I know a city, somewhere in North America, and I know people who live there. In that city is a neighborhood that has grown into a community with a population of about eighty thousand. Imagine many high rise apartments. The community was named after some historical person, but I’m sure most people don’t remember who he was. We have too many new ideas floating around our society. 

Someone decided, in a woke or politically correct way, that the name of the historical person was not correct. There was no explanation, but one day, the people who lived in that community were told that their disctrict had a new name. I don’t remember the new name, but it seemed hard to pronounce, and I think it included accent marks, so it was hard to type on a computer. The news, from a journalist, was that the name change was the result of a unanimous decision, in the community.

It is impossible to get eighty thousand people to vote for the same thing in an election, so a real journalist did some research. Apparently, a small group of community volunteers had a meeting, and they all agreed in that room. About eight people decided for eighty thousand, but the decision was “unanimous.”

The new name remains, and it is now on signs and maps everywhere.

That is a fine example of woke cancel culture. It’s not about what you believe, it’s about what you are told to believe. If you disagree, there are labels that can be applied to you, including words like ‘right wing’, ‘reactionary’, and even ‘racist’. In this case, I don’t think most people cared about the name, and there will never be a reaction. That committee got away with their dishonest manipulation.

So, what do you believe? I am writing as a Christian, and I am waiting for the day when some committee decides that I am incorrect. You might know of some examples of cancel culture already. I have seen other examples, but I don’t want to start an argument, here.

I believe we need to look beyond the specific details and see the general principal. Sometimes we are expected to agree with something because other people believe it. This is different from tolerating and accepting neighbors who think differently from us. 

Welcome to the future, and welcome to the past.

We live in a time when our culture is changing, and strangely, it is changing back to what it was before. In ancient kingdoms and empires, Christians like me payed a terrible price to believe. People were told what to believe, and they at least pretended to agree. They stayed away from a fight that they could never win.

Jesus told His followers about different kinds of “ground.” I think that means different kinds of attitudes to the truth. One type of believer was “rocky ground”: 

The seed sown on rocky ground is the person who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. But he has no root in himself and does not endure when trouble or persecution comes because of the word. Immediately he falls away. (Matthew 13: 20 to 21)

So, we are supposed to be tough and durable, in the face of cancel culture. When it becomes unpopular and even unacceptable to follow Jesus, we should endure.

And we have another instruction; we are supposed to love the people who persecute us, again, according to Jesus:

Love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you. (Matthew 5: 44)

When I was a boy, my parents sent us to a summer Bible club, at our church. Some people, in our city, did not like our church, and they criticized whenever they had a chance. Children like me could memorize Bible verses, from a list, and when we memorized enough, we could win a prize. They were giving away chocolate bars, and I worked hard to earn mine. I was almost there when someone wrote into our local newspaper and reported that the church was bribing children to follow its religious teachings. 

The leaders of the church were embarrassed, and they quickly cancelled the distribution of chocolate bars; just before I earned mine. Apparently, that little boy was supposed to love that critic, and pray for them. That ‘love and pray’ passage was not one of the verses that I had to memorize.

There are many cancel culture issues that I won’t name here, but we will see them. Some day, I may lose more than a chocolate bar. Our instructions have not changed, and they are given to the believer, not to the other side; be strong and endure, and love and pray for the bad guys.

It is easy to focus on the ‘bad guys’ like the people who denied me a chocolate bar that I worked so hard for. The instructions are clear, we need to focus on who we are, and how we react.

Imagine being a popular and successful musician, and risking your career because you believe. Here is one example of a risk taker:

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