Following up on the conversation that we had concerning Cancel Culture, AJ and I wanted to put together some highlights and additional thoughts that were not explicitly mentioned in our dialogue.
Highlights from the conversation:
- A Christian’s response to anything in life should always first be 1) Prayer 2) Seeking wisdom from God’s Word
- As Christians, we live in a constant tension of Law (God’s will and design for creation) and Gospel (God’s forgiveness for the sake of Jesus Christ)
- The Church must stand on God’s Word and proclaim His truth to the world – She must confess and live according to what God has said
- The Church is a particular community that looks different than the world; has different standards than the world
- Christian men – especially husbands and fathers – must grow in their understanding of truth, grace, law, Gospel, and wisdom. They must do this for the sake of their families
- The Gospel is “the power of God unto salvation” – The Gospel is transformative
- God’s Wisdom (from His Word) must form and inform your conscience – your conscience (the prodding of the Holy Spirit) will help you navigate these difficult situations
- The Church, the Body of Christ, and the believers in Christ, has a glorious future; that impacts our current reality
Additional thoughts on Cancel Culture:
When engaging “Cancel Culture,” Christians must be discerning about the terms and frameworks used. Too easily do Christians fall into arguments in which the grounds for discussion have been set by Cancel Culture. Those grounds will make it nearly impossible to “win” an argument. Most likely, the discussion will center around justifying the person who was canceled rather than centering on God’s Truth.
Moreover, within Cancel Culture’s framework, there is no means of forgiveness – no means of saying, “We will not let the past get in the way of our future relationship.” That is absolutely antithetical to the Gospel which proclaims on account of Jesus Christ – His incarnation, life, death, and resurrection – God no longer lets the past get in the way of His future relationship with us.
Secondly, we must realize that those who set out to “Cancel Culture” are hurting in some capacity —hence the need to address past grievances. We cannot, as Christians, simply say, “Get over it” or “Sorry about your luck.” Again, that attitude is antithetical to the Gospel. Thus, we have to be willing to listen to their grievances. We do not need to explain those hurts or grievances away, but we do need to proclaim -“Yes, this world is sinful – we are all under the effects of sin- and we all have sinned ourselves.
The promise is: Jesus Christ has bled and died, rose from the dead, and will return to make things right – to remove sin from the world finally and completely; to remove sin from us finally and completely.”
