A movement has been gaining steam over the past few years that many of us have probably heard of: cancel culture. The definition of the concept is the mass withdrawing of support for an individual as an expression of disapproval for their socially unacceptable behavior or words. Usually this happens on social media platforms where people call for a boycott or even for the individual to be fired. Recently, this happened to an NFL head coach over leaked emails that became public and with a comedian who said unpopular things about transgender people.
Now, whatever you think about the right/wrong of cancel culture, I want to point out two ways that cancel culture diverges from Biblical truth.
First, in cancel culture, there is no place for mercy, grace, or forgiveness. If you commit the unpardonable sin of saying something offensive or not politically correct in this day and age, you can forget the possibility of people showing any compassion or giving any type of pardon. That is the whole idea of cancel culture. It is not a short-term punishment, it is an unforgivable removal from society. Now I am talking about forgiveness towards those who are genuinely sorry for their offense. Some are not sorry and those people not receiving forgiveness would seem justified. But for those who are truly contrite, no forgiveness is available.
This is strange because we actually do live in a rather forgiving society. How many times have we seen a politician, athlete, or celebrity, standing before media cameras and reading a written apology to a recent scandal? I remember the golfer Tiger Woods being caught in an adulterous and drunken scandal and when he was apologetic, society forgave him and moved on. Now, he is golfing again with millions of fans like before. Whether he meant his apology or not, society forgave.
But with cancel culture, things are different. And this is where cancel culture diverges from Biblical truth. Christians should be those filled with mercy, grace, and forgiveness. Ephesians 4:32 tells us to forgive others in the same way God has forgiven us. That is a profound statement for how our forgiveness should look. We have been forgiven a vast multitude of sins that we could never count, should we then withhold forgiveness when someone offends or upsets us once or twice? What about if it was 70 times 7? God’s forgiveness holds no conditions, it is free and unearned. Is our forgiveness the same? The very fact that the Scripture commands us to forgive one another rests on the assumption that we will offend one another…multiple times. Christians should be those ready to hand out forgiveness and mercy first.
The second way cancel culture diverges from Biblical truth is the rejection that people can change. In some of these cases, things are brought up from years before, many years before. Are we to assume that the person who said something offensive years ago is in fact the same person in every way? Has any growth occurred? Has any change happened? Cancel culture does not allow for such a possibility.
I heard a story of one particular actor who admitted to using an offensive word for homosexuals years ago, and how he learned the offensiveness of the word, and has since stopped using it. Sounds like growth right? Positive steps? Wrong, says cancel culture. People are calling for the boycott of his movies.
In contrast, the Bible teaches that Christians are a work in progress. God is conforming us into the image of His Son (Rom 8:29). We are progressing in varying degrees of holiness. The Bible affirms that who we are currently, is not who we should be, and we are moving (however slowly) towards being a righteous person. Hopefully, who you and I are today, is not who we will be years from now. That is called growth and change.
As we engage in relationships with believers around us, we must keep that in mind. We are all on different points on the spectrum of holiness. Maybe someone else’s mouth isn’t as clean as mine, but are they in the process of change? Then I need to acknowledge that. Maybe someone else’s patience is far exceeding mine. I would want the same understanding for me, right? I’m not there yet, but I’m working on it.
Cancel culture is here to stay. It is of the world, it is not of God. But, we must make sure we are people of grace and forgiveness and people who acknowledge the progress of others. We must not be conformed to the world, but be transformed in our mind by the Word of God.