Cancel Culture and Jesus

Lately, cancel culture has felt like a heavy weight on my soul. It seems people in the public arena are being canceled left and right, with new hashtags trending on a daily basis before I had even heard about the first one. I see videos of YouTubers issuing apologies for a word they should not have used on a video ten years ago. I hear of people losing their jobs over ugly tweets they made when they were fourteen.

Before I proceed, please note that I am not attempting to defend any one person’s actions or words. I believe in defending the oppressed, eradicating racism and derogatory speech, and owning up to one’s mistakes.

What I will comment on, rather, is the very idea of ‘canceling’ someone.

A Culture of Worship

We, as people, love to worship other people.

While we think they’re great, they are gods to us; we drink them in, idolize them, keep up with their every move, and praise them. We buy their merchandise and wear it proudly. We comment adoringly on their Instagram posts. It is fun to love them, learn about them, find our identity in being part of their team. Their squad. Their family. It’s just what we do; it’s in our DNA.

But when they disappoint us — in large ways or small — the image shatters. We are appalled, disgusted as we watch the statues we erected to our heroes crumble to the ground. We agonizingly rewire every part of our brain that once trusted this person. We feel betrayed.

We begin to accept the truth that they are capable of hurting us and letting us down. We can respond, understandably, in visceral anger. We cancel them. They are done, over, proven fraud. We renounce them and the place they once had in our hearts and our lives.

But they were never meant to be fashioned into idols by us.

Underneath their captivating roles, their beautiful music, their attractive faces, their sparkling social media personalities, their well-written books, and their compelling speeches, they are sinful, battered human beings just like the rest of us. They have struggles. Many of them live in a state of rebellion against God. They are not people to put in a position of authority in our lives.

Now, I’m not saying we can’t admire these people, or be touched or inspired by their work. Art, music, sports, anything humans accomplish has the capacity to be beautiful and point back to our Creator. And please hear that I am also not advocating for the erasure of people’s offenses and crimes against others. That is why the law and governing bodies exist in this world. Justice is important to God.

But I am saying that we should stop putting our hopes in people. They will always let us down.

I know if every word I spoke and every action I took was recorded and broadcasted, I would be done in a heartbeat. Just yesterday, I went out of my way to avoid a homeless man asking for money in the grocery store parking lot because he made me feel uncomfortable and I just didn’t feel like engaging. Do you think if someone caught a celebrity on tape doing that very same thing, they wouldn’t be berated for it?

We all deserve to be canceled.

Our Only Hope

I know this sounds pessimistic and hopeless. And, in all honesty, it would be were it not for the Good News of the Gospel.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the True King Who belongs on the throne we all have engraved into our hearts.

He is the only One on earth or in heaven Who is actually everything we hoped He’d be, and unimaginably more.

God the Father is good, holy, and cannot be near sin; Jesus is one with the Father, and yet for our sake, in order to trail-blaze a path back to the Father, He willingly took all of our sin, shame, brokenness, pain, and injustice on the cross with Him. He had lived a perfect life, and yet in agony He experienced the worst torture known to man and the sharpest pain of separation from the Father possible.

All for a chance — not a guarantee, but a chance — for us to know Him and love Him.

Jesus is the only One Who could never, ever be canceled.

Let’s turn our eyes from the media and look to Him, the man of sorrows, Who is acquainted with pain. Let us accept His gift of salvation, of scandalous grace, and restore Him to His rightful place as ruler of our lives. Let’s hold sin accountable, but stop canceling fellow human beings. Let’s find our identities and our hopes in Him alone, the One Who sees the depths of our souls and yet loves and forgives us anyway.

words by Kirsten Kiley and photo by Emma Tally