Cancel Culture and the Christian Right

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/04/book-burning-harry-potter-twilight-us-pastor-tennessee

For Christians there should be no doubt about books like Harry Potter and the Twilight series. They're rubbish and they're not the type of books I would encourage my children to read.

That said, burning the books is little more than a political stunt. It would be one thing if there was a genuine Spirit-wrought outpouring and people did this as a form of repentance and renunciation (as seen in Ephesus) but that's not what's happening here.

It's ironic because of all the talk of Cancel Culture, it would seem many Evangelicals have forgotten that it was their movement in the 1980's that aggressively sought to ban books and boycott companies that didn't toe the line. As a strategy it failed and the motivations behind it are also misguided – rooted as they are in a political agenda.

If the Spirit works and there are genuine conversions and sanctification taking place in an area, the boycott isn't even necessary. To evoke a principle from the economic system championed by the Christian Right – the supply will diminish when there's no demand.

The problem is the Christian Right makes lots of noise but then (it would seem) can't even unify its own ranks. Is this because of scepticism regarding the leaders of the movement and their true motives? I hope so. But more likely it's just more of the worldliness that dominates that sphere and its conceptions of cheap grace.

Even today as the Right carries on about cancel culture – they too are engaged in the same game. And they have been for over forty years. People have forgotten or as is often the case they don't put two and two together. They're sheep led down whatever path their hireling shepherds lead them. I think one of the most outrageous examples of this kind of hypocrisy was seen last year when New York governor Andrew Cuomo was accused of sexual harassment and I actually heard Evangelicals expressing concern with regard to his character and that we should be concerned about these women and what they have to say.

It was a jaw-dropping moment because of course we had just emerged from four-plus years of Trump politicking in which dozens of women came out of the woodwork and accused him of various sexual sins. A serial adulterer, one who bragged about his exploits and the crudest forms of harassment, and caught in scandal and corruption trying to cover up his misdeeds, Trump was backed by the Evangelical movement and his behaviour was glossed over. The Christian Right either looked the other way or in some cases even stepped up to defend him. That itself was rank hypocrisy given their treatment of Bill Clinton who was certainly no worse than Trump in that regard. And yet, all of the sudden Cuomo is a concern? Character is a concern? Are these serious people? They abandoned these stands a long time ago and the movement no longer has any integrity. The people arguing against in Cuomo in such terms are either very self-deceived or utterly disingenuous.

But when one looks at what's happening to the movement and the moral and even mental rot that's taking place – one must conclude that the movement itself has fallen under judgment and as such conscience is being destroyed. Deceived deceivers, they are so far removed from New Testament Christianity they're losing even the basics of discernment and wisdom. And the God of Scripture, His gospel, and the ethics of His Kingdom are alien to them and increasingly subjected to attack and condemnation by those within the ranks of the movement.

As far as the Tennessee pastor goes, he's just pulling a political stunt. There are demonic forces at work in the world but he's about the last one to discern their presence or influence and things have reached a point in which the Evangelical movement is more likely to align with such forces – again, a sure sign of judgment. That's a very serious charge but it's one that can be defended and needs to be said out loud. Their actions over the past forty-plus years bear this out and people need to understand this. They may think they're combating the Hydra-like Beast depicted in Revelation, but all they're doing is fighting one head by aligning with another.