Matthew McConaughey Shares How His Faith Has Evolved over the Years

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Matthew McConaughey has become an outspoken believer over the years. In fact, it would seem he's done something of a full circle. When he was a child, he was brought up in a Baptist family and went to church weekly. His mom was a substitute school teacher who grew up in New Jersey, and his father grew up in Mississippi, owned a gas station, and also ran an oil pipe supply business. His parents decided to make their home in Texas and raised McConaughey and his two brothers there.

His brothers took an interest in the oil pipe supply business, but McConaughey wanted to do something different with his life. He considered law and started to study it in college, but then he changed his major to film, which is how he eventually ended up going into acting, according to the IMDB.

When McConaughey became a teen, he began to question religion and slowly drifted into the path of being agnostic. It wasn't until he met the woman who would be his wife, Camila, that he began his journey back to being religious. She attended a non-denominational church weekly, and once they were married, he also returned to attending weekly, according to The Other Cheek. 

"I'm a believer. I believe in God," he told Relevant Magazine in a recent interview.

He mentioned his years of being an agnostic, and that he had a mentality that life is nothing more than "fate."

"Well, it's all fate. What's going to happen is going to happen. It's all been written."

Then, he decided to stop attributing life's events to "fate" and take some personal responsibility for his decisions. 

"That's why you've got free will – you make the choice for yourself," he said.

When asked about his prayer life, McConaughey said that he sees prayer as "inventory" and that when he prays at church, it's a time when he can "…let my memory catch up. I take a deep breath, understand myself as being number two in God's house, and go back to my week, remembering what I can [about the sermon message]."

Photo Credit: ©Facebook/Matthew McConaughey

Elizabeth Delaney has been a freelance content writer for over 20 years and has enjoyed having her prose published in both the non-fiction and fiction markets. She has written various types of content, including Christian articles, healthy lifestyle, blog posts, business topics, news articles, product descriptions, and some fiction. She is also a singer-songwriter-musician. When she is not busy with writing or music, she enjoys spending time with friends or family and doing fun social activities such as hiking, swing dancing, concerts, and other activities.