Surviving Cancel Culture

Posted on Jul 29, 2021 Topic : Men's Christian Living, Women's Christian Living
Posted by : Joe Dallas

Somebody’s telling you to shut up, so what are you going to do about it? Your answer depends on who said it, what they’re telling you to quit saying, and how important you think your words are.

It starts with the who. If it’s the government, you’ll get mad and stand on your right to free speech. If it’s your boss, you might be offended but still put up with it. If it’s a celebrity on a late-night talk show, you might just chuckle and say, “Like I really care!” But if it’s someone close to you, you may be hurt or bewildered. The who has a lot to do with your response.

As does the what. If someone reacts to your words, you’ll ask yourself, “What did I say that got them so mad? Was it true or false? If it was true, was it appropriate? If it was true and appropriate, did I say it responsibly?” You may defend, retract, explain, apologize for, or stand behind what you said.

Then comes the how. How important is what you’re saying? Is it a hill to defend to the end? Or is it a secondary issue not worth arguing over?

Those three points will affect your response when someone tries to silence you. They’re also the essence of what Christians consider today when responding to the demands and tactics of Cancel Culture.

Those demands and tactics have caught us by surprise. Up until the sixties, when we talked about issues such as sexual morality, Christian orthodoxy, or abortion, we reiterated what was widely believed. Then came the social upheavals of the sixties and the sexual revolution of the seventies, and what had been commonly believed now needed to be explained.

By the nineties, an increasingly cynical culture compelled us to also defend beliefs we had just gotten used to explaining. Today, we’re having to provide a twofold defense, defending not just our beliefs, but also our right to teach and practice them. We’re now labeled “fascists,” “haters,” “bigots,” and “misogynists.” If someone is all that, then what else would a decent society do but tell them to shut up? Hence, the strong arm of speech codes, church disruptions, and the indignation of the “woke generation.”

That’s the big picture, but there’s a smaller one causing even more turmoil. In our own families, social connections, places of work, and spheres of influence, we’re feeling at an intimate level the tensions being played out nationally. People who are most dear to us are becoming strangers to us due to their disgust with our views and, as a result, their dismissal of us.

Gone are the days of unchallenged faith. The land we once viewed as a comfortable home is becoming foreign territory, barely recognizable to those of us who remember other times.

Ready or not, here comes the mandate to face Cancel Culture, hear its charges against us, and be prepared to give an answer for the hope that lies within us (1 Peter 3:15). We must speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15), be unashamed of our Master’s words (Luke 9:26), act as ambassadors for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20), and contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints (Jude 3).