Cancel Culture

who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. 

  1 Peter 2:24

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.  For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

                                    Romans 5:8-10

The recent trend of celebrities and other public figures facing the fall out and implications of the cancel culture came to mind as I was praying the other day. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, I’ll share a few definitions I have found, courtesy of the interwebs. One of them is from an article I found on vox.com: A celebrity or other public figure does or says something offensive. A public backlash, often fueled by politically progressive social media, ensues. Then come the calls to cancel the person — that is, to effectively end their career or revoke their cultural cachet, whether through boycotts of their work or disciplinary action from an employer.

And another, courtesy of Dictionary.com: Cancel culture refers to the popular practice of withdrawing support for (canceling) public figures and companies after they have done or said something considered objectionable or offensive. Cancel culture is generally discussed as being performed on social media in the form of group shaming.

Somewhat recent examples of “victims” of the counter culture include comedians Dave Chappelle, Kevin Hart, and Louis C.K. Roseanne Barr  was fired from her own show for a racist tweet and even beloved author J.K. Rowling, who was accused of writing a transphobic tweet, has dealt with the sting of an Twitter backlash from former Harry Potter fans. A very recent example is the boycott of Goya products, based on positive words the Goya CEO had for President Trump.

Ordinary people have been fired for stances taken and statements made in their much younger years; college-bound young adults have lost scholarships over pictures and tweets made by still-developing teenage brains. Sometimes the inevitable punishment seems to fit the crime—witness the public falls from glory powerful men like Bill Cosby, Kevin Spacey, and Harvey Weinstein. In other aspects, however, it does seem that the court of public opinion has quickly become that of Napoleonic law—that the accused in guilty until proven innocent, but many times even if innocence is proven, irreparable damage has occurred, fragments of hopes and dreams lying in pieces all around the victim and his or her family.

Can you imagine what it would be like if God decided to remember the sins we committed even before coming to Christ, before we were a new creation? All the security from His word and the promise of eternal life would slip through our grasp as we face the righteous wrath of a holy and just God. We take comfort in His word that He will never do that, however, as His word tells us that “as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” Through the sacrifice of Jesus, we have the forgiveness of all of our sins—big, small, and in between—and we rest secure in the knowledge that we are God’s children. All glory and gratitude to our Savior and Lord, for all that He has done and continues to do for us!

Prayer Requests

·      For us to seek the lesson He has for us in this pandemic    

·      For us to be obedient and understand our place in the message of the Great Commission

·      For healthcare workers, law enforcement, and first responders  

·      For us to be studiers of his Word who put our faith into action

The enemy has an insidious way of trying to remind us of the sins, hoping to separate us, even if it’s temporary, from our relationship with God. Do not let him to this. You will not be a victim of his cancel culture campaign! As the cliché says, “when the devil reminds you of your past, remind him of his future!”

 Quotes

“When God calls us to step out of our comfort zone, He is not calling us to be comfortable in the situation. He is calling us to be comfortable in Him, despite the situation.”

“God is looking for people through whom He can do the impossible. What a pity we plan to do only the things that we can do by ourselves.”   -- A. W. Tozer