If ‘Cancel Culture’ Is Right, We All Should Be Canceled

Cancel. It used to be when we canceled things, it was postage stamps, or reservations, or subscriptions, or appointments, or TV shows. But now we can cancel…people. Who knew?

 

I’m not sure when the “cancel culture” mania began, but it stood up, front and center, during the confirmation hearings for then-U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Adversarial members of the Senate committee kept bringing up allegations from Kavanaugh’s past, hoping those could “cancel” his appointment to the nation’s highest court. But since then, canceling people has turned into a virtual national pastime.

Seems like almost every day we’re hearing about notables becoming discredited for things they have done or said, whether recently or in the past, sometimes distant past.  Entertainers, politicians, business leaders, pro athletes and folks from many other walks of life can suddenly be “canceled” because of some seemingly offensive behaviors in their past.

 

I find this troublesome on several levels, but I’ll look at only two. First of all, the unvarnished truth is that everyone of us deserves to be “canceled.” As Romans 3:10-12 unequivocally declares, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God…there is no one who does good, not even one.” And just verses later the writer, the apostle Paul, perhaps for emphasis, asserts, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

 

We might not be guilty of the same sins as another person, but each one of us – if we’re honest enough to admit it – has done enough wrong to disqualify us from assessing what others have done or said. In reformed theology, it’s called “total depravity,” meaning even our best efforts are tainted by sin.

 

In his little devotional book, Dare to Journey with Henri Nouwen, Charles Ringma observes, “We all have blind spots…we often see quite clearly what others are doing wrong, but fail to acknowledge our own struggles or our own complicity. We talk about ‘them’ failing to do this or wrongly doing ‘that’…. But we fail to acknowledge what lurks in our own hearts and fail to see how we often contribute to the problem…. So much of what is wrong with our world, church, and workplace is what is also wrong with us.”

 

It's like looking in a mirror and accusing others of the flaws we see in ourselves. In fact, the Scriptures offer a similar description: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his fact in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he sees” (James 1:22-24).

 

Would you be willing, as Israel’s King David was, to invite God to “Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, according to my integrity, O Most High” (Psalm 7:8)? How do you think you’d measure up?

 

Apparently throughout history, humankind has demonstrated a proclivity for passing judgment on others, “canceling” them, we might say. Because many times the Bible warns against appointing ourselves as judge and jury over others. In James 4:12, for instance, we’re told, “There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, he one who is able to save and destroy. But you – who are you to judge your neighbor?” 

 

During His “sermon on the mount,” Jesus Christ gave perhaps the clearest reason for avoiding our tendency to quickly pass judgment on others. He said, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?... You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:1-5).

 

The other day, a college football coach made a derogatory comment about his team in jest, but many who heard it took immediate offense. If it were up to them, this well-known coach would already be “canceled.” But if we’re honest, we can all look back over the course of our lives and remember things we did and things we said that, if they were to come to light today, would make us “cancel culture” targets.

 

One time, recounted in John 8:3-9, self-righteous Jewish leaders – “teachers of the law and Pharisees” – brought to Jesus a woman caught in the act of adultery. (Curiously, they did not also bring the man.) They demanded that He tell them what should be done with her, since the Old Testament law called for stoning. Jesus’ response was to bend down and write something on the ground with His finger. No one knows what it was. Perhaps He was jotting down some of the sins the leaders had committed. 

 

But when He was done, Jesus stood up and said, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Their reaction was priceless – one by one they went away, without saying another word.

 

Perhaps there’s an important lesson here for all of us. While we’re not told to overlook, ignore – or even condone – the wrongdoing of others, neither are we authorized to “cancel” others, especially when we’re probably guilty of similar misdeeds, or even worse. As the adage goes, “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.” 

Like TV Shows, Now All of Us Can Get Cancelled

This is the time of year when we learn about TV shows being cancelled. With so many options available to us these days, some of the programs getting the axe we’ve never even heard of. Sometimes when a show’s being terminated, we think, “How can they do that? I really like that one!” Well it seems we too can be cancelled!

 

They call it “cancel culture” – people determining what’s acceptable and what’s offensive. If we say or do something that’s deemed offensive, we run the risk of being cancelled. Take some recent, high-profile examples: The Muppets, for supposed stereotyping by their puppet “people.” And Dr. Seuss, for his rhyming characters. In fact,  I’ve heard the classic “Green Eggs and Ham” could be cancelled as being offensive to eggs of color. 

And then there’s the kid favorite, Mr. Potato Head. Another victim of the gender identity police. As someone has said, when we start fretting over the gender of a plastic potato, our society is in grave danger. We’re going from the ridiculous to the absurd, it seems, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. (I hope lettuce doesn’t get cancelled!)

 

Actress Gina Carano, who starred of the hit Disney+ show, “The Mandalorian,” was recently fired and dropped by her talent agency for daring to criticize the “woke” Hollywood culture. But she’s in good company. None other than George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and other icons from history have also incurred cancel culture’s wrath. 

 

It doesn’t matter whether you’re dead or alive, if your wrong was done yesterday or decades ago, or even if it was unintended, said or written out of impulse or ignorance and not from malice. If the “authorities” deem it to be so, you’re cancelled.

 

Which made me start wondering what God might think about all this. How does He feel about all this cancelling? Thankfully, we can turn to the Scriptures and find some solid answers. For starters, we find the admonition Jesus Christ gave during His ‘sermon on the mount.’ He cautioned, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged” (Matthew 7:1). This is a verse often used by non-believers as well as those who follow Jesus. 

 

In the next verse, however, Jesus elaborates: “For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” He’s not only teaching we’re not to pass judgment on others, but we’re also to recognize that when we judge – or even “cancel” others – we run the risk of being judged, or cancelled, ourselves.

 

How do we know this? Because in the gospel of John, we read about the Lord being confronted by religious leaders. They demanded that He give His view of a woman caught in the act of adultery. The law at that time was for the offender to be stoned to death. (They took cancelling very literally.) In response, after bending down to write something on the ground with His finger – no one knows for certain what that was – Jesus said to them, “If any of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”

 

As His words sunk in, one by one the leaders put down their stones and walked away. Reluctantly, in their self-righteous anger, they had to admit they each were every bit the sinner, in their own ways, as was the woman accused. Not that Jesus exonerated the woman. After everyone else had left, He asked, “‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ ‘No one, sir,’ she said. ‘Then neither do I condemn you,’ Jesus declared. ‘God now and leave your life of sin’” (John 8:3-11).

 

Fast-forwarding to today, each of us who is so eager to cancel someone else – for whatever reason – stands just as guilty before God. As it says in Psalm 53:2-3, “God looks down from heaven to the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all fallen away, together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.” 

 

For emphasis, we find similar wording in Romans 3:10-12, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless, there is no one who does good, not even one.”

 

Based on those passages, we could easily conclude that if anyone’s to do any cancelling, it should be the Lord. Compared to a holy, all-righteous God, not one of us comes close to measuring up. But the Gospel is literally “good news,” and the best news of all is God is not concerned about cancelling. Romans 5:8 assures, “but God demonstrates His own love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

 

Long before any of us had an opportunity to even think about committing cancellable behavior, He had already provided the means for forgiveness, redemption and reconciliation. God has even made provision for regeneration, a fresh start: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

 

If we’re honest enough, every one of us can find something – probably lots of things – that we regret and would undo if we could. It’s reassuring to know that even if the cancel culture cops were to come after us, because of what Christ has already done on our behalf, we need not fear that from God. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Your favorite TV show might get the axe, but in Christ we never will.

The Day That Changed Everything

Was the first Christmas really on Dec. 25? No one knows for certain. Some experts on biblical history (old authorities?) claim the Christ Child was actually born in the spring. Others think that even if the amazing Bethlehem event did occur in the winter, it might have been on a different date. No matter. What does matter is what happened after that.

For most of the world, the modern calendar traces back to the estimated birth of Christ, which is why we have B.C. (Before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini, or Year of our Lord). Every time we make a financial transaction using coins, currency or a check, they bear dates that hearken to Christ’s birth. The cliché, “no room at the inn,” is taken directly from the Christmas story.

 

Many other common references and terms we use today, such as the good Samaritan, the prodigal son, walking on water, turning water into wine, the Lord’s Prayer, faith the size of a mustard seed, the widow’s mite, salt of the earth, and the Cross, are drawn directly from Jesus’ life and teachings. 

 

In addition, He gave us familiar saying such as “judge not lest you be judged” (Matthew 7:1-2), “do to others as you would have them do to you” (Luke 6:31), “love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31), and “it is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24).

 

In these and many other ways, our lives would be very different if it were not for that unique, divine day in an obscure Middle Eastern town. However, that’s not the greatest difference.

 

Over the years I have met countless men, women and young people whose lives have been changed for all eternity by Jesus Christ. I am among them, as are many members of our family. Because faith in Jesus is far more than a matter of personal opinion or individual ideology. It means experiencing a literal, life-changing event that alters the course of one’s life for both now and once we step onto the other side of eternity.

 

Speaking to the Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council called the Pharisees, Jesus made the astounding statement, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” (John 3:3). Being born again, I have learned, means much more than a changed attitude or a new way of thinking. As Jesus elaborated, “…no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit…. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again’” (John 3:5-7).

 

In 2 Corinthians 5:17, the apostle Paul stated this in a different way: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!... God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:17-21).

 

Then, in another of his letters, Paul looked back not to Jesus’ birth but to His crucifixion and resurrection, without which that first Christmas day would have been just another ordinary day: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

 

So as we celebrate Christmas, commemorating the birth of Jesus, “Immanuel – which means ‘God with us’” (Matthew 1:23), we mark the singular, watershed moment for mankind. Jesus declared, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). It’s available to every one of us – the greatest Christmas gift of all – just for the asking.

When Role Models Roll Wrong

The phrase may have become passé, but for quite a while we used to hear people proclaim, “That’s how I roll.” In other words, “That’s how I am,” or “That’s the way I do things.” But sometimes how you “roll” can cause problems – especially if you’re a role model.

We saw contrasting examples of this recently, leading up to and immediately after the Super Bowl. After his team defeated the San Francisco 49ers to earn the right to play in the Super Bowl, Richard Sherman, a talented defensive back for the Seattle Seahawks, went on a post-game rant that prompted extensive debate over the following days.

The only problem with putting people
on pedestals is gravity: They have an
annoying habit of falling off.

Sherman used no profanity, but his contentious comments reminded some viewers of the antics of professional wrestlers. Frankly, my first thought was the NFL had merged with the WWE. Apparently his competitive juices were still flowing after the final seconds had ticked away. The problem was, prior to his game-clinching defensive play and subsequent in-your-face commentary, many watching the game outside of Seattle hardly knew him. And as they say, first impressions are lasting.

Then there were the measured, sportsmanlike reactions of Denver Broncos’ quarterback Peyton Manning after his team was soundly thrashed by Sherman’s Seahawks in the Super Bowl, 43-8. Although clearly disappointed, his demeanor reflected the image Manning has cultivated as one of the NFL’s top quarterbacks.

So is Manning a better role model than Sherman? Who knows? Whether it’s right or not, we build pedestals for people – entertainers, athletes, politicians, even spiritual leaders – who seem larger than life. But is their public persona real or fabricated? Genuine – or the product of crafty marketing and packaging? Do we really know “how they roll”?

Even the best, most appealing role models stumble. No one’s perfect, right? Whether it’s someone whose name rates front-page or evening news coverage, or some lesser known person we admire at work, church or in our community, if we probe deeply enough, we’ll find feet of clay. So what are we to do when our role models decide to roll wrongly?

In the Bible, Jesus instructed His followers, “Judge not, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Matthew 7:1-2). This might seem hard to apply, especially when considering persons like the reigning queen and king of chaos, Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber, but it’s true – we really don’t know them, or what makes them do the crazy things they do.

We also need to realize, whether we asked for the assignment or not, we’re probably someone else’s role model. It might be a colleague or coworker, child or grandchild, or someone you interact with at church or a volunteer organization where you serve. People are watching, and unwittingly we can become examples for good or ill.

Finally, we need to recognize there is only one role model truly worthy of following, only one that will never disappoint or disillusion us with bad behavior: Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). Earlier in the same book we’re told to be “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).

And the apostle Paul, whose writings were known for profound theology, summed it up when he stated: “I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).

There’s nothing wrong with appreciating and admiring someone’s skills and talents, whatever they might be. But there’s a danger of turning role models into idols – little gods. And God clearly declared, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). At those times when we don’t like how our role models “roll,” we need to maintain our focus on the One that never fails.

Judging . . . and Changing

A recent CBS News poll revealed 80 percent of Americans are unhappy with the Federal government, with 50 percent of respondents classified as “dissatisfied,” and another 30 percent termed “angry.” A Gallup Poll had similar results, reporting nearly 70 percent of people surveyed stated they are either “dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied.”

If we’re among those sharing similar discontent with the United States’ direction and how it’s being run, what can we do about it? We can complain to our friends. After all, most people like preaching to the choir. We can grumble on Facebook, Twitter or email, including sharing articles and posts that affirm our opinions. We can write letters to the editor. We can anticipate the next election with every intention of “voting the rascals out.”

How can we, as individuals, bring about
meaningful, lasting change in our world?

There’s nothing wrong with any of those, but at best our individual impact in those ways is very limited. We can feel fairly helpless to bring about change. There’s another way, however.

An oft-quoted verse from the Bible – by both believers and nonbelievers – is Jesus’ statement in Matthew 7:1, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” He made this declaration during His "Sermon on the Mount."

A common interpretation of this passage is we have no right to judge anyone else – values, behavior, or lifestyle. But if you read the rest of what Jesus said, that’s not what He meant.

Jesus proceeded to state, “For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?... You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:2-5).

Talk about not mincing words! As I understand it, Jesus was chastising His listeners for being quick to find fault with others while ignoring their own failings – sometimes similar to shortcomings they saw in other people. When we point to someone else, three fingers point back at us.

So what does this have to do with changing society? A lot.

Recently I read a brief commentary, "I Wanted To Change The World," written by an unknown monk around 1100 A.D. His sentiments seem timeless, worthy our consideration:

“When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world.

I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation.

When I found I couldn't change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn't change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family.

Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world.”

Change, recalling Jesus’ earlier statement, must start with ourselves. As much as we wish we could, we can’t change people – even loved ones. As for bringing about change in our communities, our country, the world? We can do our part, of course. But the only definitive, enduring change we each have direct control over is oneself.

So while we're wringing our hands over the state of the world, nation, community, and people around us, we can begin making real change – in ourselves. No telling how far those changes can reach.