--- title: Oscars: Matthew McConaughey Thanking God Doesn't Make Christian Hero description: The predictable backlash to the praise for the Dallas Buyers Club actor's Oscars acceptance speech has finally arrived canonical: https://time.com/16328/writer-matthew-mcconaughey-no-christian-hero-for-thanking-god-in-speech/ author: Eric Dodds article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-10T03:55:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T06:39:24.881Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Oscars: Matthew McConaughey Thanking God Doesn't Make Christian Hero og:description: The predictable backlash to the praise for the Dallas Buyers Club actor's Oscars acceptance speech has finally arrived og:url: https://time.com/16328/writer-matthew-mcconaughey-no-christian-hero-for-thanking-god-in-speech/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt160df6867998313a/69868480e8524b5bdf601b4b/mcconaughey-oscar-cropped.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Matthew McConaughey accepts the Best Actor award at the 2014 Oscars og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Oscars: Matthew McConaughey Thanking God Doesn't Make Christian Hero twitter:description: The predictable backlash to the praise for the Dallas Buyers Club actor's Oscars acceptance speech has finally arrived twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt160df6867998313a/69868480e8524b5bdf601b4b/mcconaughey-oscar-cropped.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Writer: Matthew McConaughey No Christian Hero for Thanking God in Speech > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. by [Eric Dodds](https://time.com/author/eric-dodds/) ## Eric Dodds Mar 10, 2014 3:55 AM UTC  Matthew McConaughey accepts the Best Actor award at the 2014 Oscars Matthew McConaughey accepts the Best Actor award at the 2014 OscarsAdam Taylor—ABC via Getty Images by [Eric Dodds](https://time.com/author/eric-dodds/) ## Eric Dodds Mar 10, 2014 3:55 AM UTC In all likelihood, you didn’t notice that Matthew McConaughey thanked god first when he accepted his Best Actor award for _Dallas Buyers Club_ at the Oscars on Mar 2\. After nearly three-and-a-half hours, you could hardly be blamed. And even if you did notice, odds are you didn’t care. But there were some people [who did care](http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2014/03/03/oscars-2014-matthew-mcconaughey-one-few-who-thanked-god-in-oscar-acceptance/). They cared [very](http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2014/03/02/mcconaughey-thanks-god), [very](http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/mar/3/matthew-mcconaugheys-speech-first-i-want-thank-god/) much. Part of the reason people care is that award winners thanking god is far from common at the Oscars. According to the [_Daily Caller_](http://dailycaller.com/2014/03/02/oscar-winners-rarely-thank-god-in-acceptance-speeches/#ixzz2uyfY4hBd), god has been thanked just 14 times in 100 speeches over the last 30 years. In the last decade, according to [_Slate_](http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/movies/2014/02/oscar%5Facceptance%5Fspeeches%5Fwho%5Fthanks%5Fspouses%5Fagents%5Fdirectors%5Fand%5Foprah.single.html), god has been mentioned fewer times than Meryl Streep. So when McConaughey mentioned god right away, Christians were understandably excited. “First off I want to thank God, because that’s who I look up to. He’s graced my life with opportunities that I know are not of my hand or any other human hand,” McConaughey said after receiving his award. “He has shown me that it’s a scientific fact that gratitude reciprocates. In the words of the late (British actor) Charlie Laughton, who said, ‘When you got God you got a friend and that friend is you.'” But it seems that there’s at least one writer who is not on board with the idea of McConaughey, a 44-year-old Texas native, being crowned the savior of Christianity in Hollywood. Melissa Edgington, author of “Your Mom Has a Blog,” has declared that the _Magic Mike_ star [is not her hero](http://yourmomhasablog.com/2014/03/03/matthew-mcconaughey-is-not-my-hero/): --- > “” --- This backlash has, predictably, spawned backlash of its own—bad enough that Edgington has had to shut down the comments for her posts on the subject (yes, there was a follow-up). None of this should come us a surprise. McConaughey’s speech was bound to stir up some excitement (and not just for fans of _Dazed and Confused_), just as it was inevitable that there would be those eager to downplay and reject that enthusiasm. Blameless in all of this, however, is McConaughey himself. Though he did call a future version of himself ‘my hero’ in his acceptance speech, he never declared himself “the next great Christian idol.” And it can be a little bit difficult to seriously trust the opinion of a writer who hasn’t seen the films she’s calling “filth.” Maybe the thing to do in situations like these is take McConaughey’s own advice and [just keep livin’](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls%5F8cFgBUj4). \[via [_Film Drunk_](http://www.uproxx.com/filmdrunk/2014/03/matthew-mcconaughey-hero-christians-thanking-god-blog-lady-says-fast/)\] Oscars: Matthew McConaughey Thanking God Doesn't Make Christian Hero ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/16328/writer-matthew-mcconaughey-no-christian-hero-for-thanking-god-in-speech/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/16328/writer-matthew-mcconaughey-no-christian-hero-for-thanking-god-in-speech/"},"headline":"Writer: Matthew McConaughey No Christian Hero for Thanking God in Speech","datePublished":"2014-03-10T03:55:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T06:39:24.881Z","description":"The predictable backlash to the praise for the Dallas Buyers Club actor's Oscars acceptance speech has finally arrived","url":"https://time.com/16328/writer-matthew-mcconaughey-no-christian-hero-for-thanking-god-in-speech/","keywords":["movies","Christianity","Oscars","Matthew McConaughey","God"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt160df6867998313a/69868480e8524b5bdf601b4b/mcconaughey-oscar-cropped.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eric Dodds","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/eric-dodds/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt160df6867998313a/69868480e8524b5bdf601b4b/mcconaughey-oscar-cropped.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Matthew McConaughey accepts the Best Actor award at the 2014 Oscars","caption":"Matthew McConaughey accepts the Best Actor award at the 2014 Oscars","creditText":"Adam Taylor—ABC via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/16328/writer-matthew-mcconaughey-no-christian-hero-for-thanking-god-in-speech/","name":"Writer: Matthew McConaughey No Christian Hero for Thanking God in Speech"}}]}] ```