I've been looking for links that address Kevin Smith's assertions about his personal faith.

Does anybody have any links or references to articles in which he discusses this? I'm having a conversation with a friend who was surprised to learn that Smith had ever claimed to be a believer. So I'm on the hunt now to come up with references for that...

"I'm a real big God fan"

I remember his website talked about him taking the cast of Dogma to church before filming began, just so he could "throw props to God" or some such thing. He seemed very sincere about it. Plus, of course, several of his films have listed God at the top of the thank-yous in the end credits. Not a discussion, or even a claim, but certainly a strong hint.

I remember Ted Olsen at CT posted a nice summary of Kevin Smith's and Bob Larson's appearance on Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect back when Dogma came out -- this was back when "Weblog" was still known as "Amassed Media" -- but CT's website is down right now.

Some sense of his personal faith comes out in the Rick Lyman piece cited elsewhere;

"My feeling is that there are two kinds of people in the world, MAN FOR ALL SEASONS people and CRUCIBLE people, and the difference is what they are willing to die for. In THE CRUCIBLE, John Proctor gives his life because he doesn't want to stain his name; he doesn't want to be known as a witch, which is just a handle that someone wants to hang on him. So his martyrdom doesn't really impress me. It's never as dramatically interesting as Thomas More, who lays down his life for his soul. It's not about his identity; it's about his soul. Even Norfolk and Meg tell him: 'Just sign the oath, what difference does it make? Say it with your mouh but renounce it in your head.' That's when More gives that great speech about how you are holding your soul in your hands like sand, and if you begin to open your fingers, even just a little bit, it all begins to spill out."

In fact, Mr Smith said, he's not sure that people withouth faith are really able to appreciate A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS as deeply as he does.

"It's such an inaccessible movie, in one sense, for people who don't believe in God," he said. "Because the whole time they're watching it, they're thinking More is an idiot. Just take the oath. Why not. But everything comes back to God with Thomas More. He could easily take the oath, but he won't because he feels it would violate his relationship to his God. His vision of himself is based on that relationship. That's so different from John Proctor. In this day and age, try to make a movie about a guy who stands up for what he believes based on his relationship to God. I'm telling you, very few people will turn out.

He added, "I speak from experience."

Mr Smith is talking about DOGMA, the comedy he made in 1999 with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as a pair of renegade angels in New Jersey. It was the director's first real attempt to deal with some of the issues of faith that followed him from his Catholic upbringing, and it caused a brief furor when some religious groups criticized it during its production and just before its release. Once those groups saw that he was attempting to be thoughtful about the subject, the furor subsided, Mr Smith said. ...

One of my favourite details that emerges in the interview: Smith played Cromwell in an eighth grade production of A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic school in New Jersey, adapted for Grade Eight performance by his teacher, Sister Theresa. Cool.

(Full article at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/onfilm/message/3771)

Ron, I believe that you have posted that before. Much of it sounds familiar. FWIW, I'm not sure that Dogma could have been made by one looking disinterestedly at christianity. There is wrestling with faith tangles at every turn. And the moments of grace would have been discarded as too simplistic, or neatly wrapped.

Not an article, but I know that the Vulgar DVD has a documentary about Dogma. It's got some interesting sound bites where Smith discusses some issues about his faith.