The Catholic Response to Rage-Baiting

For those who have not kept up in recent Hollywood gossip (or perhaps more accurately have made the wise decision to focus on more important things in our earthly life), there has been discussions and reactions to the recent casting of Cynthia Erivo (currently famous for her starring role in the recent 2024 film adaptation of the Broadway fanfic musical Wicked, a film I have not seen due to not being interested in it but is said by critics to be an okay film, and her earlier role in the 2019 Harriet Tubman biopic Harriet, a film I enjoyed watching as it pertained to U.S. History during the American Civil War) as Jesus Christ in an upcoming production of the controversial Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice rock opera, Jesus Christ Superstar. The fact that the company cast a woman in the titular role is problematic enough, and I am sure the more unhinged defenders will say that people are against the casting because Erivo is a black actress in a homosexual relationship with another woman. No, people are against the casting because Jesus of Nazareth is not a biological woman nor was the role of Jesus Christ in Jesus Christ Superstar written and scored for a female singer. If you pay close attention to the scoring, the titular role of Jesus Christ in Jesus Christ Superstar is scored for a male singer in the bari-tenor voice range. I previously thought that the 2000 film adaptation starring Glenn Carter (a local leader of a UFO cult in the United Kingdom) as Jesus Christ might have been the worst thing to happen to the rock opera (seriously, watch the behind-the-scenes footage of that film and ponder the mystery of how the actor playing Pontius Pilate ended up being the most orthodox out of the film’s cast and crew), but blatantly casting a self-proclaimed “queer and bisexual” actress as your take on Jesus Christ honestly takes the cake. And I would not be surprised if the only reason the Hollywood Bowl did this casting announcement was to anger conservatives, and, if we are being honest, I doubt most of the people reacting negatively to the casting announcement have actually sat down and either listened to and/or watched Jesus Christ Superstar. As someone who has watched and listened to this rock opera many times before writing this article (and even wrote an undergraduate theology paper on the rock opera while still attending the University of St. Thomas back in 2016), I will be honest and state, “Yeah, this play is not theologically accurate or sound. There are problematic elements in the play.” But at least the rock opera, for its problems, did not have the audacity to claim that Jesus was a black woman living a lifestyle that Jesus and His Apostles clearly preached against within the books of the New Testament.

The question then arises on whether or not the casting of Cynthia Erivo counts as blasphemy. This is where the conversation becomes complicated. As we live in a world where Catholic commentators, especially on social media, are too quick to jump the gun and accuse others of grave sin without checking to see if the accusation is even accurate or warranted, I feel it is important to define our terms. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines the sin of blasphemy in the following paragraph:

Blasphemy is directly opposed to the second commandment. It consists in uttering against God – inwardly or outwardly – words of hatred, reproach, or defiance; in speaking ill of God; in failing in respect toward him in one's speech; in misusing God’s name. St. James condemns those “who blaspheme that honorable name [of Jesus] by which you are called.” The prohibition of blasphemy extends to language against Christ’s Church, the saints, and sacred things. It is also blasphemous to make use of God’s name to cover up criminal practices, to reduce peoples to servitude, to torture persons or put them to death. The misuse of God’s name to commit a crime can provoke others to repudiate religion.

Blasphemy is contrary to the respect due God and his holy name. It is in itself a grave sin. (CCC 2148)

In short, the Catechism gives the following summary, “The second commandment forbids every improper use of God’s name. Blasphemy is the use of the name of God, of Jesus Christ, of the Virgin Mary, and of the saints in an offensive way” (CCC 2162). The question then becomes, “Does casting Cynthia Erivo as Jesus Christ in a non-Christian rock opera written and composed by non-Christians count as an improper use of God’s Name?” From the position of Cynthia Erivo, who claims to be a fellow Catholic (and thus held to the same standard as myself), I have to answer, “Yes, on her part, it is.” She presumably knows better than those outside the Christian Faith about what the Church teaches about Jesus, so, in a way, this is her being defiant against her Savior. When it comes to whether blasphemy can be applied to Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice on what they wrote in Jesus Christ Superstar, I have to answer, “No, in their case, they are not being blasphemous, as it is evident in their lyrics and central focus on the flawed perspective of Judas Iscariot (and the rock opera when done correctly gives ample evidence of Judas having a flawed perspective on Jesus) that they are not sure whether the Christian claim on Jesus – which historically is Jesus’s claim about Himself – is true and, in the play, have the actor playing Judas break script to ask Jesus to answer his agnosticism before the Crucifixion occurs.” In the same vein, when it comes to the other popular charge of the sin of heresy regarding Jesus Christ Superstar, I give the same answer to the question on whether one can properly charge Webber and Rice with blasphemy. Heresy, after all, is clearly defined by the Church as “the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and catholic faith, or it is likewise an obstinate doubt concerning the same; apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith; schism is the refusal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him” (CCC 2089). To properly charge Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice as being heretics, I would need to first prove both have had a valid Sacrament of Baptism; publicly denied, taught, or rebelled against a teaching the Church has declared to be a dogma; and refuse to be corrected and repent after being warned and corrected by the Church. I cannot do that with Webber and Rice. I can see myself possibly doing it with Cynthia Erivo if she does not change certain aspects of her life that are known to the public. Her current lifestyle and recent casting as Jesus Christ in Jesus Christ Superstar both commit scandal. But, you might be wondering from the title of this article, what does all of this have to do with rage-baiting and the Catholic response to it?

Unless one has been living under a rock for the past ten years, it cannot be denied that our current culture is a culture of rage-baiting. It seems that every side on every conceivable issue goes out of their way to rage-bait their opponents only to hypocritically protest when it is done to them. For me, the figures on social media that seem to go out of their way to put out material that anger my sensibilities include CNN spreading blatant propaganda, people on Facebook making tasteless jokes about the current natural disaster literally burning down parts of California, Taylor Marshall and Kennedy Hall causing scandal among fellow Catholics, Disney producing crap content, Sweet Baby Inc. popularizing the uglification of biological women in video games, and activists in films and television series replacing gingers with black people rather than use preexisting black characters or create brand-new black characters on their own. (And, on a side note, did no one at Disney+ think to question the idea of turning Norman Osborn, one of the most evil characters in the Spider-Man mythology whose multiple crimes include child abuse and mass murder, into a black man for the upcoming flop that is Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man?) Most of the time, in order to preserve my own sanity, I ignore them, but every once in a while I end up seeing and/or watching the stuff they put out for public consumption. Other times I find myself actively seeking out other people reacting to such content just so I can enjoy the rage-baiters being made fun of and/or corrected. In short, like most people, I am not perfect. I do not always live up to the proper response I should be giving to content designed to rage-bait myself and others. If I were to define rage-baiting, I would define it as “an action or series of actions purposely designed to provoke anger in other people so that those people can either be made to look bad or be more easily molded into what the baiter wants them to become.” Angry people are easier to manipulate and control, after all. The correct response I should give to rage-baiting such as the casting of Cynthia Erivo as Jesus Christ or Kennedy Hall on his YouTube channel having the audacity to claim that Pope Francis, who is suffering from a case of pneumonia in both of his lungs, is “gathering a diabolical council around his hospital bed” (I wish I were making up the latter) is to ultimately move on with my life. Yes, sometimes scandals require a virtuous response. If you feel that protesting the recent casting in an upcoming production of Jesus Christ Superstar is a hill worth dying on, then I am not going to stop you. Go ahead and protest. You have the freedom to do so. If I were five-to-six years younger and still an undergraduate student at the University of St. Thomas, I might have joined you in the protest. But, alas, I am approaching thirty years of age in 2026, and, frankly, I have better and more important things to do with my time. The best response you can give to someone trying to rage-bait you is to simply ignore them. That is the ultimate revenge you can give to someone desperately trying to hold your attention, much like the Hollywood Bowl that announced the recent casting of Cynthia Erivo. I also would recommend ignoring the forever-protestors who like to clog your e-mail and news feed with the latest thing you apparently need to protest or cease supporting. Chances are that you have never heard of nor supported them anyway before it suddenly became prominent to do so. An example of this in my own life would be the never-ending controversy about recent content released by Lucasfilm under Disney. I never heard of The Acolyte before news broke out about the show being cancelled nor had the slightest inkling of watching it. And considering that the show is axed anyway, it seems like me vocally protesting its existence ultimately does not contribute to anything.

We should be reminded that expressing emotion, such as anger, is not inherently sinful. It is the action which we take in response to feeling emotion that can potentially be sinful. The Catholic response to rage-baiting is the same response that an authentic representation of stoicism offers: the domestication of one’s emotions rather than pretending they do not exist.