Matthew McConaughey won an Oscar. And, boy, are Christians happy about it. I mean, Christians are jumping up and down for this Texas boy for his big win because he actually thanked God in his acceptance speech. He did, he gave God credit and he thanked his wife like he should and he gave a rambling speech that really made me wonder why they weren’t starting up the music to cut him off. They let Matthew talk for almost four minutes, and the clip of his speech is all over the internet.
Christians are so proud.
And, I can’t blame us. I mean, how often do we hear a major celebrity, an Oscar winner, no less, identifying with us? How often do we get that kind of star power in our corner? It almost makes us seem sort of cool and legitimate.
I liked his speech, although I thought it was a little heavy on the Matthew McConaughey. He’s chasing a hero, who is himself in ten years? Really? But, no matter. He mentioned God and that’s all that counts. It obviously shows that he loves the Lord and lives his life for Him and we will all be fans of his forever because of this speech.
But, there’s one tiny issue with setting Matthew McConaughey up as our next great Christian idol. And, the problem is the movie he won the Oscar for. And pretty much every other movie he’s ever made. (Anyone remember a little film called Magic Mike?) According to pluggedin.com, Dallas Buyer’s Club opens with McConaughey’s character having sex with two girls at the same time in a rodeo stall. That’s only the beginning of the explicit sexual content in the movie. In addition to the nudity, masturbation, and pornography, the film contains over 100 f-words and God’s name is used as a curse word over 20 times.
Matthew McConaughey made this movie, which he was rewarded by Hollywood for making, which goes out into our society and poisons the hearts and minds of our men, women, and young people. And then he gets up to accept his award for making filth that turns hearts away from God, and he thanks God for the opportunity, and Christians applaud him as if he has done something incredible.
We have got to get over our obsession with celebrity and start making connections between what people say and what they actually do. It is never going to be a good thing for Christianity for us to hold these celebrities up as examples of what a Christian should be. If we want to show the world examples of Christianity that should make us cheer, it’ll be our faithful pastors, our grandmothers who have lived quiet sacrificial lives, our friends who would lay down their lives for us, the teachers who go to school every day and live out the commands to love the unlovable and to value every life.
Not Matthew McConaughey. I’m sure he’s a fun guy to hang around with, and I bet he’s a great dad and probably a really good actor. But he is not the next great champion for Christianity.
And that’s probably why I’m not a member of the Academy. Thank you, and good night.
**Please check out the follow-up to this post here!
**Due to the fact that everything that can be said HAS been said–many, many times–comments are now disabled. Thanks for stopping by!
My question is, if you are so anti-Matthew, how is it that you seem to be so intimately familiar with the details of this particular movie? I have not seen it, so I decline to speak on its merits, but I do know it is based on the horrific events of an AIDs patient. And in order to portray that accurately, there is going to be some “gory” details. I am sure they are not for everyone, but it was rated R for a reason. If you do not enjoy movies like that, no one is forcing you to watch!
This blog is exactly the reason why we as Christians are not more influential and effective in our world. Way to go! By the way as it turns out several things he said during his speech spoke to me. AND that is why you are NOT my hero.
hope opines: This blog is exactly the reason why we as Christians are not more influential and effective in our world.”
Absolutely false. The power is in the proclamation of Christ and Him crucified. Foolishness to men. The church’s nauseating whoredom with the world as most purely exemplified by that abomination in California is why Christians have no real impact. We have neutered the gospel with the very pollution were supposed to be fighting.
hope opines: Way to go! By the way as it turns out several things he said during his speech spoke to me.”
Here’s the trouble. Christians are commanded to live in and by the word of God. That means the bible, NOT what Hope finds inspiring. God doesn’t care what speaks to you. He doesn’t care what speaks to me either btw. He cares what HE speaks. See? He’s God n we ain’t. HE tells US what Christians look like. HE tells US what is pleasing to him. Isn’t that nice of Him? You don’t have to guess. All you have to do is daily ask Him and read His word and you will know. Of all the things Matthew McConaughey may have in his life, a credible Christian testimony is not among them.
He may wind up in heaven, that’s not my call. I pray that he does, but as of today? His blood is on my hands if I lie to him and tell him that his life of filth and blasphemy has any fruit of the Spirit of God whatsoever. THAT is the biblical truth. If you don’t like it, find a religion without these pesky scriptures in your way.
Tiribulus, Bro, I love your style.
Wow! Your article really stirred things up, didn’t it? Take heart, Melissa, and be encouraged. This kind of reaction frequently happens when the enemy is threatened or the lukewarm are brought under conviction. Thank you for your boldness to speak the Truth. Stand strong, press on, and keep writing!
Some may think I completely insensitive,
over the top in what I believe,
but the truth of the matter is
it’s the Truth of the matter – His
for which I live and write and speak . . .
so if my walk with Jesus offends you,
it’s unfortunate, but I don’t apologize
because the Word is my defense
and if Jesus Christ is a Rock of offense,
when I represent Him well,
then so am I.
Cheri Henderson
I am glad he thanked God. In all things, glory to God. Is he my hero, no. But I do respect him for saying it in front of so many who are doubters. Maybe, it was God’s way to get someone to look at themselves differently. Maybe, it wasn’t even about Matthew at all. God does work in mysterious ways.
wonderful blog! Love it! And totally agree.
I am sadden that you judge him for the things he has done. I am wondering why you are still on earth if you are so perfect. Judge not lest you be judged.
We are all a work in progress. I am not where I need to be but praise God I am not where I was before. All of us are at different stages in our walk with God.
Wonderful blog! I absolutely agree and I hope the Holy Spirit is working in Matthews life right now.
It’s interesting reading some of these comments, there is definitely two sides that disagree. I also find it interesting that the comments that oppose this blog are really misusing scripture. They are also using strong writing that suggests they are pretty irritated at the judgment being passed on this guy, when he deliberately THANKED GOD for his success in a very ungodly film.
God does not condone sin AT ALL and the fact that Matthew THANKED him for the oscar he won through blatant sin is USING HIS NAME IN VAIN.
“Thou shall not use the lords name in vain” everyone knows the 10 commandments.
Judgment is not a sin. UNRIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT is.
The bible is VERY clear about this.
You just need to take the time to read it and understand it.
we are called to SPEAK THE TRUTH IN LOVE. There was nothing in this blog that seemed hateful or mean spirited. There was however a healthy dose of truth.
Amen Sir! Very good indeed. I also do hope that this man is being drawn by the Holy Spirit. Sincerely I do. We’ll some indication that it’s true when he no longer “performs” in horribly sinful corrupt entertainment media. Christians are at war with their sin according to the 7th of Romans. McConaughey is tragically celebrating his and blasphemously thanking God for it. This conversation is really sumthin else. I just cannot BELIEVE how far we have fallen in just my lifetime.
Dallas Buyers Club, the movie you reference as being “filth”, is based upon a true story. Clearly you haven’t seen it, or your Christian values would surely have felt a twinge of humanity for a character who was doing his best, in his own way, to help people afflicted with an incurable disease have access to treatment and a better quality of life, and yes, while making a buck or two in the process. This film is not just about sex and disease and profiteering….it is about relationships between humans, putting aside prejudice, and finding your way when the deck is stacked against you. So he’s not your hero. I’m guessing he can live with that. And while not all of his films have been art, you really ought to watch this one. But then, there are gay people in it…
The movie is filth and the church is nowhere told to learn lessons in godliness from the world. The following was to somebody else, but applies here. It makes no difference what some immoral actor can live with. What matters is what saith the Lord and we know what the Lord saith from the scriptures.
NOwhere in the whole of scripture do we find any precedent for the mortally dangerous practice of looking to the unregenerate for theology, philosophy or morality. We never find God saying to Israel:
I don’t see that.
Neither do I see Paul telling Timothy:
If sin was required for the production of that media, then your paying to consume it IS the financing of that sin. If you see it for free, you’re a thief. Even if you COULD see it for free, your participation is hypocrisy unless you would be willing to sin with them in it’s production. In which case hypocrisy is avoided but at the cost of being in sin in conscience at the point of production. The one thing that is NOT possible is to participate in this without sin. Most of the people I meet just plug their ears, tell me I’m a “troll” and do what they want. Fine, but ARE living a life of sinful abuse of those you are commanded to love as yourself. You ARE promoting and financing their judgement. You can talk at me until Jesus descends from heaven with a shout and the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God, but you will never EVER escape this truth.
I like this. I was taught that the whole meaning of christian is being CHRIST LIKE. There is NOTHING Christ like about that movie. I think it takes LOADS of courage to post this, and I appreciate that you did post it.
Here’s a great take on Matthew McConaughey and his Oscar speech:
http://blog.acton.org/archives/66453-mcconaughey-oscar-acceptance-begs-question.html
McConaughey and his wife have been seen attending church together, both near their home in Austin and at the Cannes Film festival. … By what standard is McConaughey defining the heroic? He’s not defining it by his actual future self, since each time he arrives ten years later, he’s not yet his hero. There’s some other standard he’s using as a template for envisioning the future hero he aspires to be. What is that template? … since the actor went out of his way to thank God, was raised a Methodist, and has been attending Mass with his wife, his heroic ideal might even have lurking behind it someone more personal—the one man in history ever to perfectly embody the heroic ideal.
————————————–
Maybe, instead of judging… oops, sorry… discerning where MM needs to be in his faith, we should be worried about how we compare to the heroic, and divine, ideal that is Jesus Christ.
James H. “McConaughey and his wife have been seen attending church together, both near their home in Austin and at the Cannes Film festival”
Oh he has a wife that he betrays and dishonors and reproaches in these movies too? That’s even worse. And if she goes along with it for money because It’s “just acting” then this couple are the poster children for what is killing this country and are heightening their judgement every time a mention of God falls from their lips.
The devil will take you to church himself James. Pick you up and drive. As long as you do NOT surrender that heart and life to the transforming work of God in Christ. These people are getting worse the more you bible free liberals try to defend them.
You are helping damn them, not save them. Hollywood is owned and operated by the forces of darkness. It IS today’s Babylon. Come out from her and be ye separate is the command. His movies are pornographic blasphemous filth and those who partake of that filth are filthy themselves. Whether anybody likes that or not is not my problem. The time for being cute n cuddly n nice n warm an fuzzy is long past. That beast has it’s hook so far the down the churche’s throat it’ll take a sovereign act of almighty God Himself to free her.
Whatever this is you’re preachin James it ain’t the gospel.
Too bad you couldn’t spend all that time passing judgement, and used this time to volunteer your Christian time to a worthy cause. By your merely bringing it up sours your whoe message. Sad. May be too much for you to understand. Simply put, It’s easier to love than perpetuate hate.
Duly noted that actors and actresses should never realistically portray persons outlined in the Bible or they must forfeit their “Christian Card”. Accurately portraying characters from the Bible would force them to take the Lord’s name in vain, fornicate, take multiple wives, practice infanticide in an entire town because one of them may be the baby prophesized to be the Messiah, take pleasure in sodomy, torture people in ways that are too horrendous to imagine, rape, seduce for power…shall I continue? There are no events that can be more horrific that many of the ones depicted in the Bible. I haven’t seen the movie, but I do know that it portrays someone who committed sins and paid a price for it by contracting a horrific disease. I don’t feel we can judge him as to whether or not he is a Christian because of roles he plays in movies depicting events that really happen in our world today. If he accurately played the part of Tiberius Caesar during the last days of Christ it would have been an even viler role.
I am not a Christian, but I often read about religions other than my own, because I want to learn about all faiths and try to look at different viewpoints.
Frankly, if all that I knew about Christianity was what I read here, I would think of it as a very judgmental, ultra-critical, narrow-minded, negative, “we’re better than everybody else” faith. Luckily I know from not just reading but also my friendships that this is not true. But the image that some of y’all project, viewed from the outside, is pretty off-putting and pretty far from what I’ve been told that Jesus stands for.