Not Cancelled Yet

In Ephesians chapter 3, the apostle Paul writes about our confidence in Christ, which can be on display to the world around us. He says, regarding God's intent...
(10) ...now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places,
11 according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord,
12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him. 

The Church has a responsibility to display God's wisdom to a world that is desperately in need of it. We can walk with confidence in Him, knowing we have access to His presence and we can rely on that to help us navigate a world that can be quite hostile to people of faith. We can allow the Spirit to give us the words to say and the discernment we need.  In an age of cancel culture, Christians can have the confidence that if we are grounded in God's Word, the Word will endure forever.

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We can have confidence in the Lord as we adhere to His truth; in Proverbs chapter 3, in a passage about wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, the author states:
(21b) Keep sound wisdom and discretion;
22 So they will be life to your soul And grace to your neck.
23 Then you will walk safely in your way, And your foot will not stumble.
24 When you lie down, you will not be afraid; Yes, you will lie down and your sleep will be sweet.
25 Do not be afraid of sudden terror, Nor of trouble from the wicked when it comes;
26 For the Lord will be your confidence, And will keep your foot from being caught.

Mike Lindell, a dedicated follower of Jesus whose main product, MyPillow, has become a household name. He is a person who faced criticism for proclaiming at a White House coronavirus briefing last year, "God had been taken out of our schools and lives, a nation had turned its back on God...," according to the New York Post. He added, “I encourage you to use this time at home to get back in the word, read our Bibles and spend time with our families..." He was at the Rose Garden event to announce that his company would be producing up to 50,000 masks a day.  He was complimentary of the President, and faced even more pushback when he questioned the integrity of the 2020 election.  He is a man, like many people, who examined the evidence and came to the conclusion that there were irregularities.  He was removed from Twitter and his products were taken out of retail stores.

The Insider website states that yesterday, Lindell...

...disclosed new details about a social-media site that he planned to launch in the next three weeks.

In an interview with Insider, Lindell said he would call the site Vocl, and he described it as a cross between Twitter and YouTube.

"It's not like anything you've ever seen," he said Wednesday. "It's all about being able to be vocal again and not to be walking on eggshells."

The article added, "It's a cross between Twitter and YouTube meant 'for print, radio, and TV.'"

With the re-emergence of Parler and the popularity of Gab as counterweights to the censorship of Christian and conservative content that has been reported by Twitter and Facebook, Lindell might find some popularity with the new site, which he says could be up in "as soon as" 10 days.

A new poll suggests that could be the case. The Hill has reported:

A majority of Americans say they believe cancel culture is a threat to their freedom, according to a new Harvard CAPS-Harris poll released exclusively to The Hill on Monday.

Sixty-four percent of respondents said they thought cancel culture posed a threat to freedom in the U.S., while 36 percent said it was not a threat.

The article quotes survey director Mark Penn, who said, "Americans are showing increased and substantial concern about the growth of cancel culture," adding, "Tech companies beware that the public sees them of acting out of bias...and voters are calling for new regulations to ensure fairness and openness. Amazon, in particular, still has a strong image compared to Facebook and Twitter, but that image may start to erode if they expand the banning of books on their platform."

Tony Perkins of Family Research Council, in an article that featured the news of the cancellation of the "Mallard Fillmore" cartoon by the Gannett chain of newspapers, writes:

Cartoonists ought to be mocking the cancel culture -- not becoming victims of it! Apparently, not only is the mob overbearing and hypocritical, but humorless too. They've turned their corporate guns on everything from the gender-insensitive Mr. Potato Head to Pepe Le Pew, a Looney Tunes skunk the New York Times accuses of "normalizing rape culture." (What's next? A #MeToon hashtag?) Now, 27 years into a comic strip about a fictional duck, the banning of Mallard Fillmore in newspapers across the country is showing everyone where the liberal quack down might lead.

Perkins talked to "Fillmore" cartoonist Bruce Tinsley, who said: "I don't understand. It was just over two cartoons." The article continues:

One was about the Equality Act and another about girls' sports. Neither of them "attack[ed] transgender people in any way," he assured listeners, "but it did support a woman's right to compete only with other biological women in sports. And to me, it's just a matter of fairness."

The Equality Act is dangerous, but discussion of it, because of its special regard for the LGBTQ agenda, is apparently not acceptable to some people.  So is the discussion of allowing boys identifying as girls to participate in girls' sports.  The response: well, for one thing, we don't want to be seen as whiners or chronic complainers.  But, we want truth to prevail.  We can speak out boldly, exercise our free speech rights, but do so with conviction, but not anger.  This is the culture in which we live, and we certainly should not just get used to it. 

Cancel culture wants to ban differing views from the socially acceptable one on a variety of issues.  We can be convinced that our views, based on the highest authority in the universe, are compelling and wise.  Through our ability to speak truth and wisdom in love, we can have an impact on our society. And, while some tools of communication are less than receptive to our message, we can be thankful for others that are available that can be used to continue to present Biblical truth.  Still, Christian content is still allowed on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube - I'm on all three and intend to be there.  It's a great opportunity to share the light of the Lord.