John Crist, who was forced to pause his Christian comedy ministry when sexual misconduct allegations surfaced last November, has returned to social media for the first time in eight months with a video thanking people for their support.
On Instagram, the 36-year-old said the support of people who had reached out to him "meant the world" to him.
Crist was a rising figure on social media and the Christian conference circuit when his ministry came crashing down after several women accused him of sexting and giving away tickets to his shows in exchange for sexual favors. Other allegations included having sexual relations with married women.
At the time, he had been about to launch a Netflix special but this was axed when the accusations surfaced, as were the rest of his 2019 tour dates.
Since then, he's been kept out the limelight and has spent several months in a treatment facility.
He said that while he was at the facility, his sister sent him letters from people who had reached out to share their concern for him and assure him of their prayers.
"I'm incredibly humbled to receive that support, certainly undeserved based on decisions that I've made in my personal life, but incredibly humbling to receive," he said.
Crist built much of his comedy ministry on making fun of Western Christian culture and admitted that he hadn't expected to receive a sympathetic ear after the scandal.
"I had assumed that I lived in a community of people that would be the first to look down on me and judge me and point fingers at me and I felt nothing but the opposite throughout this whole process," he said.
"Let me just say how hopeful and encouraging that was to be working on my own mental health, and my recovery and healing and have a bunch of people rooting for me and supported me meant the world."
Despite the support, Crist said it was important to "own" the "poor choices" he had made in his personal life.
"I've made a lot of decisions that hurt myself, that hurt other people, and embarrassed myself and had consequences and I could look you in the eye and own that," he said.
He admitted he'd been tempted in the immediate aftermath to try to "justify" and even "minimize" his actions but the treatment made him realize he couldn't do that.
"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 will continue to do, to put a priority on my own mental health," he said.
He added: "Perhaps I think the most embarrassing part is that I make a living, all my comedy videos were pointing out the hypocrisy in a lot of ways [but] the most embarrassing part of this whole thing is the biggest hypocrite in all this was me, that I was portraying a person on the internet that I was not behaving like privately."
Watch the full video below:
