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.” 

Why Good Isn’t Good Enough

Imagine being at a restaurant and the server brings your favorite beverage, but before setting it down, as you’re watching, he spits into it. Hard to imagine, right? But think about it, how would you react? You might consider a number of options, but one thing you wouldn’t do is drink it. Right?

Consider another scenario. You’re starving. You haven’t had anything to eat all day, and finally arrive at a cafeteria that looks promising. But somehow, just before you take your first bite, you learn the food you’ve been served has been tainted accidentally with a pesticide. Despite your hunger, I’d bet you wouldn’t proceed to eat.

In both instances, scientifically speaking, the food and drink are probably 99 percent acceptable. If chemical analyses were performed, in terms of atoms and molecules, they would consist mostly of the drink ordered or the food served. But the remaining one percent – be it saliva or a poisonous substance – has spoiled the entire drink or meal, making it unacceptable and potentially lethal.

There's an important spiritual parallel. How many times have you heard someone say something like, “I consider myself basically a good person,” or, “God understands we’re not perfect. He’ll accept me because my good outweighs the bad.”

From a human perspective, that makes sense. It’s true, we’re not perfect. So it’s futile to expect perfection from ourselves or from others, whether at home, in the workplace, or anywhere else.

  

But God doesn’t judge according to “human perspective.” He has only one standard, and that’s perfection. For instance, Romans 3:23 states, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:10 declares, “There is no one righteous, not even one.” In the Old Testament we read, “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). And Psalm 143:2 agrees, “no one living is righteous before you (God).” Harsh words, no doubt.

Does that mean that, according to the Bible, God sees everything we do as totally evil, utterly disgusting and without value? No, but like spit in a drink, or a dash of poison in food, sin – our failure to keep God’s laws and standards – taints all we do, making it unacceptable to God.

Christian theology offers the concept of “total depravity,” the belief that even our best thoughts, words and actions are contaminated by sin – selfishness, pride, self-sufficiency, and other impure motivations.

Jeremiah 17:9 explains, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”  In other words, even when we’re doing good things, can we be certain we’re doing them for the right reasons?

In human relationships, when we mess up we can apologize, ask forgiveness, and try to salve the harm done by doing good – buying gifts or flowers, performing chores without being asked, planning a nice evening out to help heal the wounds. Outweigh the bad with good. Offer the “nobody’s perfect” plea.

Heaven and earth - where divine perfection
and human imperfection collide.

But God has already judged our performance and, to borrow an educational term, we’ve flunked the course. No matter how much good we do, in terms of earning His favor it’s about as effective as trying to rinse off rotten meat with water and serving it for dinner.

So what’s the solution? If this is true, is there no hope? Yes, there is. But we have to fall back on the plea men, women and children have uttered through the centuries: “Lord, have mercy!” As Titus 3:5 tells us, “he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”

That passage brings up another term that people outside the Christian tradition find problematic: “Washed in the blood of the Lamb (Jesus Christ).” Sounds yucky, doesn’t it? But it’s a proper, biblical term describing Christ’s crucifixion, shedding His own blood and offering purification for the sins of mankind. In Revelation 7:14 we find this description: “they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

Hard for the human mind to conceive, but from God’s perspective, that is the only solution to the dilemma of sin pollution, the “total depravity” that otherwise disqualifies us from entering God’s perfect and holy kingdom.