Cancelling Cancel Culture

It might seem hypocritical or counterproductive, but, we must cancel Cancel Culture. We must stop the stoppers.

Admittedly, this is not an easy stance to take. That’s what happens when you counter popular thought. I don’t want to cancel Critical Thinking. I want to cancel Cancel Culture. We need to cancel the attack, the silencing, and the erasing of absolutes or conservative principles & values.

Some History

Cancel is such an important idea in the right context. It is literally ‘Jubilee’. In the Bible it is called a ‘Jubilee’? What was this year of Jubilee - it was the year of our Lord’s favor.

In Leviticus 25, it says, ‘If your brother becomes poor, and cannot maintain himself…you shall maintain him. You shall not lend him your money at interest, not give him your food for profit.' What a call God has upon us toward our brothers and sisters!

This Jubilee was such an important topic that Jesus begins His ministry with a Jubilee statement. His first words are from Isaiah: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.' And Jesus proclaims the year of the Lord's favour, of canceling debt, of the year of Jubilee.’ (Luke 4:18)

Don’t forget that important point. We are to feed and clothe and care for the poor. But what has often been lost in this Jubilee is another important demand. We are to preach the good news to the poor. It’s not one or the other. It is biblical and social justice. Taking care of the physical and spiritual needs of people. I like to call it the ‘gourmet news’, ‘garment news’, and the ‘good news’!

What Jesus was really talking about was an era of grace - a message of forgiveness - and a time of canceling debt. That’s the role of the church today. We must be lovers and not haters.

But that doesn’t mean we need to be quiet about our principles or absolutes. In fact, just as civil law will save your life, the same goes for spiritual law. But in an even more eternal way.

BONO On The Church

Recall what BONO said in 2006 at the national prayer breakfast in Washington DC:

“The religious community, when they show up, they are all in. The church was slow but the church got busy on this the leprosy of our age - AIDS. And love was on the move. Mercy was on the move. God was on the move. Moving people of all kinds to work with others they had never met, never would have cared to meet. Conservative church groups hanging out with spokespeople for the gay community, all singing off the same hymn sheet on AIDS. This is what happens when God gets on the move. Things happen.”

I know it’s easy to bash the church, but, the church has its futurists who also understand the times and know what to do.

There are many of us like that. Many of us in Christianity do not fit the mold or the generalization. And that’s really important for this generation of Millennial and Gen Z sets to see the church lead in society.

Be careful of anyone who generalizes and doesn’t see the unique individual or the power of the few.

Let me give you 1 simple point on this topic of Cancel Culture.

The difference between canceling and critical thinking is very important to understand

I understand it’s popular to say the church started Cancel Culture. I’ve heard all of the arguments – the church against Disney, rock music, and censorship of TV shows. But, you cannot generalize the entire church is against those things. However, many of us raised our kids on Disney, crossover music, and watching television wisely. 

And so by standing up for Purity Culture we are not negating ‘Impurity Culture’, ‘Shame Culture’, or ‘Trauma Culture’ as it relates to sex and sexuality. We must clearly define this sexual dysfunction and where it is coming from.

Don’t get confused about critical thinking. Critical thinking is about accountability and evaluation of an issue, and not cancelling an issue. The church has a responsibility to protect the truth of Scripture – the good news – and to do it in clarity and love.

In the face of harmful sexuality, it is very important to identify where sexual shame and trauma came from. One thing for sure, it did not come from purity. It came from impurity and dysfunction.

If one generation loses its principles the next generation loses its practices. That’s why it is so important to preach the good news and not simply succumb to culture.

See, standing up for principles and absolutes is not attacking, silencing, and erasing. It is Critical (biblical) Thinking or conversation, openness, and valuing. When the church is biblically consistent in all kinds of sectors and issues - on censorship, on debt, on AIDS, or Human-trafficking - the church is leading well. And when this happens, society listens.

Here’s the difference between Cancel Culture and Critical Thinking: Canceling silences and erases. Critical thinking discusses and improves.

Let me give you an example of the inconsistency of the toxic Cancel Culture:

The Purity Culture

The Cancel Culture inconsistency can be seen in the attack on the Purity Culture. This may be one of the most misunderstood arguments in modern pop culture.

The Purity Culture was celebrated and became popular 35 years ago when youth ministry in the church promoted and taught on sexual abstinence and purity. It was a message of biblical standards of sex and sexuality, of honor, respect between young men and women, and chastity. But today, the Cancel Culture has done revisionist history and attacked, silenced, and erased the original intent of the Purity Culture.

If you hear claims about shame, trauma, and submission, that is not the true meaning of the purity culture. That has nothing to do with a purity culture. That is Cancel Culture at its best making extreme general statements to cancel purity.

How do I know this? Because 35 years ago there was a whole host of us YTH Leaders who created the purity culture that was healthy and widespread. It wasn’t about shame, trauma, and submission. It was about abstinence, purity, honor, respect, and chastity. What it has become today is not what it began as.

I’m not denying the existence of harmful sex and sexuality. But I am asking to identify where it is coming from. So give it a new name! Call it ‘Shame Culture’ or ‘Trauma Culture’. But don’t call it Purity Culture. That’s the extreme Cancel Culture changing the narrative and “throwing the baby out with the bathwater”.

Much of the Cancel Culture argument is about generalizations. Generalization is destroying our nation. When we say things like all Democrats are, all Republicans are, all black people are, all white people are, all Christians are, we are not doing critical thinking. We are thinking critical and labeling an entire set of people into one category. That is not respecting the value of the individual.

Finally

One of the greatest impacts the church can have today is that we demonstrate and petition for truth in every aspect of society. And that will give us a bad reputation at times. That always happens when you counter popular thought.

It might seem hypocritical or counterproductive, but, we must cancel Cancel Culture. We must stop the stoppers. We need to cancel the attack, the silencing, and the erasing of absolutes or conservative principles & values.

It is breathtaking when the church leads prophetically. It will stop the world in its tracks. It is evidence of the Spirit awakening the church.

We do not have to lay our principles down at the door of relationship!