Cynthia Erivo as Jesus: What the Casting Controversy Reveals About Hollywood

Update (March 16, 2026): The Hollywood Bowl production of Jesus Christ Superstar starring Cynthia Erivo as Jesus ran Aug. 1 through 3, 2025, with Adam Lambert as Judas and Phillipa Soo as Mary Magdalene. After the run, Playbill described Erivo’s performance as a gender blind interpretation and noted that the production did not change the lyrics or pronouns. The broader argument around Christian reverence and anti-Christian bias in public life has continued during a period when the Trump White House says protecting religious liberty, maintaining a White House Faith Office, and addressing anti-Christian bias are current priorities.

Original: Claims that Hollywood is moving past identity-driven provocation ring hollow when one of its latest headlines is Cynthia Erivo being cast as Jesus in a new production of Jesus Christ Superstar. For many Christians, the issue is not celebrity casting drama – it is whether Christ will be treated with reverence or continually reinvented to satisfy elite cultural trends.

This controversy did not begin with this casting choice alone. Since its debut, Jesus Christ Superstar has stirred criticism from many Christians for treating the life of Christ with irreverence. When the rock opera first emerged in the early 1970s, Billy Graham reportedly described it as bordering on blasphemy and sacrilege.

It’s no surprise then that as our culture has slipped further away from God over the last 50 years, this show has slipped with it, getting ever more blasphemous with each iteration. But with this latest production, the degenerates running Hollywood have outdone themselves.

Casting Erivo as Jesus is not merely provocative. It also reflects a broader habit in modern entertainment of recasting sacred figures through the lens of present day identity politics. Jesus was a first century Jewish man from Galilee, and Christians have every right to object when His person is reimagined in ways that obscure both history and theology.

Scripture says that “the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God” (1 Corinthians 3:19). That warning fits a culture eager to call transgression creative and irreverence enlightened. Jesus’ identity matters. His incarnation was real, His historical setting was real, and His divine mission was real. Christians are not wrong to reject portrayals that turn Him into a symbol for modern ideological fashion.

This is not ultimately about representation. It is about power, about who gets to define what may be honored, mocked, revised, or desecrated in public life. Christianity helped shape the moral framework of this nation, and too often America’s cultural elites treat that inheritance not as something to preserve, but as something to dismantle.

Historical Revisionism and the Erasure of Truth

Casting Erivo as Jesus isn’t just an artistic liberty — it’s a bald-faced lie. Jesus wasn’t a black woman nor was He queer. He was a Jewish man, born in Bethlehem and crucified under Pontius Pilate. The Gospels aren’t up for reinterpretation to fit 21st century identity politics. Truth matters, and this casting distorts it beyond recognition. It’s not enough for the Left to say, “Let’s tell new stories.” No, they must rewrite the old ones, colonizing history itself to serve their agenda.

The double standard is hard to miss. In many other cultural contexts, dramatic recasting of revered figures would trigger immediate outrage. But when the figure is Jesus and the faith is Christianity, the guardians of public sensitivity suddenly become far more comfortable calling it brave art.

Because they don’t care about fairness or consistency — only power.

Even Elon Musk Has Had Enough

The backlash extended well beyond church circles. Public figures including Elon Musk criticized the casting, arguing that Hollywood seems especially eager to experiment with Christian symbols in ways it would be far less likely to attempt with other faith traditions.

Imagine indeed. John Lennon would blush. Or rather, he’d probably cheer.

Whether or not one agrees with every comparison, the broader point stands: Christianity is often treated in elite cultural spaces as uniquely safe to offend. That pattern is one reason many believers see this casting not as neutral experimentation, but as selective irreverence.

Selective Blasphemy: Why Only Christianity?

This double standard exposes a sad truth: Hollywood and the progressive Left don’t give a second thought to mocking Christianity because they have no fear of Christians. Muslims defend their faith with ferocity — often violently — and they know it. Try mocking Muhammad in Riyadh or Tehran and see how long you last. Or in France, where no one, least of all the editors and cartoonists at the satirical magazine “Charlie Hebdo,” has to imagine the outcome.

Christians are commanded to reject vengeance and to love their enemies, but that does not mean surrendering moral clarity. Prayer, truth-telling, and peaceful resistance are not weakness. They are the faithful means by which believers stand firm without imitating the spirit of the age.

But here’s the rub: Our inaction emboldens them. “The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion” (Proverbs 28:1).

Where is our boldness? This isn’t about violence — Christ’s kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36) — but about political and cultural resolve. The elite class in America, perched in their California and New York enclaves, goes out of their way to mock Christianity precisely because it’s the bedrock of this nation. From the Pilgrims to the Founding Fathers, America was built with a Bible in hand. People knew who Jesus was, and he wasn’t a black lesbian.

Yet today, that heritage is treated as a joke, a relic to be subverted by those who loathe its constraints on their moral relativism.

Christians Need To Stop Letting Them Get Away With It

Perhaps one reason this madness persists is that Christians let it happen. We’ve grown complacent, content to retreat into our churches while the culture burns. But the Bible doesn’t call us to apathy. “Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22). It’s time to act — not with swords but with votes, voices, and unwavering conviction. The elites mock Christ because they can. We’ve failed to galvanize politically, to push back against the blasphemy with the force of a united front.

Christians still represent a vast share of the American public, and they should act like it. Not through rage or coercion, but through conviction. Believers can vote, speak, create, boycott, build, and support institutions that honor what is true. Cultural influence is not preserved by silence. It is preserved by faithfulness.

This latest blasphemy is a symptom of a deeper rot. Progressives in America despise Christianity, not only because Christians are weak but because Christianity’s truth threatens their godless worldview. They’ll keep pushing until we push back. Yes, God will settle the score, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord” (Romans 12:19). But until then, we’re not called to sit idly by.

So here’s the challenge: Let this blasphemy wake us up. Let it stir us to action. Do we not care enough about the holy name and person of Jesus Christ to do something about this? The next time Hollywood or the Left tries to trample Christ underfoot, let’s make them regret it — not with violence but with the boldness of a faith that built a nation.

A healthier culture would not require fear to produce restraint. It would recognize that reverence, truth, and moral seriousness are public goods. One sign of American decline is that too many influential institutions now treat Christian conviction as a target for ridicule rather than a tradition worthy of respect.

God Will Not Be Mocked

Make no mistake: God will not be mocked. The Apostle Paul warned, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7).

Hollywood may think it can twist the image of Christ into a caricature of its own making, sowing seeds of blasphemy for applause and profit, but the harvest is coming. It revels in its defiance now, believing it has outsmarted history and divinity itself, but the Lord sees every act of contempt.

To cast Jesus as a black queer woman isn’t just an affront to believers — it’s a direct challenge to the Almighty, who declared, “I am the Lord, I change not” (Malachi 3:6).

One day, on Judgement Day, their arrogance will crumble under the weight of divine justice. God is patient, yes. But His patience has an expiration date.

His wrath, when it falls, will leave no doubt who reigns supreme. And it will not be the Hollywood elite who have the final word.

Perhaps, like Lot in Sodom, those who produce and partake in these obscene displays of blasphemy will be saved before the coming destruction. But that will only come through repentance of their sins and a willingness to see Jesus for who He really is, both historically and eternally: The second person of the Trinity, fully man and fully God, who was crucified, buried, and raised to provide full atonement for all who turn from their idols and trust in Him for salvation.

Christians are not called to answer blasphemy with violence. We answer it with truth, courage, prayer, and a clear witness to the real Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, crucified and risen, the Savior the world still needs.

Photo: Actress Cynthia Erivo Credit: Shutterstock

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