3 Biblical Responses to Cancel Culture, Impeachment, & Censorship
Spoiler Alert: Jesus isn’t afraid of being cancelled or censored.
1. Love those who cancel you
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” -Matthew 5:43-44 (NIV)
As the old adage goes, “Hurt people, hurt people.” I would also add that: hurt people are also in desperate need of love.
A large reason for the Cancel Culture we are living in is due to the fact that people are hurting.
And here’s the thing…the Church has played a role in a lot of people’s pain over the years.
We likely will continue to because we are made up of broken people like myself.
And we ought to ask for forgiveness and repent every single time we do.
But it’s not just the Church who is being cancelled.
Politicians, celebrities, and organizations alike are being cancelled and silenced by this mob mentality.
Which makes the Church’s response, that much more important.
In Matthew 5, Jesus tells us that we are not only called to love our neighbor, but our enemies as well. “Pray for those who persecute you,” He says.
While our American cancel culture is hardly a form of persecution in my personal opinion, it can seem at times like we may not be far from those days.
With the fear-mongering media, this leads to panic and outrage in many — including many Christians.
Praying for those who are trying to silence us seems like the last thing we’d want to do.
And while these are things that should alarm us given the country we live in, and religious liberty and freedom of speech are worth fighting for, we ought to also consider this:
The good news of the gospel has survived, flourished, and transformed the world, without religious liberty and freedom of speech for centuries.
Jesus has never needed America to advance His kingdom. And any church that thinks they need America to survive, is depending on the wrong savior.
The world we are living in doesn’t need a defensive or frightened Church.
They need a steadfast one.
They need one that is filled with peace, truth, grace, and love that is unshaken by the chaos they are surrounded by.
Jesus said we ought to love our enemies.
And it would appear that those who have the most power and greatest influence in our culture right now, oppose how the God of the Bible intended His people to live.
They are not the enemy (Eph. 6:12). But they are being blinded by our one common enemy. And Jesus said to love them. He said to pray for them.
He’s not concerned. He knows how the story ends.
2. Make sure you’re being cancelled or impeached for the right reasons
While I’m not going to hop on here and say whether or not I believe the impeachment of former President Donald Trump should or should not take place here’s what I will say: How he used his words and position of influence throughout his entire presidency was irresponsible and ultimately detrimental to the lives of many.
As believers we ought to be cancelled for speaking truth in love — not inciting chaos and destruction.
In 2020 there were a number of celebrities cancelled for a variety of reasons that I don’t really want to get into. Nor do I want to condone the things they were cancelled for.
In 2021 however things are shifting a bit.
We seem to be transitioning from “trending” hashtag cancellations to large influential companies beginning to remove voices from their platforms that they find “cancel worthy.”
Twitter specifically has said that stating certain scientific facts is considered “hateful conduct”, conservative (while questionable) platforms have been taken down, all the while access to porn has yet to be limited.
All of that to say it would seem as though we are shifting from cancelling people for past or present decisions/wrongs to cancelling them for opinions and values they believe to be true.
Given these current trends, if you believe that the Bible is the word of God, and you believe that what it says is true, you will likely be “cancelled” some day soon if things continue. (Read also: “fired,” “let go,” or labeled as a “bigot”).
Our job then, is to be sure that when we are cancelled, we can say with a clear conscience that we were cancelled for trying to love and care for others the best way we know how.
In Matthew, chapter 10, Jesus says:
21“Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. 22 You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. 23 When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. Truly I tell you, you will not finish going through the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.
-Matthew 10:22-23 (NIV)
“You will be hated by everyone because of me,” He says.
Are we being cancelled because of Jesus? For communicating Truth in love?
Or are we being cancelled because we sinned against someone, responded in anger, or acted out of fear?
The fine line in this is that, anyone who has come to know the Lord also has a past. And in that past, they likely acted in such a way that is not aligned with scripture and also possibly in such a way that culture would consider worth being cancelled for.
This is where our response becomes that much more important.
We are currently living in a culture that doesn’t know what forgiveness looks like.
Our culture is demanding progress and perfection based on an ever changing definition of truth without any room for grace and forgiveness.
And this is a recipe for disaster.
As the Church living amidst a cancel crazed culture we must seek to model forgiveness and grace for a world that is in complete denial of their need for it.
3. Take Heart
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” -John 16:33
The words originally used for the words here mean to “take courage.”
The thing is, we are called to fight for justice. We are called to pursue freedom and liberty for all.
But we are to do so not out of the same fear and rage and divisiveness that is running rampant in our headlines.
We instead are called, “…to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God,” (Micah 6:8).
Take heart. And walk humbly with our God.
That’s how we live as a light, Church.
The parts of Christ’s Church that are growing the most right now are the parts of His Church that are under the greatest amount of persecution.
I think it’s because they know who their savior really is.
They know their country won’t save them. They know their government wants them dead. And they know their freedom can’t be taken.
The world needs a Church who will move with compassion and conviction to show them the vision of hope and life that the God of the universe intends for them. And they need one that is ready to do that even in the face of persecution.
Take courage, Church. And let’s go.
A biblical response to cancel culture is not one of fear, anger, increased division, and withdrawal.
A biblical response to cancel culture is one of humility, understanding, repentance, boldness, pursuit, and confidence in the God of the universe who has placed us here intentionally for such a time as this.
