{"id":6677,"date":"2015-09-16T10:00:44","date_gmt":"2015-09-16T15:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/?p=6677"},"modified":"2015-09-16T10:00:59","modified_gmt":"2015-09-16T15:00:59","slug":"michael-keaton-on-his-role-as-reporter-who-exposed-churchs-sex-abuse-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christophers\/2015\/09\/michael-keaton-on-his-role-as-reporter-who-exposed-churchs-sex-abuse-scandal\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Keaton on His Role as Reporter Who Exposed Church’s Sex Abuse Scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"MichaelKeaton\"<\/a>During his 2015 Golden Globe acceptance speech for Best Actor, \u201cBirdman\u201d star Michael Keaton referenced his family\u2019s Catholic roots, saying, \u201cMy name\u2019s Michael John Douglas, I\u2019m from Forest Grove, Pennsylvania. I\u2019m the son\u2014seventh child\u2014of George and Leona Douglas. And I don\u2019t ever remember a time when my father didn\u2019t work two jobs. When my mother wasn\u2019t saying the rosary or going to Mass or trying to take care of seven kids in a rundown farmhouse, she was volunteering at the Ohio Valley Hospital where I was born in the hallway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keaton\u2019s next film is \u201cSpotlight,\u201d which is based on the Boston Globe\u2019s Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into the Catholic Church\u2019s sex abuse scandal there. Keaton portrays editor Walter \u201cRobby\u201d Robinson, whose investigative team slowly uncovers the story.<\/p>\n

Because of Keaton\u2019s Catholic background, it was interesting to read his comments about the scandal in a new \u201cEntertainment Weekly\u201d interview<\/a>. He said:<\/p>\n

Rachel [McAdams] is so good. You see how much [her character] is hurting because she doesn\u2019t want [her grandmother]\u2019s world to come crashing down [because of the newspaper\u2019s story]. That\u2019s part of this movie that I think is not mentioned enough: all the people who really lost their faith. My brother was so upset about [the Church scandal] that he walked away and wanted nothing to do with the Church. He\u2019s a smart guy, so he\u2019s kind of hovering back around, you know, to his faith. But when you believe in something so much and people let you down\u2026 It\u2019s not like being let down by a president. This is 50-fold. This is a deep, deep, deep, deep, deep blow. Disappointment. Because it\u2019s about faith, it\u2019s about everything. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That passage says some interesting things about Keaton\u2019s worldview. For instance, when he notes that his brother abandoned the Church after the scandal, he adds, \u201cHe\u2019s a smart guy, so he\u2019s kind of hovering back around, you know, to his faith.\u201d In other words, Keaton ties being smart to having faith. He seems to differentiate between the sinful nature of some of the Church\u2019s representatives with the Catholic faith itself.<\/p>\n

Keaton also gives voice to the depth of betrayal felt by Catholics in Boston (and everywhere) after the story came to light. But he doesn\u2019t dismiss faith in general as ridiculous. Instead he acknowledges, \u201cIt\u2019s about faith, it\u2019s about everything.\u201d <\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t seen \u201cSpotlight,\u201d but I think it\u2019s fair to say that this will not be an easy film for Catholics in particular to watch. At least Keaton seems to understand the nature of faith better than many in Hollywood because the people he loves the most in this world have given him a shining example of it. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During his 2015 Golden Globe acceptance speech for Best Actor, \u201cBirdman\u201d star Michael Keaton referenced his family\u2019s Catholic roots, saying, \u201cMy name\u2019s Michael John Douglas, I\u2019m from Forest Grove, Pennsylvania. I\u2019m the son\u2014seventh child\u2014of George and Leona Douglas. And I don\u2019t ever remember a time when my father didn\u2019t work two jobs. When my mother […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":488,"featured_media":6679,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,77,55],"tags":[113,105,120],"class_list":["post-6677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-catholic","category-current-events-2","category-movies","tag-catholic","tag-films","tag-media"],"yoast_head":"\nMichael Keaton on His Role as Reporter Who Exposed Church's Sex Abuse Scandal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"During his 2015 Golden Globe acceptance speech for Best Actor, "Birdman" star Michael Keaton referenced his family's Catholic roots, saying, "My name's\" \/>\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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