and meditate on so much. I will begin it again.”
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Tim Allen recently did a deep dive into studying the Bible. (Raymond Liu/Disney via Getty Images)
But the “Home Improvement” star hasn’t always been so sure of his beliefs.
Learning about life’s cruelties at an early age
He struggled with it for years after his father was killed by a drunk driver when he was a child.
“My father was killed by a drunk driver when I was 11 years old,” Allen told Mike Rowe on his podcast last fall. “Luckily, he was the only one killed. But he died in my mother’s lap. My other two brothers were thrown around the car, a lot of kids were hurt.”
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Allen, who hadn’t been in the car during the crash, said he went back to his house after spending the day with a friend “knowing something terrible had happened” and he was praying and bargaining with God over it.
“I said, ‘I will eat vegetables.’ Whatever as a kid. ‘Just make — whatever’s going on — this is terrible. I will do my homework,’ or whatever,” he explained of his attempt to bargain with God at such a young age. “And none of that happened. I get to the house. There’s police and my uncle was there and said, ‘Man up. You know, your mom needs you right now. So, no crying. None of that.’”
Allen said everyone around him told him his father was “in a better place.”
Tim Allen in a church scene from “Last Man Standing” in 2017. (Craig Sjodin/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images Television Network)
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“My first reaction was, ‘Then why are we in this s—hole? Why don’t we just start there?’ And it never got answered.”
Allen explained that his “pain” and “discomfort” over his father’s death and faith “never stopped” because of that.
“For many years I didn’t care,” he said. “That whole process started me on asking questions and generally getting no answers.”
But his shop teacher at school told him to stop asking questions and figure out what he could do. “‘That’s all you can do,’” he said of his teacher’s advice to take control of his life. “I used to love that about shop teachers.”
“I don’t know what political, religious persuasion I really am because the more I look at the emanator, I tag it, I make names, and then I go through this whole thing,” he explained of the way he perceives God. “It’s in a big chair, and it’s got a beard for some reason. It looks like Father Time.”
He joked he feels like this emanator tells him, “‘You have no idea how big I am. How insignificant you are and yet you have the capacity to go, ‘Nah, I think I got it.’”
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A “curious” relationship with God
In 2011, Allen told ABC News he’d felt like he’d had a “curious” relationship with God following his father’s death.
Tim Allen in a scene from 1994’s “The Santa Clause.” (Walt Disney Pictures/Getty Images)
He said that for years he wondered if he had prayed harder or if he’d done something else, his father might still be alive.
“For years, I just did not like this idea of God, church,” he admitted. “(I was) still a churchgoer, but constantly a cynic.”
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But he said he soon began to think of God as “The Builder.”
“I always do ask…The Builder, what did you want me to do?” Allen said. “And I do ask it. But you got to be prepared for the answer.”
He added that he doesn’t believe humanity could be a coincidence.
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“Whoever built me, this is too much, too weird that it happened by accident,” he said. “It didn’t happen by accident.”
Tim Allen said he struggled with his faith for years after his father’s death. (Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)
A wake-up call
His arrest for selling cocaine when he was in his 20s was also a wake-up call in his life.
“When I went to jail, reality hit so hard that it took my breath away, took my stance away, took my strength away,” he told Esquire in 2011.
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He said at that moment, when he was feeling suicidal, the “comic” in him appeared and “saved” his life.
Forgiving his father’s killer
And last September, inspired by Charlie Kirk’s widow’s ability to forgive her husband’s alleged killer, Allen said he wanted to forgive the drunk driver who killed his father.
“When Erika Kirk spoke the words on the man who killed her husband: ‘That man… that young man… I forgive him. That moment deeply affected me,” he wrote on X. “I have struggled for over 60 years to forgive the man who killed my Dad. I will say those words now as I type: ‘I forgive the man who killed my father.’ Peace be with you all.”
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Bible journey begins
In August 2024, Allen admitted he had never taken the time to “really read the Bible.”
At the time, he said he was nearly done “reading the Jerusalem Bible Old Testament and almost done with the Prophets. Next up to New Testament. So far amazing and not at all what I was expecting.”
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Tim Allen in a scene from “Home Improvement” in 1995. (American Broadcasting Companies via Getty Images)
By October 2024, he updated fans on X, by saying he had finished a “rather intense” Ezekiel and was moving on to Daniel. “The challenge in reading this Book is how I translate words that the Eternal expresses to the temporary. I need a Snickers,” he joked.
One year ago, he said he had finished the Old Testament.
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“After nearly a year I have finished entire Old Testament and the experience of re reading, dedicated focus and no drifting has made this a humbling overwhelming experience,” he admitted. “What a treasure. Three days into New Testament.”
By June, he revealed he was now reading the Gospel of Paul. “A Roman Jew familiar with Plato, Stoicism, and other Greek schools of thought. I am amazed in seven pages!”
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Recently, Allen told Bill Maher on his podcast that he was studying what Paul said about law having been invented to “develop sin. Without law, you don’t know what sinful is … And what you’re going to find is the cycle of ignorance with philosophy.”
He admitted, “That’s where I’ve been in the last 20 years.”