After eight months of social media silence, American comedian John Crist has opened up about his past in a video that was uploaded to his official Facebook page yesterday. 

“I’ve made a lot of poor choices in my personal life that hurt myself, that hurt other people, and I can look you in the eye and own that. I point the fingers at no one else but myself. I made those choices and that’s on me. I don’t think there’s any way else to explain that,” admitted the 36-year-old, who is known for his video skits and stand-up sets that satirise Christian culture.

“At the beginning of this process I wanted to hop on the internet and justify, rationalise, minimise and kind of explain and defend myself, but after coming through the healing and recovery process, I can say that those choices were on me. Those decisions were mine and no one else’s, and no one else is to be blamed.”

News of Crist’s sexual harassment and exploitation of young women had come out last November, leading him to cancel tour dates and other commitments to “devote all (his) time and energy on getting healthy spiritually, mentally and physically”, as reported on Charisma. 

His Netflix special I Ain’t Prayin’ for That, which was due for release on November 28, Thanksgiving Day, was also put on hold, while his stand-up act was removed from a Christian youth conference scheduled for January 2020.

Crist began his video by thanking everyone for their support, qualifying that this wasn’t necessarily for the choices he had made in his personal life, but for him “as a human being”.

He shared how he had been in a treatment facility for four months to work on his mental health and healing, during which he received letters from people who showed their concern and said they were praying for him.

The words of encouragement had led him to feel hopeful during his recovery journey, as he knew there were “a bunch of people rooting for (him)”.

The popular star has over 530,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, and some of his comedic skits poke fun at hypocritical behaviours, such as a video called If Football Coaches Were Honest.

Acknowledging that he had been making a living out of creating videos that point out the hypocrisy of others, he humbly admitted how “perhaps the most embarrassing part of this whole thing (was) that the biggest hypocrite in all this was me”.

Calling himself out, Crist said he was portraying himself  “to be a person on the internet that (he) was not like privately”.

“I had a problem and I needed to get some help. I think that’s the simplest way to say it. That’s what I’ve been doing for the last eight months, and that’s what I’ll continue to do to put a priority on my own mental health,” he shared.

“Obviously, there’s been a million times in the last eight months that I wanted to jump on the internet and make a video, or make a joke or an Instagram Story, but I knew that if I didn’t take the time to fix the broken pieces of myself, that I wasn’t going to be good for anybody.”

Crist concluded by thanking everyone for journeying with him despite what had happened.  

“I had assumed that I lived in a community of people who would be the first to look down on me and judge me and point fingers at me, but I felt nothing but the opposite throughout this whole process,” he said.  

“So, thank you all for the love, support and care. It has truly meant the world. I’m grateful that you guys have been on this journey with me, and I can’t wait for the future.” 

Critics may not be so quick to forgive, but we’re personally cheering this brother on. While what he did was wrong, let’s not be so quick to cast the first stone. For we’ve all fallen short and are definitely not one without sin (John 8:7).

Living out our faith in a genuine manner, to be truly free of all hypocrisy, is no easy feat. Just as we’ve experienced grace and mercy through Jesus Christ, how about extending the same forgiveness to Crist and others who may similarly be struggling with sin?