To work in Hollywood, a hatred of Christianity based on ignorance isn’t required. But it couldn’t hurt. As examples, just check out these tweets from Billy Eichner, Bette Midler and Mark Ruffalo.
Eichner, who acted in Parks and Recreation and The Lion King, tweeted on November 27, “If you live alone you can’t leave your house to see one other person BUT you CAN stand with dozens of strangers at a ‘religious gathering.’ Ooookay…”
Observing the sabbath and honoring God is more than “standing with strangers” to a lot of people. Some of them watch the lousy TV shows and movies that pay Eichner’s bills. He might want to remember that.
Perhaps one of the reasons Hollywood hates Christianity so much is due to false historical narratives. For example, Bette Midler, singer, songwriter, actress, author, and comedian, holds ignorant, dangerous beliefs about the Catholic Church, as a tweet on November 27 shows: “Amen, and while we are examining our history, let’s discuss the untold misery the church has inflicted upon indigenous peoples and ‘heretics’ for the last 2000 years. How about some reparations for them? Or just an apology? The oldest CORPORATION in the world.” It’s reasonable to conclude that the “church” she’s referring to is the Catholic Church because it’s the only church that has lasted for more than 2,000 years, and it often gets criticized wrongly for its treatment of indigenous peoples and heretics.
Midler has been sadly led astray. In reality, many Catholic priests were not only admired by the indigenous peoples they converted, their mission buildings were also the natives’ source of protection from cruel landowners. Additionally, how could the Church persecute indigenous peoples for 2000 years? They only discovered them in the 1400s.
With regard to the Catholic treatment of heretics, Midler seems to forget that the English heretics themselves liked to rack, hang, draw, and quarter Catholics for practicing their religion during the 1500s-1600s. And anyway, the horrifying treatment of heretics is overblown. For example, the supposedly notorious Spanish Inquisition actually killed less people than the witch hunts in Protestant Germany and England.
But despite the hatred and ignorance of Christianity that seems to be rampant in Hollywood, celebrities still think they are authorities on it. Mark Ruffalo, famous for playing Hulk in Marvel Cinematic Universe Films, professed that taking climate action is the path to sainthood in a tweet on November 27: “I don’t know how one can consider one’s self as the 'faithful' or 'true believer', and not take climate action. Our inaction is an affront to Creation and Creator.”
Seriously, Ruffalo. Among the greatest Christians were missionaries and martyrs. How in Heaven’s name does being a “faithful” or “true believer” get reduced solely to taking climate action? Whoops, just remembered: this life is more important than the next to these celebrities, so naturally climate action is the only tenet needed to be a good Christian.
Honestly, though, what do these people care about Christianity? Even if “religious gatherings” ceased, reparations were made to heretics and indigenous peoples, and climate action was taken more seriously, it’s not like these celebrities would be satisfied. They’ll always have a bone to pick with Christians as long as the latter remain Christian.
