in 2012, jackson and his family were baptized into the orthodox church. jackson cited a trip to romania and rome that first brought his attention to learning about the history of christianity. in his acceptance speech for his 2012 daytime emmy award, he thanked the holy trinity as well as the monks on orthodox monastic enclave mount athos. jackson later explained in an interview, "these people (are) dedicating their lives to prayer, and not just praying for themselves, but truly praying for all of us. and then the thought kind of crossed my mind: with all the destruction, chaos and insanity that goes on in this world, if their prayers weren't happening, what would this world be like? i felt, personally, like i just wanted to thank them because i really believe that their prayers mean a lot."