Recently while watching a video with my youngest daughter, Victoria, who by the way is very much an adult, a phrase was mentioned with which I was not too familiar. The phrase was the ‘cancel culture.’ No matter how hard I tried to pretend as though I was ‘woke’ when it came to this phrase, which is today’s slang for being consciously aware, she quickly recognized that I had absolutely no clue as to what it meant.
She then proceeded to explain to me that in today’s culture the term cancel has taken on a completely different meaning from that to which I was accustomed. I grew up with the idea that to cancel something meant that what was planned would no longer take place, such as an event like one of the many meetings that I have to attend in my already hectic schedule, or even a television program that because of low ratings among viewers had to be taken off the air. We say that the program was cancelled.
In today’s culture the idea of ‘canceling’ something has been expanded from the removing of things or events to that of people. Yes, you heard me right. Now we can even ‘cancel’ people. This idea of canceling people has become so popular in recent years that it is now referred to as the ‘cancel culture.’ To cancel someone, usually some well-known figure, means to stop giving support to that person or their views. The act of canceling sometimes even leads to boycotting an actor’s movies, no longer reading an author’s works or refusing to download or listen to an artist’s music.
The reasons for cancellation can vary, but they are usually due to the person in question having expressed an objectionable opinion, or having conducted himself or herself in a way that many view as unacceptable. So to be canceled doesn’t mean that the person ceases to exist, it simply means that they cease to exist in the mind of the one who is doing the cancelling. In some cases, the ‘canceling’ of an artist or some well-known person has garnered such widespread support from the masses that it has cost ‘the cancelled’ the ability even to make a living.
I’m sure you’re probably wondering where I am going with all of this. Well, in an age when we can now ‘cancel’ people because we dislike their views, their values or even their opinions on certain issues, I can’t help but wonder: Is the church in danger of being ‘cancelled’? Better yet, in the minds of some, has it already been canceled? Could it be that the institution of the church is no longer receiving the support from the culture that it did even twenty years ago because we have been cancelled and the culture simply forgot to tell us? And if we have been canceled by today’s culture, is it because of the stands that we have taken on certain issues or could it be because of the stands that we have refused to take?
Space will not permit me to say all that I would like on this topic, but I just wanted to get the discussion going. I want us to think long and hard on this, because in my humble opinion, it’s not too late for things to change. If we, the church, are willing to make some desperately needed adjustments and allow some retooling to take place in the way we do things, how we are structured, we can remain ‘on the air.’ If not, then we, along with all the other irrelevant programming of our day, will be placed on the pile marked ‘canceled.’ For the sake of the church and more importantly, for the sake of the culture that is in desperate need of the transforming power of the gospel, I pray that we are.