Addressing Deconstruction and Cancel Culture - Part A

If someone holds a position right or wrong to or false and it offends you, you stop supporting them passively, but then actively start criticizing them in an attempt to cancel them. Now when it comes to cancel culture, this affects you and it affects me.

These days when someone becomes offended at something or someone, it can kick-start a series of reactions and events. Today on Connect with Skip Heitig, we hear a special message from author and speaker Sean McDowell who shed some important light on the cancel culture that's so prevalent today. But first, did you know that Skip shares important updates and biblical encouragement on social media? Just follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to get the latest from him and this ministry. That's at skipheitig at Skip h e i t z i g. God uses the generosity from friends like you to impact so many lives.

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Again, that's 800-922-1888. Thank you. Now, here's Skip Heitig to introduce our guest speaker, Sean McDowell. Now, as you know, I've been teaching Hunting Giants, a series that focuses on overcoming giant obstacles like conformity, apathy, and fear with godly courage. Sean is about as courageous as they come. He has a PhD in apologetics and worldview studies and speaks internationally on cultural, ethical, theological, and apologetic topics.

He authored and co-authored over a dozen books and study guides, some with his father, Josh McDowell. I know you're going to get a courage boost from today's message about something that I think has become a modern-day giant and that is cancel culture. Please join me in welcoming Sean McDowell. Good morning, church. I told Pastor Skip last night. I said, man, you're just the cool pastor, aren't you?

Like to snowboard, ride a motorcycle. I said, man, when I get older, I want to be just like your son. Two stories as we start off this morning. You might recognize if you've been following along the news the past few years. One is a former professor at Evergreen University in Olympia, Washington by the name of Brett Weinstein. He was targeted at his university for disagreeing with something a powerful group at the university wanted. You see, for years at this university, they had something they call the day of absence, where black faculty and students and other minority groups would not show up on campus a certain day to remind the rest of the community of the role that they play.

Well, in 2017, they flipped the script. In 2017, white people were told they were not supposed to show up on campus that day. Now, Professor Weinstein found this appalling.

Now, what he said is asking people not to come is very different than voluntarily having people choose not to come. So whether you agree with him or not, he was motivated by doing what he thought was actually best for minority students. So he reached out and sent an email to the administration. Needless to say, all hell broke loose. Protests continued for about a week until finally at the end of a week, 50 students show up outside his classroom and essentially threatening him, shouting at him, calling him a racist and intimidating him. You can see it online. Well, Brett Weinstein turned and sued the university for not protecting him.

It was all said and done. He and his wife, also a professor at Evergreen, resigned, basically cancelled. Another story you might recognize. Do you recognize the name Jack Phillips? Jack Phillips is the owner of Masterpiece Cake Shop in Colorado. You see, he started this cake shop, this bakery, with his family to serve the community. He called it Masterpiece because he considers each cake an expression of God who's the Masterpiece through him showing his creativity in a cake and also an extension of his ministry. Well, in 2012, before same-sex marriage was even legal, he was asked to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding.

Now, keep a couple things in mind. He had served gay people happily for years, and he had also refused to bake other cakes that violated his conscience, such as cakes celebrating Halloween. So, he declined to bake a cake for the same-sex wedding.

And by the way, there was another bakery that would do this within walking distance. The couple turned around and started a lawsuit against him, and the Colorado Civil Rights Commission turned around and put a lawsuit against him. And interestingly enough, compared him to a perpetrator of the Holocaust, which Jack told me in an interview was most painful because he had family members who fought against the Nazis in World War II.

Apparently, not baking a cake is akin to being a Nazi. Well, it went all the way up to the Supreme Court, and Jack Phillips won at the Supreme Court. When I interviewed him, I said, what was it like to win a case at the Supreme Court?

I'm pretty sure I will not have that experience. And he described how amazing it was, but shortly thereafter, another lawsuit was opened up against him. Won it, now he's embroiled in a third lawsuit. What do these two cases have in common? And by the way, shortly after he declined the cake, he even got a call from somebody who said, I am 10 minutes away, I'm coming to kill you. Threatened, attacked, his livelihood, his reputation, because of his position on an issue.

What do these things have in common? Quite obviously, what we've come to call cancel culture. Now, if somebody says the wrong thing, or has the wrong view, there will be a personal and a private attack and shaming and an attempt to silence you forever going forward. Actually looked up in Cambridge Dictionary, I was like, what's the definition of cancel culture? Because we throw this term around, let's get some clarity on it. The Cambridge dictionary said, quote, a way of behaving in society or group, especially on social media, in which it is common to reject and stop supporting someone because they have said something that offends you. So in other words, if someone holds a position right or wrong to or false and it offends you, you stop supporting them passively, but then actively start criticizing them in an attempt to cancel them. Now, when it comes to cancel culture, this affects you and it affects me. See, it's not like if you turn on the news or you scroll through a news app and you hear about like a natural disaster in another city or another state and you think, oh, that's terrible, I feel bad for them, and maybe you're even motivated to give to help those who are victims.

But it feels out there, doesn't it? Cancel culture is not out there. It affects all of us. We live in a cancel culture.

And I want to know, how as Christians are we going to respond? Because there's two temptations. One is to live in fear of being canceled, in fear for my relationships, in fear for my reputation, in fear for my job. Option A, live in fear. Option B, rather than being afraid of being canceled, join the club of cancelers. Jump on the bandwagon to become that person that when someone says something that offends you, you cancel them. Last I checked, both of those living in fear of being canceled and bullying others and canceling them is not an option for a follower of Jesus. How should we respond?

Allow me to suggest a way through a recent experience that I had. One of my favorite things to do at a church or school or university is what I call my atheist encounter. I bring my atheist glasses, put them on with a primarily Christian audience, and I role play an atheist. I'll give a presentation why I don't believe in God, and then I'll take questions from the audience who are Christians, and I'll respond as an atheist might.

Typically, after about 30 minutes, the audience gets upset, they get defensive, and they get angry because I'm pushing back, giving better answers than they may be expected. Well, about six months ago, I was invited to do my atheist encounter at a Christian school in Florida, and when I showed up, this is a Christian high school, the Bible teacher said, hey, I actually role play with my students all the time. I think it'd be most interesting if I introduce you as an actual atheist, not a Christian role playing an atheist. I thought about it a little bit, I was like, you know what, this would make it a spicier, more interesting conversation.

Let's do it. So he introduces me to this Christian school, I don't know, maybe 300-400 students, if I remember, as his friend from UCLA, a philosophy professor in town for a convention who just swung by to talk about why he's an atheist. We do it, we're done, and I move on with my life, but then over the next few weeks and couple months, I start getting a ton of emails, almost entirely positive of people saying, I saw your atheist role play and I loved it.

Thank you. So I'm wondering, wait a minute, why are so many people contacting me? I've gone to the website recently of this small Christian school, and that YouTube video got over two and a half million views, blew me away, but then all of a sudden, one day, everything changed again. All of a sudden, I started getting dozens, and I mean dozens of emails of some of the most vicious, ungracious, personal attacks I've ever received before. You're a lousy atheist, you're a liar, you're this and that.

I'm thinking, why did this just start? Well, it turns out that two atheist YouTubers, one who I knew, one who I didn't, and one who has a huge channel, did a review of my atheist role play, and they felt like I misrepresented atheists when I was role playing an atheist. So now I'm getting piled on by everybody. Well, at the same time, a bunch of my Christian friends started texting me, and they said, hey, come on my YouTube channel, let's do a response. And I thought about it for a while, and I thought, okay, they criticized me, and I actually thought they tried to do it in the right spirit, even though they thought that what I should do, they gave me a suggestion, don't role play an atheist, bring in a real atheist. I thought, so am I supposed to go on a channel, do a response, and tell them why they're wrong?

They criticize Christians, Christians criticize back. I thought about it for a while, I said, you know what, someone needs to choose to communicate differently. So I reached out to one of the atheists, I said, hey, I actually think you and I have more common ground than you might realize.

Would you be willing to just have a conversation with me off the record? He goes, sure. So we zoomed on a Friday. I had already created a response video I was going to post the following Monday, but a very gracious one, inviting him to do something with me.

We zoomed for an hour, friends. This young man is 27 years old, and all I did was listen, and it broke my heart. He grew up in a conservative Christian home, and felt like when he started to question his faith and leave his faith, was cancelled by Christians. He said, I had a pastor tell me, you're going to die alone and burn in hell for eternity. He said, when I was growing up, I had to, I actually had to learn karate because I was being bullied so much, I needed to learn to defend myself.

It was the pain of being bullied growing up, paled in comparison to the pain of how many Christians treated me when I started questioning my faith. I said, if any other apologists or evangelists reached out to you, he goes, one who said, yeah, let's have a conversation because I'm going to bury you. I said, you know, Monday, I'm releasing a video. At the end, I have an invitation to you. Since you said I should bring in atheists, I've got a suggestion for you. I said, here's my cell number.

If you accept my suggestion, call me. Video posts on Monday, and I walked through and I said, look, they think I misrepresented an atheist, and I should bring in an atheist. Here's the deal. I've actually been bringing an atheist to my students for over 15 years.

When I role play, it's the arguments I've heard atheists make. So I've been doing this. They gave me a suggestion.

I have a suggestion for you. Why don't you come on my YouTube channel? Let's not have a debate. Let's have a conversation. I just want my audience to hear what you think we as Christians could do better to love our atheist neighbors. And he came on my show for an hour, and all I did is listen to him. It was a powerful conversation.

Why am I starting with this story? Because there is a temptation as Christians, as conservative Christians, to other certain groups, this other religion, this other race, this other political group, and they're trying to steal our freedom, and we respond in fear. There's a temptation to say cancel culture.

Let's criticize all those people out there who are canceling people, rather than first saying, have we done the same thing? How do we better love our neighbor? Isn't that a Christian response? When Jesus said in Matthew 7, judge not lest you be judged, his point was not to judge. His point was not to not judge.

His point was take the plank out of your eye, then you can see the speck in a brother. In other words, judge yourself first, and then like Jesus says in John 7, then you can make a righteous judgment. What do you think Jesus cares about principally, living rightly?

Those in a wider culture who don't call themselves his followers, or those whom Scripture calls the bride of Christ, which is you and me. Friends, before we blame somebody else in cancel culture, let us look within and humble ourselves and say, how do we better love our neighbors? Have we bought into this cancel culture lie, and how do we get our house in order first so we can better love our neighbors? Can I get an amen? All right, good.

I knew there were at least a few back this here. Right, with that said, one question I have when I hear this talk about cancel culture is why now? What is it that we find ourselves in this moment where cancel culture is all the rage and it's captured our society? And I think of the movie in 2000, The Perfect Storm, that was based upon a 1991 storm off the coast of Massachusetts. And it's called The Perfect Storm because at least two fronts that were themselves massive moved in the same place at the same time and created a huge storm.

In fact, in the movie it's about a boat that has this catch and if they wait through the storm they won't make it home so they rush through thinking they can make it, but the storm is just too big and too powerful. So The Perfect Storm is this idea of certain things coalesce in the same place at the same time and create a certain phenomena. Well, I think we have cancel culture because certain things have been moving into the same place at the same time. And in fact, when I think about our culture it makes perfect sense that we have cancel culture.

I'd be surprised if we didn't. So what are those factors moving together that create cancel culture? I think there's three of them and I think the first one is we have a mental health epidemic in America. And by that I mean we have a lot of hurting people in the church and outside of the church and COVID has only exacerbated what was already moving and becoming a hockey stick exponential growth.

Loneliness, depression, anxiety, stress, suicidality, anger, fatherlessness. Friends, I heard one teenager named Faith Ann say, she said, my whole generation is like a bunch of little volcanoes. You know what that means? That means right below the surface there's hurt and there's stress and anxiety and they're about to explode. Pastor Rick Warren said something I think of almost daily. He said hurt people, hurt people. Why do we have cancel culture taking place? Because we have a culture of people who have been canceled and who have been hurt and barring forgiveness and the power of the Holy Spirit. Human nature is when we've been hurt to turn around and hurt other people.

Cancel culture tells me we've got a generation of people who are lonely and who are depressed and who are stressed and are hurting and don't know healthy ways to deal with this so they turn and they cancel other people because they've been canceled in their relationships and canceled in their lives. I was doing a live stream on YouTube, if I remember, maybe eight or ten months ago at some time during COVID. Time just stopped during COVID, didn't it? And I was having a discussion and I noticed the comments on the side of what was taking place. Now normally I will have somebody monitor the comments because trolls will come in, Christians and non-Christians and just start creating unhealthy bad dialogue. So I usually have somebody monitor it but of course this time I forgot.

Now you're probably thinking why didn't you just monitor it? Because I'm that guy like a lot of you, I can only do one thing at a time. I cannot multitask. If I'm actually on the phone, I cannot talk on the phone and cut onions at the same time. My wife thinks it's funny, she'll literally take my hands like I'm five, put a knife in my hands, give me the onions and look at me like you can do it. I'm like I can't, I'm talking. So the thought actually hit me recently when I was driving through McDonald's, this person is taking an order and delivering order.

I was like I couldn't do that job. So I'm doing this live stream you know to the world and these comments are starting and it's starting to heat up and get spicy. And I see this person who I assume was not a Christian, criticizing Christians and instead of the Christians being gracious, being understanding, trying to be positive, they just go right back at this guy. And I'm seeing insult after insult and it's building, it's building and building. And finally one of the Christians says well why are you here even speaking?

What gives you the right to be so critical? And I'll never forget how this guy responded. He said I served our country. Can't remember if he said Iraq or Afghanistan. I served our country overseas and I was injured and lost my sight.

Don't tell me where and when I can speak given how much I sacrifice for this country. And I saw that and thought oh my goodness. This guy has been hurt physically and he's angry at God understandably.

And so he's turning around and he's lashing out at others. The moment I saw that as best I remember I just simply stopped I was like I can't let this go. I said I got to pause the conversation for a minute. I just saw a comment from a man who lost his sight serving our country. I said sir I don't know you but I want to first tell you thank you for your service. I can't imagine what it's like to lose your sight. I am so sorry that this happened to you. I understand that you'd be angry at God and angry at Christians. Please know that God loves you and I love you too.

And there was silence. Why? When somebody's critical what's human nature?

Get critical back. The Bible says a gentle word turns away wrath. That's our special guest Shawn McDowell here on Connect with Skip Heizig and a message from our series Hunting Giants. Now we want to share about a resource that will help you cultivate a deeper and more life-giving faith in Jesus. Skip Heizig left southern California in 1982 to head for the desert of New Mexico. The goal was starting a bible study in Albuquerque.

Let's just say it worked out okay. So I'm moving two states away going back east going to New Mexico and I think it was in a place in the Jesus movement where that was not unusual and I thought I'm going to go out here spend a few months maybe a year and see if the Lord's going to do anything at all. 40 years later Skip is celebrating the great things God has done to invite you into the celebration. We're offering our radio friends a free copy of Skip's book You Can Understand the Book of Genesis. No cost, no obligation, just a way to say wow what the Lord has done from Calvary Church. Order your free book by Skip Heizig by calling 1-800-922-1888 or go to connectwithskip.com slash free book.

Get your free copy of You Can Understand the Book of Genesis by calling 1-800-922-1888 or go to connectwithskip.com slash free book. Thank you for joining us today. Connect with Skip Heizig exists to connect listeners like you to God's truth strengthening your walk with him and bringing more people into his family. That's why these teachings are available to you and so many others on air and online. If they've inspired you to keep living for Jesus please consider giving a gift today to encourage other listeners like you in the same way. Just call 800-922-1888 that's 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate.

Thank you. Tune in tomorrow for Connect with Skip Heizig. As our special guest, author and speaker Sean McDowell shares how you can respond biblically to cancel culture. The Bible says more valuable than gold and more valuable than silver is wisdom. Solomon could have anything and he asked for wisdom. Friends, we need more wisdom now as a church than we've ever had before and part of that wisdom is learning what are essential issues we divide over and what are non-essential issues in which we show charity. Connect with Skip Heizig is a presentation of connection communications connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.