Love/Hate Cancel Culture
Did I just hear that some of Dr. Seuss’s books, Mr. Potato Head, and The Muppets were the latest victims of cancel culture? Really? Who’s next? Chick-fil-A for being closed on Sunday?
Cancel culture is out of control, yet we do need to make a distinction between two very different versions. One I love and the other…I hate.
The one I dislike (to put it mildly) is like a religion with sins (disagreement with public narratives no matter how insane), commandments (thou shalt not dissent), trials by fire (public shaming by the cancel mob), and burnings at the stake (being fired, dropped, boycotted). But what it doesn’t have is grace or forgiveness.
Whether it’s de-platforming books or censoring contrary voices or dredging up formerly addressed sins or threatening corporate boycotts or eliminating participants on social media, cancel culture is leaving a trail of real destruction in people’s lives and livelihoods.
OK, enough of the rant on that kind of cancel culture.
The cancel culture you and I love as believers is the one-of-a-kind version Jesus came to model and give.
Jesus didn’t cancel the culturally sidelined of His day: He healed the blind man renounced by his parents and religious leaders (John 9). He cleansed the 10 lepers who were shunned and isolated (Luke 17). He met and delivered Zacchaeus, the hated and treasonous chief tax-collector (Luke 19). Jesus didn’t cancel Peter who denied Him three times (John 18) or Thomas who doubted He was alive (John 20).
But even more, Jesus Christ “made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross” (Col. 2:13b-14).
The truth is we all need to be canceled but thank the Lord for His compassion, grace, mercy, truth, patience, and love toward us.
Somehow, we need to find a way to spread Jesus’ kind of cancel culture.
Pray for one another that we don’t cave in to the self-serving narratives of the hypocritical mob. (Jesus did cancel one type of people in Matthew 23.)
Look for ways to help the socially rejected and marginalized.
Share the only good news message that is able to cancel out the debt of sin.
“Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good” (Romans 12:9b).
Pastor Jeff