If Christians ever want to cancel Hollywood, they need to rise above the woke mob mentality. They need to put down their torches and pitchforks and pick up their Bibles. They must think like Christians and not like New Englanders hunting for a witch to condemn and burn. That means offering those who have been cancelled the Gospel and an opportunity for redemption. It means believing that they can be redeemed.

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Our CEO announced on social media yesterday that Chris Savino, the animator who is responsible for most of Cartoon Network’s success, and a lot of Nickelodeon’s, is officially a part of our advisory board. The response was mostly positive on our own platforms, with a few very vocal exceptions. Mostly from concerned Christians.

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On Twitter, the response was, well, Twitteresque. There, it was “concerned” pagans, mostly animators.

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Why the concern? In 2017 Chris Savino was suspended from the union and lost his animation jobs because of a consensual extra-marital affair (not the harassment that was immediately believed and never questioned) and other improper interactions, also consensual,  outside his marriage. These were sinful, they were inappropriate, and he lost his career.  Understandably.

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In 2019 Chris found forgiveness, he found redemption and he found salvation in Jesus Christ.

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I met Chris in June 2022 at a restaurant in North Texas and we had lunch, together with our CEO, Marcus Pittman. I heard Chris’ story, listened as he admitted that he UNDERSTANDS why he’s been cancelled, and heard how he came to Christ. Since then our team has been communicating with him and frankly, I am happy he is on our team. I’d sign the advisory board paperwork as many times as needed.

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He’s been “clean” for nearly six years, and has known Christ for nearly as long.

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So why can’t some Christians forgive him?

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I KNOW why Hollywood cannot. They’re hypocrites.

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Hollywood cancels celebrities because they act on the narratives that all of Hollywood sells. Literally sells. They sell sexual perversion wholesale and export it to children. Watch Netflix? Or any (ahem) cartoon that essentially grooms children for sex or blurs the lines between male and female.

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But then when one of their own acts on the depravity that the entire industry is selling, they feign moral outrage and hold the back of their hand to their forehead like the damsel in distress in a silent film. Insert obligatory heavenward gaze and blinking eyelids.  “How could it BE? How did THIS happen? Surely, he must PAY.” Virtue signal, virtue signal, virtue signal.

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What moral standard does this mob appeal to that demands Chris never be heard from again? You know it’s not the Law of God. They cannot even appeal to any law of man.  For a crowd that does not acknowledge the existence of sin, it’s remarkable how much they’re willing to start throwing stones. The same people that accuse Christians of throwing stones.

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It turns out they’re naturals. And they’re hypocrites.

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But there is something worse.

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The “Christian” hypocrites who preach about salvation through Christ alone, who preach redemption, who preach forgiveness—unwilling to believe that Christ could save Chris, unwilling to believe that the Gospel changes people, unwilling to believe that Christ saves sinners. Unwilling to believe it while they bank on it for their own sinful, totally depraved souls.

They are selfish children who think that they deserve what they have because they have had it for a long time. Or think they have it, anyway. And they are not willing to share.

That’s the very essence of hypocrisy. I expect it from the cancel culture. I do not expect it from the Church. Hollywood HATES second chances for sinners. They hate nothing more than the idea that sins can be forgiven and that God can change people. Why do some Christians use the same arguments as Hollywood?

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There was a man who murdered Christians, who had the blood of Stephen (and likely others) on his hands. That man was dramatically converted, Years later, he wrote this:

“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” (1 Timothy 1:15, ESV)

It’s a trustworthy saying, people. If it is not, you have no hope at all. None. Your self-righteousness will bust Hell wide open. Your phony baloney outrage does not fool God. He resists the proud and only gives grace to the humble.

Chris was humbled in a big way, in a way that most people won’t experience. He doesn’t wish it on anyone and he owns his responsibility. You might try it.

One of the first bestselling Christian fiction titles, In His Steps by Charles M. Sheldon, has a memorable moment. A homeless man who has been begging in the community during the week goes to the local church on Sunday. At the end of the service he gives a speech that starts like this, “I’m not an ordinary tramp, though I don’t know of any teaching of Jesus that makes one kind of a tramp less worth saving than another. Do you?”

Good question. Do you? Or are you “better” than that?