I have not seen the Mandalorian, the Star Wars franchise series that begins five years after the events of Return of the Jedi.  Unfortunately, we don’t have a smart TV or Disney+.  By now we’ve all heard about actress Gina Carano, a Mandalorian co-star, was fired by Lucasfilm for her tweet referencing the Holocaust, calling out the similarity in the persecution of conservatives.  I’ve seen the meme for the past few months as it’s been making its rounds on Facebook.  Interestingly, her co-star Pedro Pascal had his share of tweets, one comparing “Trump Supporters to Nazis and Confederates”; he was not fired.  Disney has now rehired someone who made numerous disturbing remarks about rape and pedophilia.  Disney has been taking a nosedive on morality in recent years as you can see.  The political and moral double standard is blaring and gets louder every day.

What is Cancel Culture?

Cancel Culture is a modern form of ostracism in which someone is thrust out of social or professional circles – either on social media, in the real world, or both. Those who are subject to this banishment are said to be “canceled.”  In a way, it’s a form of boycotting involving an individual who is deemed to have acted or spoken in a questionable or controversial manner.

You see free speech is what they grant themselves, but not to others.  Cancel culture is a one-sided uncontested opinion.  If you exercise your freedom to speak (First Amendment) and Big Tech doesn’t agree with you, they’ll make sure you are shunned, ostracized, removed, fired, cancelled – you will be silent.  The mob mentality and social media vigilantism does not build up a person or a country, instead it destroys it.  Cancel culture has quickly become a totalitarian enforcement movement who demands that you bow the knee, or else.

Big Tech (Facebook, Twitter and YouTube) doesn’t want your apology, they want to force you to speak only in alignment with their values, their truth.   If you transgress their rules by saying something they consider “hate speech”, be ready, they will shut you down.

What’s Considered Hate Speech

Twitter (founder is Jack Dorsey) has rules on hate speech include, “you may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease.” The platform adds that it prohibits “content that intends to dehumanize, degrade, or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about a protected category.”

Facebook (founder is Mark Zuckerberg; also owns Instagram) similarly defines hate speech as “a direct attack against people on the basis of what we call protected characteristics: race, ethnicity, national origin, disability, religious affiliation, caste, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity, and serious disease.” Such an “attack” includes “violent or dehumanizing speech, harmful stereotypes, statements of inferiority, expressions of contempt, [and] disgust or dismissal.”

YouTube (owned by Google) has a similar policy:  We remove content promoting violence or hatred against individuals or groups based on any of the following attributes: age, caste, disability, ethnicity, gender identity and expression, nationality, race, immigration status, religion, sex/gender sexual orientation, victims of a major violent event and their kin, and veteran status.

Sometimes there is a fine line in what is considered hate speech.  In addition to these listed policies, tech companies have arbitrarily added  to their Hate Speech Policy, subjects such as Voting Fraud, Covid-19, and not wearing a mask.  I’m sure you’ve seen them jumping all over those topics.

What has been happening lately?  The Tech Giants have been coordinating their tech muscle to systematically remove people and companies whose posts/videos they don’t like.  The list is growing long but here are a few examples.

• Coordinated Hit. Recently several tech companies orchestrated unannounced taking down Parler (similar to Facebook) from the iPhone app store and Google Play, and deleting their website (hosted by Amazon).
• YouTube shut down Lifesite’s channel and every truth-telling video is completely gone. Fortunately, they had a back-up of their videos and are now on Rumble.
• Twitter deleted Trump’s account and subsequently hundreds of people for political-related posts along with deleting Covid-19 posts.  Note:  political statements and Covid-19-related posts are not even listed in their own rules.   

Will there be any repercussions for Big Tech?  Unfortunately, no.  Currently, under Section 240 of the Communications Decency Act, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and others have complete immunity from civil liability.

Morality Issues

Did you notice in the “Hate Speech Policies” terms such as gender identity/expression and sexual orientation?  The conflict the Christian will encounter will be over morality issues.  Here’s a couple recent ones.

• Twitter locked out The Daily Citizen and others for stating a fact, that “Rachel Levin is a transgender women, that is, a man who believes he is a woman”.
• Facebook – New Testament professor at Houston Baptist University was suspended for voicing disagreement with President Biden’s executive order allowing trans-identifying individuals to serve in the US military.

Getting Suspended

I’m sure you’ve heard of “Facebook Jail”.  It’s a metaphor used for when people’s accounts are suspended for something that was posted that doesn’t follow their guidelines.  Many times, their Fact Checkers will tell you (and others) that the post is False or Partially False (which it’s usually not).  I’ve had posts where they just arbitrarily deleted them.

Getting suspended, banned or deleted from a website or social platform is not the end of the world.  I realize you’ll lose your network of friends but there are new social apps/sites popping up every month that you can join:  MeWe, Signal, and Telegram; Parler will be back online soon.   Use Rumble for videos instead of YouTube.  Perhaps you might take a break and opt out of social media altogether.  There is always email, texting and calling someone.

What is the Christian’s response to our cancel culture?

Speaking the Truth in Love

First, you should speak the truth with love.   As Christians, as a priority we should let others know that God loves them, no matter what orientation or identity they are.  Unfold your words with compassion and love, and avoid any kind of speech that would be taken as hateful.  We have all missed the mark and have sinned (Romans 3:23); we all are need of grace (Ephesians 2:8-9).  We need to slow down, consider our words and speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15).

“Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.”  Ephesians 4:15

On issues of abortion, morality, and sexuality, our culture needs to hear God’s Word; they aren’t hearing it anywhere else.  Share what God says about it and leave it to the Holy Spirit to convict them of truth.   For example, a preborn child is a child; girls should not have to compete with boys in sports, God created mankind to be male or female, etc.

We Will Not Be Silenced

 Biblical morality has been affirmed for over 2,000 years; therefore, we should not shrink from sharing the truth.  Speak up and respond with grace.  Yes, it is highly possible in our cancel culture you may be persecuted.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:10

Be sensitive and tactful as we should not dishonor God’s Word by your actions or words.   Always be prepared to tell others about the hope that you have “with gentleness and respect”.

“but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,  having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.”  1 Peter 3:15-16

Notice is it says, “when you are slandered”; the expectation is this will come.

Culture will try to intimidate Christians by either criminalizing what you say or do, or shaming you.  If you speak against the culture, it may be considered “hate speech”.  So, I encourage you to be bold and courageous, fear God more than fearing the loss of your friends on social media or losing your reputation.  The “thought police” is here, they are trolling through your conversations; their views will differ from yours.  We will be heard and I pray we the church will speak up with one voice.  We will not be silenced into submission.

“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”  Matthew 10:16