Pastor's Corner

10 Jun
Screen Shot 2020 06 10 at 3.54.20 PM

Mid-Week Challenge

“Cancel Culture,” it’s a term you might not be familiar with but you have seen it in practice.  A celebrity says or posts something someone disagrees with, a social media campaign follows to ruin his or her career and “cancel” them from the social landscape.  An athlete makes a political or social statement, someone famous disagrees, and the social mob then seeks to remove him or her from having social relevance by campaigning to silence the person’s voice.  The mayor of Minneapolis had a taste of this when he refused to agree with the street mob who wanted him to defund the police department.  Mayor Jacob Frey was then booed out of a demonstration he was taking part in.  https://news.yahoo.com/minneapolis-mayor-jacob-frey-booed-153807926.html 

Freedom of speech has been a bedrock principle of our nation from its founding.  Being able to express one’s opinion, even in a disagreement, is what has allowed us to coexist with differing ideals for over 200 years.  Whoever was in political power at the moment was forced to listen to the party that was not.  Ideas were exchanged and in many cases minds were changed due to the dialogue.  Being able to see a point of view from someone else has allowed us to grow from an infant experiment in democracy to the adult leader in the world we are today.  Today, however, we are witnessing the rise of a new movement in seizing control of the conversation.  Instead of listening to both sides, the minority now insists on their rights so loudly that they are intimidating the majority. If you don’t agree immediately then they shout you down and “cancel” you from the culture.  This approach leaves no room for dialogue, an exchange of ideas or an opportunity to see an issue from another point of view.  You either blindly submit or your very social existence is removed from history. And that is one of the reasons we are where we are today.   

You can’t just ignore something and hope it goes away.  Simply throwing money at a problem and ignoring the cause only makes it worse.  The refusal by our leaders to address the differences in our nation and call out those in leadership who seek to benefit from the weakness of others has caught up to us.  We now have a generation of young people who have spent their young lives putting on headphones when they don’t like what is going on around them.  Disagreement is simply noise to them so they pop in the AirPods and downed out the noise.  If you get enough of them together they join forces and shout down the opposition without offering a solution; disagree and you are canceled.  https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/12/30/20879720/what-is-cancel-culture-explained-history-debate

It’s tempting for Christians to want to go along in hopes to bring peace, but the problem is that without honest dialogue toward a lasting solution the culture is held hostage until the wave of rage strikes again and the rules change.  The Bible addresses this relationship when referencing the makeup of a family.  In Ephesians 5 and 6 Paul gives instruction on the family and relationships in culture.  In chapter 6:4 he warns, “Fathers, don’t stir up anger in your children, but bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” Generations of failed leadership in the home has contributed to the present unrest our nation is feeling.  The removal of God and early life instruction in the home has caused this generation to grow into young adulthood with a lack of direction and inability to express their emotion.  For them it is easier to simply cancel people out than it is to listen to and absorb differences.  And sadly, for many of them, they are simply mimicking what they have seen modeled their whole life.  

Pray for our young people.  Ignoring the issues of our day will not make them go away, giving into them is even worse.  Do your part in being a mentor in word and in deed.  We have not lost this generation, but if we do as we always have then we run the risk of missing out on some of the most creative minds and the brightest future our world has ever had the opportunity to experience.  

People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy. Proverbs 28:13 

Serving the Savior

Bro. Jonathan

By: Dr. Jonathan Richerson

Comments (0)

    No one has commented on this page yet.

Leave a Comment

You cannot post comments until you have logged in. Login Here.