Christ & Cancel Culture: How would Jesus respond?

Macquire Dictionary’s word (actually two words) of the year in 2019 is the hotly debated phrase: cancel culture. 

What is cancel culture?

Cancel culture refers to a modern movement that has led people to lose their jobs, careers, or influence because of real or supposed troubling things that they have said or done, especially on social media. Cancel culture advocates for boycotting or silencing a person, group, organization or company with the threat of financial or influence loss. 

Let me be clear from the beginning. If a person or organization abuses their power, influence or authority to harm another, especially without apology and remedy, they deserve to lose their platform of power and influence. Or if someone is involved in criminal activity, temporary social expulsion may be required for remedial purposes. 

In the age of social media, cancel culture has gained prominence. 

I recently heard of a Mexican American man, Emmanuel Cafferty, who was fired from his job over a photo that a motorist took of Cafferty and posted on Twitter. Cafferty was cracking his knuckles--apparently, resembling a gesture connected to white power. His employer (SDG&E), fearing possible backlash, terminated him. Cafferty said, “It’s scary that you can be charged, tried and convicted on social media, without your permission, with no corroborating evidence, of any type.” What makes this worse is that the original photo poster confessed he may have gotten “spun up” and misinterpreted the hand gesture. Unfortunately for Cafferty, he lost his livelihood for no fault of his own. 

This incident and many others made me wonder, is cancel culture veering dangerously out of control? 

Richard Niebuhr’s classic book, Christ and Culture (1951), explored five ways in which Christ interacts with culture. One intersection missing is Christ and cancel culture. We have systematically progressed from politically correct culture (pc) to cancel culture (cc). 

I want to pose three dangers of cancel culture and explore how Jesus would interact with this phenomenon. 

1. Cancel culture limits our ability to find the truth

Conversing with people we disagree with is incredibly important in the search for truth. By interacting with divergent views, we can evaluate and refine our beliefs. Our ideas become better nuanced, detailed and articulated while stripping away any biases or misunderstandings. We should welcome different opinions because they sharpen and clarify our own. When a disagreement arises with another person, there are two possible pathways. We can either be insistent on winning the argument or we can mutually win the truth. Endeavouring to win a debate, at any cost, elevates our pride and could cost our relationship with the other person. In trying to prove our “right-ness”, there is a tendency to launch accusations, invoke overstatements, insensitively question motives or morality, or label people unfairly. When emotion supersedes rationale, we reduce our opponents’ argument to broad generalities that are easier to distort and destroy.

Thomas Aquinas, one of my favourite theologians, astutely stated, “We must love them both, those whose opinions we share and those whose opinions we reject, for both have laboured in the search for truth, and both have helped us in finding it.”  

Jesus came as the Truth to reveal truth to humanity. He never shied away from difficult conversations, opposing opinions or forceful challenges, but always gave people a platform to share their contrary views. He didn’t belittle or diminish their value or worth. He often engaged the questioner with a question of his own to create dialogue and extrapolate truth. In a multitude of opinions, truth slowly emerges as views are sharpened against each other. 

We limit the potential for truth to be discovered if we silence or cancel contrary opinions or views that we disagree with or find offensive.

2. Cancel culture feeds our need for power and control

Cancel culture doesn’t stop with silencing a voice; it ultimately leads to cancelling the entire person or organization behind that voice. People are escorted to the social guillotine to be permanently executed from public discourse. 

There appears to be a disturbing, sadistic pleasure (from some on the far-left and far-right) in witnessing a person lose their livelihood due to an ill-advised word, tweet or deed. 

Cancel culture functions in the realm of fear and equates being “right” with having power. The fear of losing that power and being wrong may motivate some to intimidate others. At best, it blinds us from searching for real truth. At worse, it causes us to control others as a measure of self-protection. We attack and fight hard to prove our points and are reluctant to admit our failures, even when we are shown to be incorrect or mistaken. The effect of this fear leads to increasingly strong rhetoric and self-censorship of divergent views.

Former presidential candidate, Andrew Yang, said, “Cancel culture has really become sort of a source of fear for many Americans where we live in a culture that you are somehow afraid that if you say the wrong thing that your life could be changed forever.” 

Suppressing free speech and expression creates extremism. When people are fearful of publicly articulating their views, knowing they will be shamed or attacked, they feel compelled to double-down on their beliefs and can espouse harmful ideologies.

We are witnessing the rise of extremism in our society. Sadly, people are trying to out-extreme the other. Whichever political side you fall on, there are some who want to have ideas further right or left of the mainstream. Very often, dissatisfaction with life, society, government, or God will cause people to seek power and control. 

Jesus did not try to control people through his legitimate powers. For example, when he was arrested and stood trial before Pilate, both men discussed the meaning of truth. Jesus could have displayed his ability to control the situation for his benefit by unleashing the strength of innumerable angels to fight on his behalf. However, he told Pilate, “the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me” (John 18:37). Truth doesn’t need power to reveal its potency. Truth is powerful by its own merit and does not require manipulation to be effective. Jesus did not try to control people’s opinions and choices. Even when people disagreed with him, he did not force them to change. He graciously let people walk away after a dispute.

Our desire to control society, organizations or people to fit what we believe is right is a form of fascism and totalitarianism. Censoring opposing voices feed the craving for power, but ultimately the appetite for power will never be satisfied until everything is controlled.

Lording our perceived superiority or intellect over another is diametrically opposed to God’s kingdom life. Under the reign and rule of God, we are to surrender power to him (Mark 10:42-45; 1 Peter 3:5). 

3. Cancel culture denies grace and mercy

Does anyone really want to experience true justice? A phrase that is often heard or seen on poster boards in protests is “No justice, No peace.” It’s a cry for fairness, equality and retribution for criminal acts. We all desire equal treatment under the law for all people. However, do we want to be treated as we deserve by our conduct? The natural human inclination is to demand that justice be applied to others while we appeal for mercy. This dichotomy positions us to be simultaneously harsh on others and lenient for ourselves.

Advocating for justice is essential and necessary. I explore the importance of justice in an article, ‘Is Justice Possible?’, (Please read it if you haven’t done so). Our desire for justice should always be coupled with mercy.

Jesus embraced the “cancelled” people in his society--tax collectors, prostitutes, zealots--and included them among his disciples. 

Jesus was unwilling to cancel Simon Peter, who thrice denied him (John 18:27) or James and John, who misspoke by desiring fire from heaven to consume their racially disparaged neighbours or even Judas Iscariot, who ultimately betrayed him. 

Jesus offered people forgiveness and grace when they made mistakes. Today’s cancel culture viciously attacks and seeks to demonize and destroy a person’s career and financial stability. Even if the person has apologized for ill-advised comments, they are effectively silenced and dismissed. 

When people railed and maligned Christ on the cross, he offered forgiveness instead of judgement. What is disappearing in our culture today is forgiveness and mercy. In our desire for power, we are willing to damage people’s reputation, assassinate their character and destroy their livelihood for the sake of “winning”. We are not only cancelling views, but we are cancelling people. 

God is a “come as you are” God. He accepts us the way we are, with all our faulty beliefs, reasonings, and behaviour. God expects us to treat others with the same kindness and compassion we have received from him. God is also a “come let us reason together” God. He invites us to dialogue with him about our beliefs. 

Jesus warns us not to pronounce judgement on others because the same verdict we dispense will be measured back to us (Matt. 7:1-3). So before we tweet, retweet, like or share something on social media to humiliate someone for their mistakes, take a long look inside of us. When Peter asked Jesus how often to forgive someone who continues to offend us, Jesus replied, saying, 70 x 7. What Jesus is essentially saying is, “Always forgive!” 

Some people are ready to pounce and ruin someone’s reputation at the slightest gaffe. I believe Jesus calls us to rise above cancel culture and embody a lifestyle of grace and forgiveness. Does it mean people should not be held accountable for their words and actions? Of course not. However, the consequence should be proportionate to their mistake. Should a person lose their career because of something stupid done decades ago as a teenager? No. Should a person lose their livelihood because of an ill-advised tweet? No. Should a company be boycotted because they support a policy contrary to yours? No. (I am not opposed to individuals avoiding a product or organization for their policies or practices. However, organizing mass social boycotts that may affect the livelihoods of their employees is not always helpful, unless they are involved in criminal activity).

We are not defined by one moment in the continuum of time. We are a work in progress. A masterpiece being created. St. Augustine said, “There is no saint without a past. No sinner without a future.”

Can people change? 

The answer is a resounding “yes”! We encourage our children to learn and grow, and we praise the “lifelong learners” among us. To learn means to change, and changing involves replacing your current views with something new and more accurate. In the process of learning, we are never static, but always changing. There are many things I believe today that I didn’t believe 20 years ago. There are also things I believed 20 years ago that I no longer believe today. Therefore, to drag up things in a person’s past and use that against them today is to imply that who they were in teh past is who they are today—this runs counter to the very idea of personal growth. Why encourage people to learn, grow and change if we judge them for things they believed, said or did years or decades ago? What incentive is there for people to change if they are always tied to a snapshot of their past?

Bridging differences

When someone says something contrary to current cultural preferences, they are deemed worthy of being silenced. The practice of boycotting a person or business because of a contrary opinion is a popular tactic to win an argument or establish a viewpoint. Instead of engaging an idea and debating it with facts, shaming a person out of the public square is, unfortunately, the preferred method. It is easier to shame a person into silence and obscurity than to converse and debate ideological differences.

Former President Obama, in discussing the dangers of cancel culture, said, “This idea of purity and you’re never compromised and you’re always politically ‘woke’ and all that stuff, you should get over that quickly. The world is messy; there are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws. People who you are fighting may love their kids, and share certain things with you.” 

Born in the east and raised in the west, I was fortunate to grow up in a bicultural home. Eastern culture is primarily an honour-shame culture where the good of the collective is primary. Western culture elevates the rights of the individual. Either extreme has its negative consequences. Living with an honour-shame mentality can be suppressing and guilt-riddening. We become unable to express ourselves in fear of being shamed by the community.

On the other hand, individualism can create an arrogant, self-centred, me-first mentality that has no concern for our neighbour. I propose a middle-ground approach to the east-west mindsets. Provide freedom of speech and self-expression as long as it does not harm your neighbour’s right to life and liberty. If we trespass a boundary that violates our neighbour’s ability to live freely, we should rectify it with all means possible. 

Kingdom Lifestyle

Jesus teaches us to love all people, even our enemies. Enemies can be people who believe differently or also those who seek to sabotage our lives deliberately. Loving our enemies is hard, but it's a lifestyle Jesus modelled for us to follow. To love someone begins with listening intently and learning widely. We may not agree ideologically with everyone, but we should give them the freedom to express their beliefs without fear of retribution. If we seek to vilify, cancel, silence or ostracize someone because of their words or ideas, I fear that cancel culture will nullify our witness and the effectiveness of the gospel. 

The gospel is a message of transformation and redemption. We are not defined by our latest mistake or any mistake in our past. There is always hope for change. 

Cancel culture will lead to a fragmented society with people living in their ideological echo chambers. The loss of civility, collaboration, and a sense of the common good will permanently damage our social fabric. Unless followers of Christ live his kingdom ethic of love, our culture will continue to spiral out of control. I believe Christ can transform cancel culture. He encourages us to pursue truth, surrender our need to control and offer grace and mercy to those who err. Christians should embody his lifestyle and function as lighthouses pointing the world to truth with grace and mercy. 

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