Answer: Maybe
Disclaimer: It is not our role to determine whether or not somebody is a Christian. We just use our discernment based on the evidence we have found on the internet to come to a likely or best-guess answer. Our answers do not actually determine who is or is not a Christian and it is ultimately between the person and God. Not us.
Matthew David McConaughey who was born on 4th November 1969 is an American actor. He came into the limelight in 1993 when he played a supporting role in the comedy “Dazed and Confused”. He achieved commercial success when he played a lead role in the 1996 movie, “A Time to Kill. Since then he has featured and taken lead roles in several American films.
Matthew McConaughey has received many nominations and awards because of his great talent. These Awards include the AACTA Awards, Academy Awards, Alliance of Women Film Journalists, American Cinematheque Award, Austin Film Critics Association, Blockbuster Entertainment Awards, Boston Society of Film Critics, Chicago Film Critics Association, Crime Thriller Awards, Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, Critics’ Choice Television Awards, Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association, Hollywood Film Awards, and several Awards.
Matthew McConaughey grew up in a Christian home and was raised a Methodist. Although the actor says that he is a Christian and a believer, some people think he is a hypocrite. This article will give answers to the questions about his Christian status.
Is Matthew McConaughey Religious?
Most people do not admit it when asked if they are religious or not, because they don’t want to sound too holy, but Matthew McConaughey who is not ashamed to express his faith in public agreed he is religious. He is very open about his faith.
In an interview on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, McConaughey replied “yes” when he was asked by Rogan if he is religious. He said, “You know what the Latin root of ‘religion’ is? Religare. ‘Ligare’ means to bind together and ‘re’ means again. So yes, I am religious.”
During another interview in 2001, he said that he grew up as a “Methodist, not Southern Baptist” Then he told People Magazine that his son’s name “Levi”, was inspired by a Biblical Character.
He said in an interview, “We were raised Methodist. I went to church every Sunday, we were pretty active in the youth groups on Sunday evenings and sometimes Wednesdays. You know, what has become an extended church is we always went around the horn and said our prayers of gratitude before meals, which I continue to do to this day”.
McConaughey also believes that religion and science work together. He stated that “science is the practical pursuit of God.” “The two are not exclusive. They dance together; they go together, belief and science. I never saw those as contradictions, Methodists are a lot about thanks, an awful lot of gratitude for being thankful for what we have. And that belief has helped lead me to understand, to believe that the more we’re thankful for, the more we will create in our lives to be thankful for. I do believe that’s a fact.”
He was further asked about his belief in the Bible and how true it is, McConaughey replied, “I don’t know what to do in my daily life with the burning bush, I do know what to do with ‘love your neighbor like yourself’ and I do know what to do with some Proverbs that I can take into daily practice.”
In the interview, he also spoke about some passages of the Bible he doesn’t understand. He also stated that “There are philosophies, Proverbs, and teachings that are very valid and helpful that we could all be reminded of”.
He has said that his favorite Bible Verse is, Matthew 6:22, “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light.”
McConaughey has also confirmed that even though he was raised a Christian, his career made him deviate but it was his wife’s faith that turned him towards God again.
Does Matthew McConaughey Believe in God?
Matthew McConaughey in many interviews has said that he believes in God. When he was receiving an Oscar award for his role in the American movie, Dallas Buyers Club, he said in his speech,
“First off, I want to thank God, because that’s who I look up to. He has graced my life with opportunities that I know are not of my hand or any other human hand. He has shown me that. It’s a scientific fact that gratitude reciprocates. In the words of the late Charlie Laughton who said, when you’ve got God you’ve got a friend — and that friend is you.”
McConaughey said that Hollywood “Is not a place where Christian fundamental values are espoused openly,” but this doesn’t stop him from achieving his goals. He said, “I haven’t measured or noticed where it has harmed or gotten in my way of what I wanted to achieve.”
McConaughey told Relevant Magazine that “I’m a believer. I believe in God. God’s laying out the highways, but we each have our hand on the wheel, I look at Earth. I look at the little dot that we are on the planet. The world’s turning. And we’re that little individual on the planet. That smallness can make you go, ‘Oh my gosh. I’m nothing. None of what I do matters,’ But, a place of humility is actually when you realize, ‘Oh, it all matters.’ There’s a great empowerment that comes with that.”
Is Matthew McConaughey a Christian?
Throughout his career, McConaughey has been a very vocal Christian. In interviews or during an award-giving ceremony, he grabs opportunities to express his faith in God. He said, “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 thank God, I saw some of those people go to clap, but then notice that, ‘This could be a bad thing on my resume,’ and then sit back on their hands.”
He further said that people always tell him that speaking about his Christian faith in Public will not help his career. In his words, he said, “I’ve seen people read the room and go, that wouldn’t bode well for me in the future—if for getting a job or getting votes—um, I have seen that. I’ve witnessed it. I don’t judge them for it. I just wish, you know, that it seems like a silly argument.”
McConaughey visited a monk named ‘Brother Christian’ and confessed his sins to him. He said:
“I confessed to him for four hours, I’m feeling like I’m at the bottom of the earth. I’m bawling and snot’s coming out of my nose. What does he say? The only word he says to me after four hours of my confessions. He looks me in the eyes and he goes: ‘Me too.’ He let me know that I was not the center of the universe. He let me know it was a human condition, what I was going through. God’s not looking for us to come there perfectly. He’s not looking for us to come there all cleaned up and a halo on it. He wants to open the door when we’re groveling. He’s not going to judge us on that. God’s going to go, ‘Hey man, thanks. I’ll come with you through this. I’ll go with you through this. I’ve seen it all.’”
As a Christian, he always prays and goes to Church. In his words: “Prayer is inventory, I go to church once a week. I go, I pray and I do inventory. I take a deep breath, understand myself as me being number two in God’s house, and go back through my week. “And then I come out of that church with whatever lesson the pastor shared and go, ‘Alright. Tomorrow’s Monday. Let’s see if we can put those into practice.’”
He believes in the Christian Holy Book, the Bible, he said: “There’s a lot of great truths that come out of the Bible”.
McConaughey is still practicing Christianity as a Methodist, even though he got married to his wife, Camila Alves in a Catholic wedding ceremony and also attends a non-denominational church where he stands on the stage to read the scripture.
Is Matthew McConaughey Baptized?
Matthew was raised in Methodist and was named after the Biblical Character, Matthew which means that he was baptized. He said “My mother said: your name is Matthew, I named you after the Bible. It is not Matt, do not ever answer to Matt in your life.’ It was like ‘Yes mam’, so that’s one of the things when people go ‘Matt’, I say ‘Matthew, please’”.
What did Matthew McConaughey say about Jesus?
Matthew McConaughey says that he believes in Jesus even though he does not understand some of Jesus’ miracles.
In an interview, he said that Jesus is always standing on the other side of our door and holding the doorknob.
He said: “An individual in his small house: imploding, Just going through all the hardships, shaking the devils and monkeys off his back; just frustrated. It’s getting dark, dark, dark, dark. And just outside his door, the one door to his one room that he’s in, stands Jesus, all right? The door only has one doorknob, but it’s on the inside. I love that image of that. God is there but we have to open the door. We have to grab the doorknob. It’s up to us to grab the knob and open the door.”
Conclusion
Matthew David McConaughey has been very vocal about his Christian beliefs. He doesn’t care if his public expression of faith will hinder his progress in Hollywood. He goes to Church and prays daily. He was raised a Christian but deviated from his faith at some point in his career. Since his return to the fold, he takes every chance he gets to tell the world about his faith. Even though some people still doubt his status as a Christian because of the role he played in a movie, we opine that Matthew McConaughey might be a Christian. Since we haven’t seen any direct proof that he has declared Jesus as the Lord, we are uncertain. He does believe in God and the Bible, and we think he could be a Christian, but without him saying anything about Jesus specifically confessed as Lord, we have to put a maybe.
Think we were wrong? Write your reasoning in the comments and prove us wrong!