Add Movieguide® as preferred on Google
By Michaela Gordoni
John Crist knows that having a body of believers means there will be imperfect people, but that’s not a good reason to abandon faith.
“A lot of us, I feel like we all grew up in church. We had to go to church, and once our parents’ eyes kind of were immediately off of us, we all went awry,” Crist told ChurchLeaders. “And then I feel like at this age, we’re all having families now, having children, and we’re going, ‘We got to pass something down to them,’ and I feel like all of us are coming back.”
He thinks those who grew up in church have to decide if they will follow the faith.
“And I would say there’s a lot of, I don’t like the term, but deconstruction — we’re throwing all of it out,” he added.
In his own life, a teen from church had bullied him.
“He was supposed to be a Christian. All of it was bad,” Crist said. But it wasn’t a reason to walk away from his relationship with Christ.
Related: Christian Comedian John Crist Breaks Social Media Silence After 8 Months
“And I look back, I see a lot of these ministries that were very foundational to my childhood, like Focus on the Family, like Veggie Tales, or even Hillsong. And everybody’s like, ‘Let’s crush them,’” Crist said. “‘Everything that has been constructed needs to be deconstructed,’ and I’m just not with that.”
He continued, “I think everybody is going to find after all of this that there was maybe some remodeling that needed to happen. There was probably an attic that had mold in there — we need to get in there and clear that out — but we shouldn’t have ‘dozed the house.”
Crist admitted that sometimes he had to get out of that “house” for a time, but he never gave up on it.
“And now having a family and starting a family, I’m glad I don’t have to go rebuild it all because I never tore it down,” he said.
Crist’s latest social comedy series, “Springfield First,” isn’t just making people laugh — it’s showing the problematic sides of some Christian communities.
One video comically points out the inequality in the church between Mothers Day and Father’s Day (dad’s need encouragement, too), and another highlights how some churches try to hook kids into their VBS by focusing on pop culture or modern trends — like Taylor Swift.
Crist is currently on a year-long stand-up tour across America. Tickets are available on his website.
Read Next: Comedian John Crist Shares How Cancelation Set Him Free
Questions or comments? Please write to us here.
Add Movieguide® as preferred on GoogleShare:
- Content: +2
- Content: +2