HOW A HOSTILE HOLLYWOOD INSPIRED MARK WAHLBERG TO A MORE PUBLIC DECLARATION OF FAITH

Posted on by

Mark Wahlberg defying Christian haters in Hollywood is more than table talk for polite company. The former Funky Bunch rapper, actor is unashamed and unafraid, especially when it comes to being light in an increasingly dark space. Although he’s been speaking about faith in Christ since the 2000s, studio opposition to his 2022 film, Father Stu, was a clear breakout moment.

Studios didn’t want the film based on the rough redemption of Father Stuart Long. He told The Christian Post that this was because “Hollywood doesn’t make films like this.”

After six years of trying, Business Insider added, a fed-up Wahlberg decided to make the “faith-based” film himself. Borrowing inspiration from blacklisted A-lister Mel Gibson, Wahlberg funded the film with millions of his own money and didn’t look back. That decision gave him complete control of the creative process by cutting out complications with those who want in after “cutting the cheques.”

Even some within the church thought the film project was a little sketchy, he recalled. “I was met with resistance not only from studios to make this movie, but also from the Church, which I was really surprised about. “Then I realised, they opened to Page 1, and Bill’s using the F word, and in Page 2, he used it again. “Then next thing you know, [their response is]: ‘this is vulgar, and this is unacceptable’ without really understanding what the message was. “I think,” though, “if you’d left the ‘Passion of the Christ‘ 20 minutes before the movie was over, you get the wrong message too.”

Wahlberg pressed on, made the film without the church, stating, “It was important for us to just say, ‘Okay, let’s go make the movie on our own and then bring it to them and see what their response is.’”

Referring to Father Stu as a beginning, he said, “What I really need to be working on and focusing on is being an example; going out there and doing the work. It’s one thing to say. It’s another thing to do it.” In the end, the church backed the message, Wahlberg explained, not the language.

As was expressed in a warm and appreciative press release published by Father Stuart’s diocese, “Viewers should be warned that the film contains objectionable language, violence, and adult content.

“However, it’s our hope that the redemptive story of Fr. Stu’s conversion will invite viewers to faith and strengthen believers.”

The church also applauded Mark Wahlberg’s passion to make the film, and described the decision as encouraging. Taking specific note of the effort, they said, “We appreciate the thoughtful and diligent work of the production team.”

“Father Stuart Long’s dramatic conversion to Christ before becoming a priest led many people to Christ and the Catholic Faith.”

The film honours that legacy. Father Stu, “raw and unfiltered, combative and grace-filled, witnesses to the truth that no one is ever beyond the reach of redemption.”

While the 2022 film was a catalyst for the superstar’s determination to bring a Christ-centred voice to his vocation, Wahlberg never completely broke what’s left of Hollywood that hasn’t gone woke. Doing so would have been counterproductive. So, he found some middle ground.

Wahlberg moved his family out to Nevada. This included plans to make more quality faith-based content that is light-years away from softly spoken sermons, dusty felt-boards and Sunday school songs. True to his word, Wahlberg hasn’t wavered.

Here are five recent examples where the actor defied the Cultural Marxists behind Hollywood’s anti-Christian hypocrisy:

  1. He called millions to pray in an ad for Hallow App during the 2024 Super Bowl.
  1. That same year, the actor made headlines crediting all his “personal and professional success to his faith.”
  1. In April 2026, Wahlberg openly shared about his daughter’s baptism with US Weekly, and Christian parenting. Such as the decision to lead his kids by example, not coercion.
  1. The actor shared his testimony with The View and Fox News in March, adding that one of the first things he does every day is pray.
  1. Wahlberg popularised the term “Stay Prayed Up”, and has been encouraging audiences on social media to do this for years.

THE VALUE OF KNOWING YOUR CREATOR

Posted on by

When you do, you can live life to the full and be joyful. In this wide-ranging video, the 51-year-old “Growing Pains” star, Kirk Cameron explains how.

Kirk Cameron, who began acting at just 14 years old — referenced a quote he learned from one of his now-grown daughters. Scrawled on a piece of paper, she wrote: “It’s the same boiling water that softens potatoes that hardens eggs. It just depends on what you’re made of.”

“So the same difficult challenges and influences of Hollywood that turns some people sour and makes them narcissistic and bitter and joyless and afraid to not fit in,” Cameron said, “is the same pressure that actually softened my heart and caused me to embrace gratitude and be thankful for the life that I have and want to use a platform and this Hollywood industry to advance the good.”

“I really think it’s what you’re made of,” he continued. “And if you don’t know what you’re made of, don’t look to your environment or your industry or other people to give you an identity.

There is somebody who made you — ask Him. And you can be sure that the ending of the story is gonna be fantastic.”

For Cameron, it wasn’t until he was in the entertainment business that he became a Christian, revealing he actually defined himself as an atheist until he was around 17 years old.

Sitting in his sports car after dropping a girl off at an acting class, Cameron recalled pondering the afterlife, wondering if there really was a heaven and a hell and a creator and a plan for eternity.

“I knew that if there was a heaven, I wouldn’t be going there,” he said, noting he had lived life with a “self-centered, conceited, ‘I’m all that,’ ‘I’m the G.O.A.T.,’(Greatest of All Time) celebrity Mike Seaver guy” mentality, never pausing to consider something outside himself.

It was at that point he decided to pray for the first time, asking God: “If you’re there, would you please show me. … Would you forgive me for all the wrong things I’ve done and make me the person that You want me to be.”

While certainly the most important, coming to Christ wasn’t the only way Cameron changed thanks, at least in part, to Hollywood. He was also introduced to his now-wife on the set of “Growing Pains.”

Cameron said one of his nephews frequently asks him if he “took advantage” and “didn’t waste” the opportunities he had to go out with so many different girls at the height of his sitcom fame.

The actor said he has reminded his nephew he “found something so much better” instead.

“I found a girl,” Cameron said. “She’s beautiful on the inside; she’s beautiful on the outside. I married her and we’ve been married for 30 years. You have no idea how much more valuable that is. I’ve got six grown children who love God and still ask me my opinions about things, who still love to come home and be with me and my wife, and I’m on PragerU’s ‘Stories of Us.’ I mean, the story doesn’t really end much better than this.”

When You Got God, You Got a Friend

Posted on by

matthew-mcconaughey
Matthew McConaughey wins the best actor OSCAR for “Dallas Buyers Club”.
Amazing how the world responded with ridicule and hate to a simple acknowledgment of God.
Why is this, other than a clear example that they unwittingly follow the one who usurped the throne of this world, Satan.
The Bible clearly reveals we are involved in spiritual warfare and the war is hotting up as the world increasingly rejects God and His commandments. God led me to a great resource on Spiritual warfare just when I needed it – The Three Battlegrounds by Francis Frangipane.
I love Matthew McConaughey’s lead up to his acknowledgment of God.
“There’s three things I need each day. One of them is something to look up to, another is something to look forward to, and another is someone to chase”. then he drops the bomb.
First off, I want to thank GOD, cause that’s the one I look up to. He’s graced my life with opportunities that I know is 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 Charles Lawton who said ‘when you got God, you got a friend ….
He then continued with the rest of his speech.
For Christians his acknowledgment of God was encouraging and it is wonderful to know that God has his people in the media.
It is also wonderful that new Christian films such as SON OF GOD will shortly reach our theatres.
In fact three major movies based on Biblical narrative will be released in 2014 and four more are in the works for 2015. It is as if Hollywood has realized that it pays to provide movies based on God’s word. God can use anyone to achieve His purposes.
Pray God will over rule in the production of the Biblical movies that have not been produced and will use SON OF GOD that is already in cinema’s.
The two big budget movies this year are the SON OF GOD, already a box office success in the USA and NOAH which stars Russell Crowe is due later in the year.