Josh Benner

Tag: John Crist

  • Christian comedian break silence 8 months after sexual misconduct scandal

    Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

    After an eight month hiatus from the public eye, popular millennial Christian comedian broke his silence through social media on Wednesday. Last November, Charisma News broke a story detailing numerous allegations of sexual misconduct carried out by Crist.

    Before the sexual misconduct scandal, Crist had amassed millions of followers online, had a popular standup tour, was a few weeks ago from the release of a Netflix comedy special. He had become a social media sensation among evangelical millennials for poking fun at the Christian subculture.

    Crist notes the overwhelming support he’s received from fans.

    With a scandal of personal sin, I feel like there are two primaries camps where Christians find themselves. And I think that this is interesting, not just because of Crist, but because it’s a microcosm of how we view sin. 

    On the one hand, you have the cheap grace crowd. When this scandal first came to light, I remember seeing posts online which totally overlooked the severity of what Crist had done and said things like “no one is perfect,” “well all make mistakes,” “Christians aren’t supposed to judge,” “I guess you must be perfect.” 

    For this group, there’s no real need for repentance or transformation. Christians often get painted as being too judgmental and critical. I actually think a larger issue in Christendom is that we’re often too dismissive of sin and quick to excuse it away under the guise of grace. 

    But that overlooks the victims. Crist was a predator who used his fame to exploit women. That’s a truly terrible thing for a person to do. I’m not suggesting that Crist is irredeemable. That’s the good news of the gospel. No matter what a person does, no matter what sin a person commits, there can be grace through Christ and what he has done. But we can’t mitigate sin itself.

    When Crist’s misconduct came to light last November, he said at the time:

    “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. I am sorry for the hurt and pain I have caused these women and will continue to seek their forgiveness. I have also hurt the name of Jesus and have sought His forgiveness. Over several recent years, I have privately sought and received regular professional treatment for my sexual sin and addiction struggles.”

    Another camp that people can fall into is being cynical. Not believing that he’s truly repented and that he’s working to change. This view is also dangerous. All are sinful and need to repent and to turn to Christ.

    The reason why it’s easy to be cynical is that people so often let us down and fall. It’s easy to be cynical because much of our society is cynical. We paint in broad brush strokes. We judge people from the past based on the values of today. If a person commits a sin in the eyes of the popular culture, the mob comes after them. It seeks to bring punishment instead of forgiveness. The mob seeks to punish, to tear people down, to assume the worst. Christians can be tempted to fall into this too.

    I think that the appropriate response is in the middle. Yes, there is grace and we should rejoice in that. But talk is cheap. True repentance and true faith bear fruit. So I think we should take a person at their word when they apologize and seek help and seek to change. But we should also expect to see the fruit of that in their life.

    To specifically critique today’s statement from Crist, I wish he would have more specifically called his actions “sin,” and talked about repentance and dependence on his faith. In many ways, I think his initial statement was better than what he said in his video. I also would have liked to have seen him specifically apologize for what he did instead of vaguely referring to “a lot of poor choices in my personal life” which “hurt myself, that hurt other people, and embarrassed myself.”

    Crist goes on to say “the most embarrassing part of this whole thing is the biggest hypocrite was me.” I can think of more embarrassing aspects of this scandal.

    I’ve been a fan of Crist for a few years. One of the first dates my wife and I went on after getting married was seeing hi perform stand up. It’s truly my hope that he has changed.

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  • Forgiveness and John Crist: Comedian cancels tour over sexual misconduct allegations

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    John Crist was the satirical comedic voice of the Christian millennial, making fun of the popular megachurch culture, contemporary Christian music, and consumerism within the church.

    On Facebook, he has over 2 milloin followers. Over a million on Instagram. 500,000 on YouTube. Christianity is not known for producing great comedians, but Crist struck a cord. He was set to have a Netflix comedy special debuting on Thanksgiving.

    He had the fashion since of a youth pastor. The homeschooled son of a pastor.

    This week, Charisma News broke a story of multiple allegations of sexual misconduct engaged in by Crist.

    Charisma News is certainly not known for being a source of investigative journalism, and while I’m not saying that all of the allegations are necessarily true, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Crist has cancelled his upcoming tour and has issued an apology. It’s not that he’s saying everything reported is true, he did say:

    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.

    Crist’s statement also talked of receiving treatment for “sexual sin and addiction struggles.”

    I’ve seen a number of Christians defending this man. That is completely disheartening and unacceptable. Reading through comments on his Facebook and Instagram, some people talk of being disappointed in his actions (rightfully), and those are met with comments such as “I guess you must be perfect,” “I guess you’ve never sinned,” “God is gracious.”

    This type of response completely ignores the victims and mitigates the severity of what Crist did. Yes, God is gracious. And the good news of the gospel is that a person can be forgiven of their sins no matter what they’ve done. But that does not mean that there are never earthly consequences for our sins. This type of attitude enables continued sin because it accepts “he said he’s sorry” without also looking to see if there’s real repentance and change. Real discipleship and contrition.

    It’s good to apologize for the wrongs you’ve done. It’s also easy. It’s easy to say you’re sorry when you’re caught.

    But a changed life is what produces the fruit of a true belief.

    This story further troubles me because in seeing people defend Crist, it’s a window into how sexual abuse can happen within churches. In a lot of ways, Crist is like the megachurch pastor or popular televangelist who has a fall from grace due to sin. He’s popular, has a following, portrays himself as living up to Christian ideals.

    People are sticking up for John Crist because they like him. And so they’ll overlook his actions. Instead of seeing the wrong he’s done, they look to the “wrong” of anyone who would make a moral judgment on him.

    Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear what you think, and don’t forget to subscribe! 

    Josh Benner is the pastor of Christian Bible Church in Cissna Park, Illinois. He has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He has an awesome wife named Kari.

  • Best of 2018. #2 Bring your fussy child to church day

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    As 2018 comes to a close, I am sharing some of my top posts from this year. 

    Christian comedian John Crist shared this photo on Instagram this weekend that’s gone viral. The photo is a card from a church, apparently meant to be distributed to parents of fussy children, instructing them that a “connection team member” would assist them in leaving the sanctuary during worship.

    It’s a sad commentary on the American church that we shame parents for bringing their kids and their kids…acting like kids in a church service. (more…)

  • John Crist jokes about customizing church

    Comedian John Crist is crushing it. He’s become a social media sensation. Next year, he’s launching his Human Being tour that has 40 shows and is quickly selling out. He has a great eye for contemporary WASP culture in the American church.

    Today, he released a satirical video on a new product: Virtual Reality Church, which was essentially virtual reality glasses which allowed a person to entirely customize a church service. This is said in jest, but I found this video to be a striking commentary on the church in America.

    In the video, it allows for all of the aspects of a church service to be customized: the denomination, what your virtual reality avatar wears, the fashion of the worship leader, whether or not you have to interact with people, the of the worship leader, the style of the message (and the subject of the message).

    In the video, Crist says: “Feeling a touch of white guilt? Add a minority worship leader.”

    “No more having to endure songs that you don’t like. With Virtual Reality Church, you’re in charge.”

    There are so many churches that the whole experience is like Starbucks. You can customize it whichever way you want. People pick (and stop going) to churches based on the style of preaching, the style of music, the programs they offer, the youth group, the look of the building. There are hipster churches, contemporary churches, traditional churches. There are popular churches where other churches mimic the same gimmicks.

    The underlying issue with this is that it sends this bad message: church is about you and for you. Crist touches on this point too. At the end of his video he says, “Finally, an answer to the question: how can I make Sunday morning even more about me?” The video signs off by calling virtual reality “the future of church attendance.”

    Sadly, that humor isn’t too far off from reality. With the popularity of mega church pastors, there are people who podcast famous pastors and value those over involvement in a local church.

    And churches are largely part of the problem in feeding into this culture. In America, where we have so many options with everything, every business with which we interact lives and dies on our satisfaction.

    And we often treat churches in much the same way. Like it’s just another business that we’re patronizing. Where if you’re not happy with a church, if you decide you don’t like something about a church, it’s become so easy just to uproot and go to the next church.

    Ask not what the church can do for you. Ask what you can do for the church.

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    Crist has done other satire videos. One was a spoof of popular shows like “House Hunters,” but where they were listing the features they wanted in a church. In another parody video, Crist pretended to be an executive for a Christian music record label and poked fun at the predictability and shallowness of many popular Christian songs.

    Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear what you think, and don’t forget to subscribe! 

    Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.

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  • Bring your fussy child to church day

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    Christian comedian John Crist shared this photo on Instagram this weekend that’s gone viral. The photo is a card from a church, apparently meant to be distributed to parents of fussy children, instructing them that a “connection team member” would assist them in leaving the sanctuary during worship.

    It’s a sad commentary on the American church that we shame parents for bringing their kids and their kids…acting like kids in a church service.

    If the gospels were written today, and Jesus was teaching to great multitudes and a child was fussing, would he ask the parent and child to be escorted away from his presence? In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus said: “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like these children” (Matthew 19:14).

    A baby has just as much right to be there as you do.

    It’s unfortunate that a parent who’s tired, who’s working, who’s doing their absolute best, and on top of all of the other hassles in life, knows it’s worth it to take their young child to church, and when they do that, has to worry about the eye rolls, the murmurs, the complaints for if their child gets fussy. That should be the last place where they’re going to be criticized. Those parents should be applauded, not judged.

    Can it be annoying to hear a fussy child? Yes. Obviously. But it’s more annoying to hear a fussy adult whining about a baby. There isn’t a Biblical mandate: thou shalt wait until thine child will behave before thou shalt bring them into the Lord’s house.

    Yes, if a young child is having an absolute meltdown, of course it’s reasonable to step outside of the room for a moment. A parent has enough sense to know that. But the fact that this church had a special card printed up and ready to hand out? Yes, I realize that card compliments the parent for bringing their kid but it’s underhanded when couched in “now please leave the corporate worship service.”

    Jesus spoke to multitudes of thousands during his ministry. Those parents weren’t dropping their kids off with the babysitter. There would have been fussy children then. Other parts of the world have livestock nearby making sounds. Worship in other parts of the world is done in secret at the threat of persecution. But heaven forbid a little kid sometimes cry or speak up.

    They’ll learn. Their behavior will improve. But what’s priceless is teaching them from a young age that church is important and something that should be part of life.

    If we’re going to want to make parents feel ostracized or unwelcome because of their children, I think we need to check our own hearts in that. What do we value? Can we put up with a little bit of inconvenience so that a young child can be included in the service too?

    The church isn’t a restaurant, it’s not a movie theater. If you want to complain about a fussy child in those establishments, go ahead. But we should not approach it like our satisfaction with every visit is the supreme end of the service.

    Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear what you think, and don’t forget to subscribe! 

    Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.

    Let’s connect!
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    Twitter
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