Turning It Around

God is calling us to experience His wonderful forgiveness, to break free from the past, and to walk in
the power and love He offers in His Spirit. 1st John chapter 1 says:
7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We can stand before the Lord absolutely clean - not because of anything that we can do; we cannot save ourselves.  But, we can know His forgiveness as we accept His free gift of salvation, acknowledging that we are sinners, believing on Christ, and confessing Him as Lord of our lives. We can confess our sins before Him - regularly - and allow His forgiveness to flow through our hearts, so that we are defined not by our past actions, but our present position in Christ.

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God has brought us into a relationship with Himself through Christ, and has established a new covenent, an arrangement that is predicated on the death and resurrection of Jesus, that can bring us true forgiveness.  Hebrews 8 says:
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
11 None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.
12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."
13 In that He says, "A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

It's really unprecedented when a movie star expresses regrets for an appearance in a film - on moral grounds.  Yeah, you might have an actor talk about his or her involvement in a bad movie in the past, but what Mark Wahlberg has done is certainly worthy of attention.

Faithwire reported on a recent event, at which Wahlberg shared:

Actor Mark Wahlberg recently revealed the one movie that he’s prayed to God for forgiveness for starring in, telling a Chicago audience on Friday that it was his lead role in “Boogie Nights” that left him seeking absolution.

Wahlberg, who played porn star Dirk Diggler in the 1997 film, stood next to Cardinal Blase Cupich at an event aimed at inspiring young people to come back to the Catholic faith when he made the admission.

“‘Boogie Nights’ is up there at the top of the list,” he said when asked if he had any films in particular for which he sought spiritual clemency.

Wahlberg continued, “I just always hope that God is a movie fan and also forgiving, because I’ve made some poor choices in my past.”

The story linked to reports at the Chicago Tribune and People.

The Tribune story stated that Wahlberg "believed his own troubled adolescence, which included time spent in prison for a racist assault on a Vietnamese immigrant, might make it easier for Chicago youths caught up in violent crime to relate to how he turned his life around with the church's help." He said, "I've never been shy about sharing my past and the bad decisions I've made and being affiliated with gangs, being incarcerated, so absolutely I think they can identify with me on a personal level, and that's why I've continued to try to do as much as I can to help young people..."

Faithwire reported that the actor told People magazine last year, in a conversation about the movie about the Boston Marathon attack, Patriots Day, in which he starred: “I think the fact that I’ve been able to turn my life around and really make my mom proud and become a better person through focusing on my faith, it always gives me great sense of pride to come home..."

 Franklin Graham posted a response to Wahlberg's admission.  He stated on Facebook:

Mark Wahlberg is quoted in the news as saying he hopes God will forgive him for his “turn as a porn star” in a 1997 film. The answer to that for Mark or anyone else is—Yes, God will forgive, but it’s on God’s terms. The Bible says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” The Bible is very clear that it is “by grace through faith” not of works.

Franklin went on to include a sinner's prayer.

According to Fox News, the actor hosted an event in Philadelphia when the Pope visited the U.S. in 2015, and the Tribune reports that he had an audience with the pontiff.

Now, the Chicago Tribune story does point out that Wahlberg has a different point of view than Cardinal Cupich and traditional church teaching on gay marriage - the actor supports it.  His response: "I haven't spoken with the cardinal or the pope about that," adding, "I just think we have a lot more important issues to be worrying about. For me, I've got my own issues to deal with. ... I go to confession and I want to continue to work hard on myself."  Perhaps he can have an attitude adjustment on that issue, as well.

Faithwire, referring to a story at The Blaze, stated that "It was in 2012 that Wahlberg told Piers Morgan he either goes to Mass or church every day, stopping in for 15-20 minutes to say some prayers and get his day going."

So, what do we take away from this high-profile expression of faith?

Wahlberg stated, "I just always hope that God is a movie fan and also forgiving."  Well, we can, as Franklin Graham pointed out, have an assurance of God's forgiveness, not by works, but by faith in Christ.  We can be assured of our salvation - if we have trusted Christ as Savior, we can acknowledge that the old is gone, the new has come, and we don't have to live in the bondage of the past, but in the joy of the present, possible through a relationship with Christ.

Wahlberg is definitely owning his bad decisions and issuing a warning to young people.  And, yes, our choices do affect the trajectory of our lives.  We will face the consequences of our choices, but we also have the power to change our course through Christ.  It's not a case of mind over matter or trying to be good in our own human strength, but appropriating the power of the Holy Spirit.

Wahlberg's participation in the film about pornography has a degree of permanence - the film will likely never be erased or made unavailable for people to access.  And, there are decisions and maybe even work product of our own that never go away.  That's a great lesson, by the way, in the world of social media - be careful what you post or share; you can become marked for life.

The best thing we can do when confronted with our past is to ask for and accept forgiveness, to repent and go in a different direction - and we can point to our future in Christ.  We have to be humble, we don't have to try to justify bad behavior, and above all, we can show others who we are now in Him.