A Christian Comedian Falters: Why Accountability Regarding Women Matters

John Crist is a somewhat popular Christian comedian, known for short video bits that he’s posted on social media that usually poke fun at Christian culture in a clean way.  I honestly didn’t find him especially funny–it just wasn’t my kind of humor–but I also didn’t mind him.  Nevertheless, he was popular enough to land himself a Netflix special that was set to come out soon.

Unfortunately, reports have come out that Crist regularly preyed upon women and sexually harassed them (the story was first broken by a Christian publication, Charisma News).  He apparently would use his popularity to get into contact with women, flirt with them, and then try to pressure them into a sexual relationship.  It did not matter if he knew that they were married.  He has admitted to sexual addiction and treating women poorly and that he has sinned against God:

“While I am not guilty of everything I’ve been accused of, I confess to being guilty of this — I have treated relationships with women far too casually, in some cases even recklessly. My behavior has been destructive and sinful.  I’ve sinned against God, against women and the people who I love the most. I have violated my own Christian beliefs, convictions and values, and have hurt many people in the process.”

He has canceled his comedy tour, and reportedly his Netflix special is now on hold.  Which makes sense: It’s not like he would appeal to a non-Christian audience, and with this coming out, it is doubtful many Christians are going to bother to watch him either.

What is also concerning is that this was evidently not a surprise to several people who had heard second- or third-hand that Crist had this problem.  And I’m not talking about simply having a flirtatious personality; apparently several people already knew that he would brazenly go after women, even married ones.  That this predatory behavior flew under the radar in a Christian setting is frustrating.

Now my aim here isn’t to simply kick him while he’s down, even though that wouldn’t exactly be undeserved.  I do hope that he means what he says, repents, seeks healing, and experiences restoration in a church, and I hope that the women he has harmed also experience healing and have not had the gospel tainted for them due to his inexcusable actions.  Still, it is worth analyzing how things like this often happen, especially to popular or charismatic Christians and young women, and it is also worth discussing how it can be avoided.  Crist was not a pastor or church leader (to my knowledge, anyway), but how he sinned can still be instructive to Christian leaders and men in general.

A Brief Return to the Subject of Donald Trump and How Christians Should React to Him

A few years ago, I puzzled over the popularity of Donald Trump during the Republican primaries and then criticized simplistic evangelical defenses of him.  I have made my disdain for the far Left and the Democrats very clear on this blog, especially as that party goes down the toilet of crazy, but I have also made my reservations about Trump clear.  I decided not to vote for him because I feared the long-term damage he would do to these things:

1. Political conservatism, which is already unpopular to people my age and younger due to the heavy bias in the media, in entertainment, and at the university.  I didn’t believe Trump was even a real constitutional conservative anyway.
2. More importantly, to the witness of the church.  I did not like the idea of evangelicalism being associated with a guy like him by large numbers of us voting for him.

Barack Obama Utilizes His White Privilege to Call Out Woke Culture, Scream Leftists

CHICAGO, IL – Former President Barack Obama, speaking during his Obama Foundation summit in Chicago, criticized the prevalence of cancel culture and political “wokeness” that is often displayed on social media.  Not only did he imply that such actions were immature and useless, he cautioned against fanatical ideological purity because the world is “messy” and people are complex.  “People who you are fighting may love their kids, and share certain things with you,” he opined.

The all-wise leftists on social media took exception to this chastisement and noted that his “good people on both sides” rhetoric sounded suspiciously like Donald Trump’s remark regarding the Charlottesville riots, where Trump undoubtedly meant that there were good people on the white nationalist side and not good people on either side of the Confederate statue debate, despite what word-for-word transcripts and full videos of his speech convey.  It appears, these leftists argue, that Obama is blinded by his white privilege in his call for civility and humility.

“I know Obama is considered the first black president of the United States, but people forget that he’s actually half-white,” pointed out Ginger Williams, secretary of the Non-Gendered Gender-fluid Society For and Against the Law of Noncontradiction.  “That white part of him has obviously taken over because only privileged people can tell victims to not judge and cancel those who hurt our feelings,” Ginger argued (editor’s note: Ginger insisted on the use of Ginger’s preferred pronoun, “ching,” but then Asian employees objected to that as a racial slur… so we’re, like, confused).

Chad Bozeman, one of the good white males (he insists), agreed.  “As a white man, I am embarrassed that half of Obama is culturally appropriating the experience of the other half of him by claiming that he’s the first black president of the US, forever robbing that title from any future fully black president.  It’s also so uncool that he is denying the narrative of so many minorities that he can’t possibly understand as a white man.”  When Bozeman was asked what he would think if Obama identified as a black man, Bozeman was initially dumbfounded before calling the reporter a Nazi and abruptly leaving.

“Who does he think he is?” asked Benjamin Franks, president of African-Americans Against Crackers and Racism, complained.  “This is a man who was raised by a white woman and was part of upper society, going to Harvard and becoming a lawyer.  There’s no way the system would allow a truly black man to have those kinds of perks.  I mean, look at me; my family was only upper middle class, and a white woman gave me a dirty look once when I cut in line at the grocery store.  Did Obama have to overcome that?”

Social media calls for the media to investigate Obama’s possible links to Richard Spencer and other white nationalists have intensified as of the time of this writing.  There are also calls to fact-check this obviously satirical article because reading comprehension and critical thinking aren’t expectations anymore.