Chris Pratt, thought criminal

Guardians of the Galaxy actor Chris Pratt posted what, to many, was a sweet tribute to his wife, Katherine Schwarzenegger.

Interwoven with humorous quips about his wife’s loud chewing and her inability to open a pickle jar without his help, Pratt’s Instagram caption included gratitude to Schwarzenegger for her admiration for him and for giving birth to their new daughter.

But many Instagrammers and Twitter users took issue with his words. One viral tweet proclaimed that the real political divide in the United States is between those who see Pratt’s message as “sweet” and those who see it as “cringe and insane.” A lot of people replying to this tweet slammed Pratt’s post as strange and tone-deaf.

Others leveled the more serious accusation that Pratt was subliminally and purposely contrasting his “healthy” daughter with his son, who has special needs, and whose mother is Pratt’s ex-wife, actress Anna Faris.

Pratt responded to the backlash in an Instagram story communicating his sadness over the Internet’s reaction to his words.

“I went to bed last night really kind of upset and depressed,” Pratt said. “I knew though that if I put on my Christian music playlist, and I got out of the woods and ran that I'd feel better. … I just want to say, all glory to God.”

This isn’t the first time Pratt has received criticism online. A professing Christian, Pratt was publicly accused of attending an “infamously anti-LGBTQ” church in 2019. He pushed back against this description, insisting his church “opens his doors to absolutely everyone” and that he believes “everyone is entitled to love who they want free from … judgment.”

That, of course, was not enough to satiate his detractors, who still regard him as “homophobic” and bigoted. Given that Pratt has also demonstrated support for the police, the military, and free speech, it is unsurprising that some progressive celebrities and social media users look for reasons to deride him.

Nevertheless, the vigor with which such derision is launched online is concerning. So eager are people to join in on the team sport of scrutinizing every word posted by influencers and celebrities that they refuse to offer the same benefit of the doubt that they would likely appreciate receiving themselves.

While Christians understand the importance of choosing their words wisely (Matthew 12:36), they also, for the sake of kindness, resist ascribing malintent to people’s words based on nothing more than conjecture. Even as Christians can look at Pratt’s familial situation and mourn the obvious complications presented by divorce that God desires to spare us from (Matthew 19:6), they can also recognize that without knowledge of Pratt’s private life, there is no way to know Pratt’s relationship with his son based on a social media post.

It is a form of hypocritical judgment—the kind that Matthew 7:1 warns against—to make such serious allegations about a person’s love (or lack thereof) for their child based on one word. Plus, other words spoken by Pratt tell us that the criticism toward his fatherhood abilities is at best unfair. In 2014, Pratt spoke at March of Dimes Celebration of babies and described his son as a “strong, smart, happy, funny, beautiful boy” to whom he had promised to love and care for.

But social media’s rewarding of hasty hot takes doesn’t allow for people to search for previous statements or context that may preempt presumptuous condemnation.

Social media mobs are out for blood. They are not looking for an apology; their aim is to destroy and to inflict pain. They will hit below the belt, assume the most nefarious motives, lie, dox, harass, threaten and seek to ruin the lives of their targets. There are at least two lessons to learn from that fact.

First, both on and offline, even the most measured Christian has been tempted (and perhaps given into the temptation) to pile on accusations and perpetuate narratives centered on those they dislike or oppose. And yet, disciples of Jesus are called away from “slander, pride, foolishness” (Mark 7:22) and are instead commanded to only use words that are “good for building up” (Ephesians 4:29).

That does not mean Christians should cease speaking what may seem like a harsh truth, but it should give them pause before passing and proclaiming moral judgment on someone based on a rumor propagated on social media.

Second, there is no point in apologizing to those whose only intent is to misunderstand and malign. In the words of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, “live not by lies.” That means a person should not apologize for that which he or she is not truly sorry, and for which, by God’s standards, they need not be sorry.

Pratt, it seems, has learned these lessons the hard way. Christians need to take them to heart, and learn fast.