Thank God for Alan Ritchson

The 'Reacher' star is the rare Christian celeb who seems like he knows what he's talking about.

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I watched the first two seasons of Reacher and I can’t defend it. I know we’re supposed to be beyond calling any tv shows “guilty pleasures” but I feel pretty guilty about Reacher. It’s so dumb. Like, there’s no reason anyone should feel guilty about indulging in the occasional jelly donut or whatever, but two seasons of Reacher? That’s sixteen episodes. They’re about an hour a pop. That’s sixteen hours of my life that I’ve spent watching a television show! My one, wild, precious life! 

So, I mostly kept Reacher between me and a couple group chats that were safe for “Big Man Punch Good” content. Then a few months ago, I got wind of the fact that Jack Reacher himself, a buffalo-sized actor by the name of Alan Ritchson, was photographed wearing a t-shirt that said “ARREST THE COPS THAT KILLED BREONNA TAYLOR.” I thought that was cool, and more forceful than your average celeb’s mealy mouthed “we condemn division!” statements. I looked into Ritchson a little more and realized that I’d actually already seen him in two other shows: Hawk in Legends of Tomorrow and the micropenis guy in New Girl. (In my defense, he looks like he’s eaten his weight in protein bars since those roles). Then he showed up in Fast X and began a very vocal campaign to be the next Batman and now it seems like he’s set to be one of those actors who Is In Things. 

And yet I was shocked — really and truly shocked! — to read Ritchson’s interview with The Hollywood Reporter. Holy smokes! This guy keeps it real as hell! He’s talking about the call of Christ to love one another unto death! He’s talking about holding powerful institutions accountable, be they religious or political! He was the president of his youth group, which is not a political office I knew youth groups had but still sounds very cool. This man appears to have both the size and capacity for destruction of a Howitzer and he’s opening up about his struggles with bipolar disorder! Apparently he has a whole entire online presence called “Instachurch” where he just talks about what he’s learning in the Bible and delivers the Gospel with the force of a kick to the hood of a car so hard that the airbag deploys!

What am I feeling here? Is this …love? 

“I’m a Christian quite simply because of what Jesus calls us to do: Love other people until death,” Ritchson says in the THR profile. “It doesn’t mean we’re all to be hung on a cross, but how can I suffer for you? That is a beautiful thing.”

Oh man. Here is a Christian man — an enormous Christian man — who understands that the call to “take up your cross” was not about being “persecuted” for culture war bullshit but a call to walk alongside the hurt and the broken? Pinch me, I must be dreaming. 

“Christians today have become the most vitriolic tribe,” he continued. “It is so antithetical to what Jesus was calling us to be and to do …Trump is a rapist and a con man, and yet the entire Christian church seems to treat him like he’s their poster child and it’s unreal. I don’t understand it.”

Taking Trump down a peg or two isn’t exactly unusual in Hollyweird, sure. But a Christian guy in any industry taking Trump down a peg or two — and having the guts to actually use the “r-word” when he does it — is huge!  And look how thoughtfully he does it too. He notes that Christians are vitriolic, but instead of just saying he condemns “vitriol” generally and why can’t we all just get along and blah blah blah, he actually condemns the guy who’s spewing all the vitriol! A novel approach! The only thing sharper than his abs? His mind. 

I mean, listen to this guy! This is good stuff! This is six minutes of solid, specific, practical biblical teaching that calls the self-righteous to repentance and defends the oppressed!

And that “ARREST THE COPS WHO KILLED BREONNA TAYLOR” t-shirt? Not a fluke. Ritchson may scan as a Blue Lives Matter musclehead, but he sounds like the kind of guy who’s one protest away from abolishing for-profit prisons with his bear¹ hands. “Cops get away with murder all the time, and the fact that we can’t really hold them accountable for their improprieties is disturbing to me,” he says, which is the most obvious thing in the world but it still seems like a forbidden spell to see it in print.

“We should completely reform the way that we do [policing],” he continued. “I mean, you shouldn’t have to spend more time getting an education as a hairstylist than as a cop who’s armed with a deadly weapon. We should make it very hard for people to make mistakes or abuse power in our institutions.”

Oh god, Ritchson’s gonna make me one of those “a little louder for the people in the back!” Millennials, isn’t he? Thank God (literally) that a conservative-coded white guy who isn’t actually conservative finally broke into the mainstream. Representation is so important. I feel seen! 

And Ritchson’s got disdain to spare for multiple institutions. Apparently, his mom is a Catholic and Ritchson has no patience for the Catholic Church. “I can’t for one second support the Catholic Church while there are still cardinals, bishops and priests being passed around with known pedophilic tendencies,” he says. “The atrocities that are happening in the church that are being actively covered up, even to this day with people not being held accountable, is repulsive.”

I’ve got nothing but love for my Catholic friends, who I assume can see where Ritchson is coming from here. His stance makes an extra amount of sense when you know that Ritchson talks openly about the sexual exploitation he experienced in the modeling industry (which he calls “legalized sex trafficking.”) 

There’s lots more in the article itself, including Ritchson’s brush with suicide and how faith, therapy, his wife and ecstasy helped pull him back from the brink. 

Last year, I wrote that Christian celebs were being the wrong kind of weirdos, specifically noting conspiratorial anti-vaccine tweets from actors like Zachary Levi, MIA and Letitia Wright. Where, I asked, are the Christian celebs who are being the right kind of weirdos? Looks like I’ve got my answer. It’s always the last place you think to look. Shine on, you crazy, gigantic diamond.

1. Not a typo.