Mark Wahlberg recently made headlines for saying that he hoped God would forgive him for starring in the movie Boogie Nights. Now, the actor has clarified exactly what he meant. Wahlberg never meant to imply that he in any way wished he hadn't taken the role. Rather, he simply understood that particular film might have included some content that God might not really have been ok with. According to Wahlberg...
I was sitting in front of a couple of thousand kids talking about and trying to encourage them to come back to their faith, and I was just saying that I just hope he has a sense of humor because I maybe made some decisions that may not be okay with him.
In the end, Mark Wahlberg was just trying to inspire some kids. He wasn't regretting anything he'd done, just pointing out that he'd done things that his religion might not be entirely ok with, and yet he still considers himself Catholic and embraces his faith. The idea being that these kids, can also embrace their faith, regardless of what else they may have done.
We can't really argue with that. Mark Wahlberg was speaking at an event put on by the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago and, generally speaking, the Catholic religion doesn't have a positive view of pornography. Since the porn industry was the entire focus of Boogie Nights, it makes sense that Wahlberg would feel a bit self-conscious about having made the film. He once apologized to the Pope himself for having made Ted. It seems that Wahlberg's career and his faith have been at odds more than once.
Due to the fact that Mark Wahlberg realizes God may not be ok with his choices, he explained to People that he hoped God at least has a sense of humor about it. One certainly hopes that God is capable of separating the artist from the art. And after all, it wasn't actual pornography, just a movie about pornography.
For what it's worth, not everybody felt that Mark Wahlberg should need to ask for forgiveness. His Boogie Nights co-star William H. Macy has said that the movie is great, and that should be enough. There's little argument that Boogie Nights is a great film. At the same time, there are almost certainly people who have never seen it because they're not comfortable with the subject matter. There's a good chance some of those people were in the audience that Wahlberg was speaking with.
We're not sure what God is going to think of Mark Wahlberg's newest movie, Daddy's Home 2. The trailer does include a snowball fight between members of a nativity scene, so maybe Wahlberg will need to ask forgiveness for that one too.
