Actor Mark Wahlberg ripped into cancel culture for its toxic gracelessness by denying people mercy with no hope for redemption.
Speaking with Faithwire about his upcoming movie Father Stu, the true story about boxer-turned-priest Stuart Long, Wahlberg, who has spoken at length about his newfound Catholic faith, said that cancel culture causes people to “lose hope and have no faith.”
“This movie has a very clear message that we are not going to give up on people,” Mark Wahlberg said. “We are not going to turn our backs on people because of mistakes that they’ve made. We are going to tell people and encourage people that nobody is beyond redemption and that we support you, we love you, we accept you for who you are.”
“There’s nothing worse than when somebody realizes that people don’t care,” he added.
The Patriots Day and The Departed star said people are now “so quick to turn their backs on people” and that “negativity as a whole has just been amplified in a way that it’s really hard to remind people of the importance of loving and supporting people.”
“People can do incredible things,” he added.
Wahlberg further credited God for Father Stu getting made and hoped that his legacy would reflect a life of Christian positivity.
“I’m kind of doing all this not to continue to grow my career, but to utilize my career for good and to do God’s work,” he said.
“If this is a movie that really changes people’s lives and motivates them and inspires them to do great things — you know, all I really gotta do is convert one person, and I get to go through the pearly gates,” he explained. “So If I can continue to do that in a major way, remaining humble and just doing it for all the right reasons, then I would much rather have that be my legacy than being the biggest box office star in the world.”
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In 2017, following President Trump’s election, Mark Wahlberg also said celebrities should stay out of politics.
“You know, it just goes to show you that people aren’t listening to that anyway. They might buy your CD or watch your movie, but you don’t put food on their table. You don’t pay their bills,” he said in an interview with Task & Purpose. “A lot of Hollywood is living in a bubble. They’re pretty out of touch with the common person, the everyday guy out there providing for their family.”
“Look, I’ve never gone out and talked about politics. I’m an actor,” Wahlberg later told Yahoo Finance. “Both Republicans and Democrats buy movie tickets. I had a strong opinion and I didn’t choose to voice it out in the public, but now that somebody is in office, let’s all just come together and rally around him and make sure he has the best chance to succeed.”
“For better or for worse, this is our country,” he continued. “At least for the next 3 ½ years, he’s going to be making a lot of decisions. So let’s go out there and try to make positive change.”