In the new movie “Do You Believe?”, out in theaters this weekend, Ted McGinley plays Matthew, a sincere Chicago-area evangelical pastor who has a mysterious encounter with street preacher Malachi (Delroy Lindo). This leads him to write an impassioned sermon and hand out little wooden crosses to the congregation — many of whose lives wind up being interconnected.
When Matthew meets Malachi, he’s dragging a huge wooden cross behind him, and he has challenging words for the pastor. Speaking at a press junket last week in Los Angeles, McGinley said:
He’s walking across the crosswalk. And he has this encounter, he won’t get out of my way and I’m like “Come on.” And he says “Do you believe in the cross of Christ?” And I’m like “Yeah, buddy, I’m a pastor.” And that’s when you realize that that’s that sort of thing where he thinks he’s doing it all right. And he doesn’t. He listens as that street preacher comes in closer and he says “But what does it really mean to you?”
And he begins to think about it and he watches him go across the street and have an encounter with some thugs. And he stands right up to them and without fear, “I’m a man of God.” And I realize, the pastor, my character, says “OK, so this is life and death, and he’s got that kind of courage, where do I really stand? What does it really mean to me?” And that’s where it all begins. So I go home and I write this sermon and the next morning I give it as a sermon.
It begins this story of all of these different lives being intersected without really knowing it. It goes out and it begins to live and grow. And it’s fascinating. So it’s this great interwoven story of all these different characters all because of that one incident. And it’s kind of magical.
The cast includes Mira Sorvino, Sean Astin, Cybill Shepherd, Lee Majors and Alex PenaVega, playing people all facing one sort of crisis or another, culminating in a huge car wreck on a bridge at night (filmed over several cold nights in Michigan).
For McGinley, the notion of sermonizing is nothing new:
The truth was I think really what I was connected to [in this movie] aside from the faith was a great sermon, is like being on stage and it’s this amazing moment that you get to grab and hold. As a kid, what I related to was that sermon or the homily in the Catholic Church, because I spent a lot of time in the Catholic Church, too. I was interested in the priesthood even. I mean I just liked all of it.
But what I realize now, looking back, because it wasn’t going to be my track, but what I liked was the fact that I
could move people, I could weave this amazing story and that’s sort of where they do come together, right. When you have a pastor or a preacher or somebody who can deliver something like that, that can change your life, that’s the same as performing an amazing scene.
While people might assume that most people working in Hollywood are secular, McGinley says that’s not the case, even if it doesn’t always come through in movies or TV.
You have to remember that people come to Hollywood from all over the world. There are very few people that are actually from Hollywood. And there are people of all different faiths that come to Hollywood. That’s why it’s sometimes difficult for people, because there are different religions, and those sort of things can start getting in the way of a creative process.
In a movie like this you hope that people of any faith can get together, see it, and then it brings about discussion. And that through faith, humanity and man can overcome adversity and difficult trials and tribulations in your life, and that through the cross, you know that you’re never alone.
McGinley also feels he has something to live up to:
All of us come into things with our own agenda, and especially when you’re dealing with something like faith. And you talk about not wanting to talk about it on a set or whatever. But for me personally, faith is very personal and I don’t think that I’m … I could be a lot better. And so I need to take care of me and try to take care of my kids and kinda lead them to where to go as best I can. I always worry about that sort of presentation to the world, I don’t want to let down other people because they’ve had enough letdown elsewhere. in faith. So, I try to just do what I can and do my best.
The actor also hopes that “Do You Believe” reminds moviegoers that all people of faith are, in the end, people, and that just because you believe in Christ, that doesn’t mean you’re never going to fail or suffer or have doubts. And that goes for men of God, whether preachers, priests or deacons, as well:
[Matthew] and his wife, whom he loves very much, had been going through this horrible experience of infertility. And that she was so harmed and so hurt, and the fact that I take care of everyone else, and that I wasn’t really looking after us … that that’s so real for pastors. You see so many pastors in churches that blow up and it goes bad, because their relationship gets pushed to the side or they have to be perfect by the standards of the rest of the community. And that’s not human, it doesn’t work.
You have to be able to make mistakes and the community has to allow people to say “I made a mistake, I’m just like you. I am not Jesus, I am not God. I am a vessel, I’m a messenger, like you are.” Go out into the world and be imperfect allow yourself to make mistakes and atone for it. And I think, as a pastor, I learned the other side, I learned what happens behind the door. His life is like my life, it’s complicated, it hurts sometimes, but you’re never alone with faith.
Click here to go to my other home, CatholicVote, for a conversation with McGinley’s co-star, Cybill Shepherd, whose turning to Christ may have helped her get the role in “Do You Believe?”
Here’s the trailer:
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