Cancel Culture: A Christian Response
As followers of Jesus Christ, how should we view and respond to “cancel culture”? While advocating for justice, extreme forms of cancel culture cause further harm. The church can offer and model a wiser and more effective alternative.
Cancel culture aims to promote justice and advocate for marginalized people. Fantastic.
The issue with cancel culture lies not in its aims but in its means. Cancel culture aims to promote justice and advocate for marginalized people. Fantastic. Yet it does so through publicly shaming and punishing those deemed offensive. This is not the way of Jesus or His church. Worse, it often judges harshly with blind self-righteousness and without allowing for forgiveness, reconciliation, or even repentance.
Despite its best intentions, cancel culture, like the Pharisees in Jesus’ day, often creates a good versus evil conflict. Not just right versus wrong but good versus evil. If you’re evil or a monster, we are justified in storming the castle.
Despite its best intentions, cancel culture, like the Pharisees in Jesus’ day, often creates a good versus evil conflict. Not just right versus wrong but good versus evil. If you’re evil or a monster, we are justified in storming the castle.
Rather than highlighting select sins, Christianity recognizes that “all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory” (Romans 3:23). We also recognize that justice is good, yet grace transforms. The next verse offers God’s grace and righteousness to those who accept it. Likewise, when Jesus met the woman caught in adultery, He offered grace over condemnation (John 8:1-11).
Our Lord’s example of grace still challenges our tendency to self-righteousness. Rather than shame and condemnation, Jesus offered her protection and justice. He didn’t suggest that her sin did not matter but that grace, not punishment, would change her: “Now go, and sin no more.”
Rather than shame and condemnation, Jesus offered her protection and justice. He didn’t suggest that her sin did not matter but that grace, not punishment, would change her: “Now go, and sin no more.”
Jesus also challenged those who sought to permanently ‘cancel’ her. He brought attention to their graceless self-righteousness by nudging them to see their own sins. “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
As a community of the forgiven, thus, a community of grace, the church must practice forgiveness ourselves. Our homes and churches should model redemption, not retaliation.
May we also choose to be generous with the gospel. Share the hope of forgiveness and restoration found through Jesus Christ. Sometimes, Christians remain silent for fear of public disapproval. But we must be willing to speak truth in love, as Jesus courageously faced down hypocrisy and offered hope to the guilty.
Where lives are truly harmed, gentleness and understanding are needed over harsh retribution. And for those facing online fury, we can humanize rather than demonize, pointing to the hope of new life through the gospel.
This in no way diminishes the reality of sin and the need for justice. But while cancel culture seeks justice without mercy against a few, rather than demand vengeance, the church should be the first to offer forgiveness, act in love, and trust in the transformative power of God’s unmerited grace working in the heart of the humble.
Rather than demand vengeance, the church should be the first to offer forgiveness, act in love, and trust in the transformative power of God’s unmerited grace working in the heart of the humble.
Even where sin is abominable, let the church offer grace first: “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:20).
So perhaps we cancel “cancel culture” by overwhelming it with the gospel, forgiveness, and new life found in Jesus Christ.
And definitely support and advocate for the marginalized, just as Jesus did. Speak truth. Suggest forgiveness instead of condemnation. Humanize the person and never be afraid to share about Jesus or to imitate Him.
By living as forgiven and forgiving people and sharing Christ’s hope, we can offer the only solution to humanity’s deepest—Christ crucified for sinners.