Christian comedian John Crist admitted he "wanted to commit suicide" during a stint in rehab after his sexual harrassment scandal broke out in 2019. At the time, he felt ashamed of himself and planned to leave the comedy scene forever.
"I've been through a lot the last two years of my life. I've been through a lot of embarrassing things," Crist admitted during a recent comedy show, as reported by Faithwire. He also opened up about his 2019 scandal involving sexual misconduct allegations thrown at him by several women, admitting that "there's a lot of shame surrounding sex."
"I wanted to commit suicide," the 37 year old Christian comedian admitted to the crowd. "I was in rehab for four months."
Back in November 2019, Charisma News published a damning report that revealed how Crist "exploited his Christian reputation and platform to harass, manipulate and exploit young women over the last seven years." According to the report, the allegations against Crist include sending sexual text messages to several women at a time, pursuing sexual relations with women who were either married or in a committed relationship, and offering tickets to his shows in exchange for sexual favors, as well as "repeatedly calling these women late at night while drunk."
A woman who came forward to the outlet recalled her encounter with Crist, whom she saw as a mentor, back in 2017 in Las Vegas. The woman, who was in a relationship, interviewed Crist, who invited her for an evening of rollerblading.
During the evening outing, Crist sexually propositioned her not once, but twice. The woman explained that she did not believe the comedian to be "creepy" because he "so proudly parades his face as a Christian." She led herself to believe that a Christian like him "won't do something intentionally bad."
According to CNN, Crist then released a statement addressing the sexual misconduct allegations, saying, "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."
At the time, Crist admitted that his behavior was "destructive and sinful" and that he had sinned not only against the women he had hurt, but also against God. Today, the Christian comedian looks back at those experiences with renewed faith.
"The only thing worse is if that had never happened to me," Crist admitted. "In that whole rehabilitation process, I found out there's a God that loves you, and He cares about you, and He's not mad at you."
Crist found that not all people would be mad at him over his sexual misconduct. He recounted how he tried his best to disguise himself with a hoodie and sunglasses during a trip to a Five Guys restaurant after leaving rehab. Hoping that no one would recognize him, he walked in but was soon called upon by a family.
Crist recalled how the family told him, "We just want to let you know that we love you and we care about you and we've been thinking about you." He emotionally recounted his realization, "It was the first time in my life that people knew everything about me, and they still chose to love me."
