{"id":27287,"date":"2023-08-07T13:01:45","date_gmt":"2023-08-07T17:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=27287"},"modified":"2023-08-07T13:01:45","modified_gmt":"2023-08-07T17:01:45","slug":"actor-rainn-wilson-denounces-hollywood-bias-against-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/08\/actor-rainn-wilson-denounces-hollywood-bias-against-faith.html","title":{"rendered":"Actor Rainn Wilson Denounces Hollywood Bias Against Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Everett Collection \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Former “Office” star Rainn Wilson has made another comment against Hollywood’s bias towards people of faith. Speaking at the Just for Laughs comedy festival, the comedian and actor criticized the “cool kids” of Hollywood, <\/span>saying<\/span><\/a>, “Here’s the catch: In comedy circles in Hollywood, the cool kids all pretend they’re nerds and losers and alienated outcasts. But really, that’s just an act. And there’s no greater way to estrange yourself even further from the apex of the comedy industry as when you discuss God, the soul and spirituality.”\u00a0<\/span>Speaking<\/span><\/a>\u00a0on the “No Small Endeavor” podcast, Wilson said that faith “freaks people out.” “Frankly, I think it freaks people out. I think that most of Hollywood, especially comedians in Hollywood, talking about God is the uncoolest thing you can ever possibly do,” he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Wilson has often criticized the way Hollywood looks down on people of faith. In March, he\u00a0<\/span>tweeted<\/span><\/a>, “I do think there is an anti-Christian bias in Hollywood. As soon as the David character in ‘The Last of Us’ started reading from the Bible, I knew that he was going to be a horrific villain. Could there be a Bible-reading preacher on a show who is actually loving and kind?” Speaking on NPR’s “<\/span>Enlighten Me<\/span><\/a>” podcast with Rachel Martin, Wilson said, “I’ ‘ve always identified as being a dork and a misfit and an outsider. Maybe that’s why I played Dwight so effectively, apparently. And Hollywood comics and comedic actors are filled with misfits and alienated outsiders. But then you throw [faith] into the mix\u2026 the stand-up comics and comedic actors of Hollywood have no idea what to do. I alienated even the unalienable.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Wilson is no conservative Christian lamenting Hollywood’s anti-Christian bias either. After his tweet criticizing anti-Christian bias was picked up by the conservative <\/span>Fox News,<\/span><\/em>\u00a0he\u00a0<\/span>tweeted<\/span><\/a>, “Also, I’m not even a Christian. Of course, it’s true that the evangelical\/political coalition is doing a great deal of damage to our country. Banning books \u2013 banning freedoms \u2013 denying inconvenient science, taking a grotesque anti-LGBTQ+ platform\u2026But most Christians that I know are kind, accepting and loving and seeking to make the world a better place. They should also be honored in the media.” Wilson is a member of the\u00a0<\/span>Baha’i faith<\/span><\/a>, a tradition with its roots in Islam that mixes ideas about pluralism, eastern mysticism, and the “unknowable” nature of God. The actor had been raised in the Baha’i faith before turning away from it. “I didn’t want anything to do with morality or God or hypocrisy of religion,” he told Martin. “I viewed religion as a weakness, used as a crutch by weak people, and spent many years as an atheist. And, well, then, things just started to break down for me. So, I suffered from really crippling anxiety. I had regular anxiety attacks that would render me lying on the floor in a pool of sweat – no joke. But it led me back on a spiritual quest where I was like, you know, maybe I lost something by getting rid of anything and everything to do with spirituality.” Wilson has since gone on to write a book about spirituality in his book,\u00a0<\/span>Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution<\/span><\/em><\/a>, and he also founded\u00a0<\/span>SoulPancake<\/span><\/a>, an organization to “encourage open-hearted dialogue about what it means to be human.”<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former “Office” star Rainn Wilson has made another comment against Hollywood’s bias towards people of faith. Speaking at the Just for Laughs comedy festival, the comedian and actor criticized the “cool kids” of Hollywood, saying, “Here’s the catch: In comedy circles in Hollywood, the cool kids all pretend they’re nerds and losers and alienated outcasts.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":27296,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-television"],"yoast_head":"\nActor Rainn Wilson Denounces Hollywood Bias Against Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rainn Wilson comments on faith and Hollywood.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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