For a couple of hours over the weekend, actor Chris Pratt was subjected to another barrage of volleys from cancel culture.
Like previous efforts, the attempted cancellation was quickly shut down — this time, by a supportive tweet from another Hollywood heavyweight, “Guardians of the Galaxy” director James Gunn.
“Avengers, assemble!” is clearly more than a catchy movie line; in previous social media takedowns of Pratt, his Marvel Universe colleagues came to his defense.
What’s interesting about the latest episode is that there was nothing new in the litany of complaints. All it took was for Pratt to be mentioned — he’s in the teaser for Marvel’s new movie “Thor: Love and Thunder” — for his haters to trot out old, baseless accusations of homophobia and bigotry based on things that have been said about the church he attends.
Pratt, who has said he’s been a committed Christian since he was introduced to Jesus Christ as a teen, reportedly attends Zoe Church in Los Angeles and speaks openly about his faith.
But as the San Jose Mercury News noted in 2019, the campaign against Pratt has a convoluted origin and seems to be based on something that isn’t even true.
The Mercury News traced the controversy to a New York Times article in which the pastor of Zoe Church said he modeled the church after another church, Hillsong Church, which has been vilified for saying it doesn’t “affirm a gay lifestyle.”
Pratt doesn’t attend that church, nor has he ever belonged to it; Hillsong’s former pastor confirmed this in 2019:
In fact, that pastor now has a cancellation problem of his own; he resigned last month after allegations of misconduct were made public.
Houston’s problems, mercifully, have nothing to do with Pratt. Nor does Hillsong Church in any other way, even though as of this week, people were still mistakenly rage-tweeting that Pratt attends Hillsong’s affiliate church in Los Angeles.
It’s a rumor that’s hard to kill because Pratt, like any megawatt celebrity, can’t go around trumpeting where he worships. Doing so, in fact, would be irresponsible; the church would be overrun with fans, haters and paparazzi, defeating the point of worship, which is glory given to God, not a fictional Star-Lord.
To be fair, there has been social media criticism of Pratt that seemed justified, such as the international response to a seemingly tone deaf Instagram post about his wife and daughter, which was perceived by many to be an insult to his first wife and son. Pratt himself seemed remorseful after that, saying not long afterward that he was “kind of upset and depressed.”
But the people who work regularly with Pratt are effusive in their comments about what an upstanding man he is; there’s no reason for those of us who don’t know him to assume the worst; in fact, there are plenty of reasons to believe the best things said about him.
In “The Art of Political Lying,” Jonathan Swift wrote, “Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when Men come to be undeceiv’d, it is too late; the Jest is over, and the Tale has had its Effect.”
That might be true, except this is Twitter we’re talking about, not real life, so Pratt remains uncanceled, despite the smears that keep cropping up. A few reasonable people are taking note and calling for a cease-fire:
This is a relief because Pratt has not one, but two movies coming out this summer (don’t forget “Jurassic World Dominion), that’s a whole lot of canceling we can cross off our to-do list.
Besides, Twitter has already moved onto its new target ... comedian, actor and author Steve Martin, whose depiction of “King Tut,” is being decried by some as insensitive cultural misappropriation. He’s on tour this summer with Martin Short, if you disagree.