Have you heard of “cancel culture?” If you are under the age of 60,
you almost certainly have heard of this phenomenon. If you are
older (and less dependent on electronic gadgets and forms of
communication), then you may be less influenced by cancel culture,
but you may well be aware of it. There is no question, in recent
years, accelerated by the tensions of Covid, our society has become
less friendly, less understanding, more harsh, and more critical.
These trends are all reflected in cancel culture. I am old enough to
remember a time when you could disagree with someone, even
about a significant, deeply held belief, and still maintain a good
friendship with that person despite your differences. You might
have absolutely opposing viewpoints on hot-button issues, but you
could work alongside each other and respect each other, despite the
differences. That spirit of harmony and cooperation is much more
difficult to find and live out today, due to cancel culture.
Cancel culture says that if you disagree with me, you are a threat to
me—to my health, to my well-being, even to my existence!—so I
cannot coexist with you, I need to cancel you. I need you out of my
life. With virtual relationships with people you may never have met,
such as “friends” on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, it is fairly
easy to “cancel” someone. You just unfriend them and block them from your contacts, so you
never have to deal with them again, and you never have to be confronted with their opposing
views again. (You certainly never need to wrestle with why they hold those opposing views,
and you absolutely never need to address the idea that their opinions might have some merit,
and that just perhaps you could learn from their position rather than ignoring it.) In virtual
relationships, just a few clicks of a few buttons, and the pesky person with differing viewpoints
disappears from your life entirely.
More and more, this view of cancel culture has migrated from virtual relationships on Face-
book, Instagram, and Twitter into our real, interpersonal, everyday lives. We are probably
more fractured and isolated as a society now than we have been for many years. People refuse
to associate with those who disagree with them, and huddle themselves in echo chambers with
only those people who agree with them and support all the same causes they do. If a disagree-
ment comes up, increasingly the way to handle it has become to consider the person who disa-
grees as an enemy, a threat to your existence, and someone who needs to be removed from
your sheltered, isolated life.
While this has been an extended commentary on society, have you noticed something entirely
missing from everything I have just described? Forgiveness. Cancel culture, and the “Woke”
ideologies that tend to drive cancel culture, have no place for forgiveness. In fact, various
forms of “Woke” ideologies intentionally teach the exact opposite of forgiveness. Various
“Woke” ideologies, such as “Critical Race Theory,” teach that if a wrong was committed in the
past, it has to be punished in the present and in the future. Reparations must be made for past
wrongs. People whose ancestors may have behaved badly should be punished by being treated
themselves in the same way their ancestors may have treated others—regardless of the fact
that those alive today had no part in the wrongs of their ancestors and likely find those actions
reprehensible. No matter, they must still be punished, because in “Woke” ideology there is no
forgiveness.
I hope you are seeing how the ideas and actions of “cancel culture” and “Woke” ideologies are
absolutely the opposite of the message of love and forgiveness found in Christianity. (This is
why the Southern Illinois District at our February 2022 Convention passed a resolution reject-
ing “Woke” ideologies such as Critical Race Theory with a majority of over 92%.) Christianity
is not based on retribution, stoking division and hatred, and rejecting those who hold different
ideas and views. Think of what our condition would be if God had taken that view, demanding
that those who have sinned in the past make full reparations for their actions, and “cancelling”
all those who disagree with His Divine Will. (That would be all of us. We would all be cancelled
by God if He were “Woke.” Let that sink in.) Instead, Christianity is based off completely dif-
ferent principles—love, forgiveness, and sacrifice.
“God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8,
ESV). God did not seek to punish us for our past sins, or the sins of our ancestors. God instead
punished His Son, Jesus Christ, for all of our sins, and all the sins committed before us, and
those that will be committed in the future. Instead of punishing us, God forgave us. Christiani-
ty, at is very core, is rooted in forgiveness. God forgives us. We are to forgive those around us.
We are not to cancel them, or seek retribution against them, or try to get even with them. We
are to forgive them, just as Jesus has forgiven us.
Think of The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. Jesus tells the parable because of a question
from Peter. “Then Peter came up and said to Him,‘Lord, how often will my brother sin against
me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you seven
times, but seventy-seven times’” (Matthew 18:21-22). Jesus then tells the parable of the serv-
ant who was forgiven a massive debt of 10,000 talents (probably billions, perhaps trillions, of
dollars), but then refuses to forgive a fellow servant who owes him a debt of 100 denarii
(probably about $20,000). Jesus’ point is clear. We have been forgiven much. So also, we must
forgive those who sin against us.
We are not to cancel those who disagree with us, we are to forgive and seek reconciliation. We
are not to disassociate with those who hurt us, but we are to show them love and forgiveness.
We are not to try to get even with those who wrong us but forgive them and seek greater peace
and understand. To “cancel” those who disagree with you is not Christian. To seek to get even
with someone who has wronged you is even less Christian. It may be common in the world, but
it must be unheard of in the Church. The Church is not based on “cancel culture,” the Church
is based on God’s Word.
As you have been forgiven, so forgive those around you. Forgive without any exceptions based
on race, sex, ideology, age, or any other dividing factor. Forgive freely and love fully. Hate, di-
visiveness, and revenge have no place in the Church. The Church is rooted in Gods’ forgiveness
and love shown to us, and then show by us to all. That is the way of Christ.
In Christ,
Pastor Clayton
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