George Clooney was raised in Georgetown, Kentucky in a devout Catholic family.[1]
Clooney speaks highly of his Catholic roots, saying:
I used to go to confession every week….I grew up with a great sense of structure and respect.[2]
Clearly, Clooney has outgrown his childhood religion and now, has no problem telling the world he's an Agnostic. In fact, some quotes indicate that Clooney might be more of an atheist:
I don't believe in Heaven and Hell. I don't know if I believe in God. All I know is that as an individual, I won't allow this life — the only thing I know to exist — to be wasted.[3]
Still, he's very careful to stress that he has no problem with those with religious beliefs, saying:
Whatever anybody believes as long as it doesn't hurt anybody else, it's fair enough, and works, and I think, is real, and matters. I don't happen to have those beliefs, as much, you know, I don't believe in those things.[4]
Celebrity superhero to the rescue
Politically, Clooney has been very active throughout his career. He calls himself a liberal and wonders why society has turned on liberals, saying:
I'm a liberal. I'm confused when that became a bad word…the liberal movement morally, you know, has stood on the right side of an awful lot of issues. We thought that blacks should be allowed to sit at the front of the bus and women should be able to vote, McCarthy was wrong, Vietnam was a mistake.[5]
Clooney was so disturbed by genocide efforts in Darfur that he addressed the United Nations Security Council about it, hoping for more intervention.[6]
It's not surprising Clooney turned his fame as an actor towards political causes. His father was a journalist who went after corrupt politicians in his time. Clooney said:
My dad, who went after OPEC for raising gas prices and Gerald Ford for pardoning Richard Nixon, believed it's your responsibility—not just your right—to question authority.[7]
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