Matthew McConaughey, who stars as the militant Southern Unionist Newton Knight in the Civil War biopic "Free State of Jones," says Knight's moral code and biblical foundation are just a few things that really impressed him.
"He was not a 'turn the other cheek' New Testament guy," McConaughey tells The Daily Beast. "One of the things I noticed about him was if he saw something that was wrong or unjust, he really had no way to ignore it. It was not in his DNA to ignore it, [expletive] be the consequences. He didn't lose sleep over any decisions he made. That's something I really admired about the guy."
But as great as it is for Knight to have a moral code rooted in the Bible and the Declaration of Independence, which states that Americans must "love thy neighbour as thyself, and all men are created equal," McConaughey says Knight's principles are lost on Americans nowadays.
"It is my personal belief that mankind has bastardised religion," he says. "Religion actually means, if you look up the Latin root, 're' which means again, and 'ligare,' which means to bind together. It means exactly the opposite of what and how we are often practicing it these days!"
"All of this, the abolition of slavery in the Civil War at this time, they were almost all led by religious movements—Christian movements—that were trumping the ideals that everyone else had. They went further into it and said, 'No, this is not right—because of the Bible,'" he says.
The men and women Knight led to freedom are deeply religious. In an exclusive clip shared by The Christian Post, Knight is seen asking a man named Moses what he is.
"I'm a free man," Moses replies. When Knight asks why, Moses simply says, "You cannot own a child of God."
The statement really moved Knight because "no you cannot, can you? You can own a horse, you can own a mule, a cow, an ox, but you cannot own a child of God."
"Free State of Jones" was released on the big screen last June 24.
