In an interview with Joe Rogan last week, award-winning actor Matthew McConaughey said that he has personally witnessed his Christian friends in Hollywood holding out on expressing their faith publicly, fearing that they would lose their career.
During the podcast with Joe Rogan, McConaughey recalled seeing fellow actors that he has prayed with holding their applause when he thanked God during his award speeches.
“I have had—and I won’t throw any people under the bus—but I have had moments where I was on stage receiving an award in front of my peers in Hollywood, and there were people in the crowd that I have prayed with before dinners many times, and when I thanked God, I saw some of those people go to clap, but then notice that, ‘bad thing on my resume’ and then sit back on their hands,” McConaughey said.
“I’ve seen people read the room and go, ‘whoa, that wouldn’t bode well for me in the future,’ if for getting a job or you’re getting votes or what have you. I have seen that; I’ve witnessed that. … I don’t judge them for it, I just wish, you know—that it seems like a silly argument,” the actor continued.
McConaughey blamed the bias against Christians on the “illiberal” left, who he says is “condescending and patronizing” to half the population.
“One of the things that … some people in our industry, not all of them, but there’s some that go to the Left so far—as our friend Jordan Peterson [says]— that go to the illiberal Left side so far that it’s so condescending and patronizing to 50% of the world that need the empathy that the liberals have,” the actor told Rogan.
Dr. Jordan B. Peterson is a well-known Canadian professor, a clinical psychologist, and author who describes himself as classically liberal and has been vocal in his criticism of the authoritarianism of the modern left.
Discussing cancel culture, McConaughey stated that it is wrong to “illegitimize” someone “because they say they are a believer, it’s just so arrogant and in some ways hypocritical.”
McConaughey also stated that, personally, he does not believe that his career was hurt by being openly Christian, and noted that he believes that he “slipped through the net” and had gotten to the point in his career where he is invulnerable to such bias.
Near the start of the podcast, the actor proudly told Joe Rogan that he is a “religious” man, and outright rejected the typical “spiritual and not religious” catchphrase of Hollywood liberals.
In discussing with Rogan why he is able to be a believer while also believing in “science,” McConaughey said that he does not see a contradiction between the two.
He also emphasized that he does not agree with throwing out the Bible simply because parts of it have been “bastardized” by some people to promote division.
