MATTHEW 27:22 “’What should I do with Jesus who is called Christ?’ Let Him be crucified.” 

Last week we defined “Cancel Culture.” To avoid hurting or offending anyone emotionally, we cancel those whose views “trigger” that feeling of hurt in others and embrace everyone’s views to avoid hurting anyone.

There is an important point being made here. People do hurt because of how others treat or have treated them. But we have shifted so far to one side that we jettison what we know is true and right to allow what we know is false and wrong. This has had terrible consequences, as people are now afraid to speak up.

1) Cancel Culture’s “Islamophobia” = “I said to myself, ’If this guy doesn’t look like an Arab terrorist, then no one does.’ Then I gave myself a mental slap, because in this day and age, it’s not nice to say things like this.’ I felt kind of embarrassed.” So, Michael Tuohey, US Airways ticket agent, just watched as Mohamed Atta went through the Portland International Jetport on September 11, 2001 on his way to Boston. Atta joined four terrorists who then hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 and flew it into the World Trade Center.

2) Cancel Culture’s “Free Speech Phobia” = When Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro visited UC-Berkeley in 2017, the school spent $600,000 in security services because threats of violence were so intense. Students chanted “Speech is violence!” claiming his disagreeing with them was an attack on their identity.

3) Cancel Culture’s “Police Phobia” = The NFL Washington Commander’s head coach Ron Rivera reprimanded Defensive Coordinator Jack Del Rio for calling out the hypocrisy in condemning the January 6^th Capital Riot while ignoring the 2020 “Defund the Police” riots where 25 people died and there was $2 billion in property damage: “Coach Del Rio’s words hurt a lot of people in our community. Our organization will not tolerate any equivalency between those who demanded justice in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the actions of those on Jan. 6 who sought to topple our government.”

4) Cancel Culture’s “Gender Phobia” = In 2017, Colorado State University launched the “Feminist Fight Club” to aid young women in their struggle for identity and worth in a male-dominated sexist American culture. Cori Wong, CSU’s director of the Women and Gender Collaborative, explained the Club: “We challenge subtle sexism, racism, transphobia, and other bias that harm members of our community.”

5) Cancel Culture’s “Transphobia” = Dr. Patrick Grzanka, Univ. of TN Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, told Matt Walsh that defining of a woman based on biology is “deeply transphobic, condescending and rude.” When MO Senator Josh Hawley answered Berkeley Law Professor Khiara Bridges “No” to her question “Do you believe that men can get pregnant?” Bridges accused him of denying trans people exist and promoting violence, claiming “1 out of 5 transgender persons attempt suicide.”

6) Cancel Culture’s “White Guilt” = In 2019, University of Kansas began offer a course called ‘Angry White Male Studies’, where students examine “the deeper sources of this emotional state while evaluating recent manifestations of male anger since the 1950s.”

7) Cancel Culture’s “Critical Race Theory” = When parents across the country began attending School Board meetings to protest the teaching of CRT in the classrooms, the Department of Justice brought in the FBI to investigate what they described as “threats against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff,” saying the Biden administration is likening their protests to “domestic terrorism and hate crimes.”

Today’s cancel culture is godless and unbiblical. People who have been hurt by others for whatever reason – their religious beliefs, ideology, encounter with police, gender, sexual orientation, race – are unwilling to forgive nor extend grace to those who not only have hurt them but anyone who does not side with them. This is because in a godless culture, hurt people will always hurt people. There is no influence in their lives of a loving, gracious, and forgiving God who first has forgiven them.

In our verse this week, the very crowds who followed Jesus Christ during His ministry of healing and forgiveness now turn against Him, sentencing Him to death because of their rejection of God’s love.

To break Cancel Culture’s chain of hurt, you must turn to the One who loves you despite who you are: “This is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the sacrifice for our sins.” (1John 4:10). Through Jesus Christ can you offer to others the love and forgiveness God has given to you.

“The Evidence of Faith’s Substance” _ Article #535