Devotional | Old Books, Old Hooks

What do we do when an author we loved gets ‘cancelled’?

It can be difficult to know how to process these things. We quoted them, and we find that 90% of what they said was profound, while 10% was profane. Or they let us down by falling off the righteousness wagon, and we feel personally betrayed. Either way, how are we supposed to feel about this? And do we frantically re-print our own works in which we have lifted a quote from someone who has since become anathema? Worse still – will we ourselves someday be cancelled for a poor word at a public time? Should this frighten us out of fulfilling our calling as writers?

‘All the wickedness in the world that man might do or say,’ wrote poet William Langland, ‘was no more to the mercy of God than a live coal dropped in the sea.’

Mercy is in short supply in today’s world, where an errant phrase (even if uttered a decade ago) is enough to shoot down your proverbial balloon. Today’s world? what am I saying. My whole life long, I have observed the church being in the vanguard of cancel culture. It’s nothing new. If the world is coming down hard on us, there is a sense in which we are reaping what we sowed.

Last century’s ‘purity movement’ resulted in a lot of babies being thrown out with the bathwater. The impetus for holiness is to be commended; but the lack of nuance … not so much. The lack of personal, Romans 14-style approaches to such decisions … not so much. Herd mentality was strong, and I remember various efforts in the 70s and 80s to cancel all kinds of things: attending the movies, absence of female hats in worship, homosexuals, rock/secular music, swearing, drinking, smoking, drugs, medical intervention, TV, women in the pulpit, sport on Sundays, makeup, slacks for women, martial arts, psychology, science fiction, dancing, miniskirts, and even minor chords!

Other cancellations have been more positive: we (some of us, that is) campaigned to cancel slavery, gender inequality, ignorance, world hunger, and persecution. So there’s that.

In the church, we can be quick to jump on negative bandwagons and slow to advocate for positive change. We are often unsure who to listen to, and no one person can be the arbiter of what constitutes ‘negative’ and ‘positive’ when it comes to movements. All of our efforts and heroes are inevitably a mixed bag. And so we go to the timeless Word of God for guidance … bringing with us our culture-coloured glasses. And we start drawing lines in the sand.

What does God say about cancellations?

‘I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions, for My own sake, and remembers your sins no more.’ (Isaiah 43:25)

‘This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time,’ declares the Lord. ‘I will put My laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. No longer will they teach their neighbour, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.’ (Hebrews 8:10-12)

Ever looked through one of your old photo albums, and seen a picture of someone from your past and immediately felt repelled? Perhaps they betrayed you, or drifted away from you, or you found yourselves on opposite sides of an issue. But they have arrived in your photo album by a legitimate means: at one time, they were a positive part of your life.

What I’m about to say next won’t be for everyone. But this is the way I have personally chosen, on this side of healing, to regard such things:

1.   Everyone is entitled to a heyday.
2.   And it’s okay to remember them that way, even if they can no longer be trusted.
3.   And it’s okay to celebrate the person they were at the time when they represented a good thing in your life.
4.   The good things they brought remain ‘worthy’.
5.   It’s incumbent on all of us to ensure our means ethically measure up to our ends, going forward.

Some people’s heyday lasted no longer than their childhood, before they were twisted out of recognition or before they made terrible choices. Others were simply sunshine for a season. You can mourn the passing of the season, and you can mourn the passing of the friend or icon they used to be. And then you lay it down, and look ahead to a better season coming, for God can bring change in an instant. But you don’t have to rip up your photos or throw out your books. You don’t have to be in love with who they are now, in order to fondly remember who they were in the past.

Some people had a ministry heyday, where they profoundly affected people’s lives for the better, advanced the gospel, did great works for the Kingdom, even changed your own life. The fact that they dropped the ball later in life does not negate the good that they once did. Those things stand on the strength of the moment and the faith they were done in. All of us know people to whom we looked up, who are no longer in the church at all. What they did for God when they were strong in the faith remains worth something. It’s okay to embrace what God did through them in that season. You are not required to dump pieces of God’s work in your life, simply because He brought them about by the hand of someone who no longer represents Him.

Some believers, no doubt, take a harder line: that everything that a ‘fallen’ person touched, is forever tainted in all directions, and to be cancelled along with them. But I don’t see God doing that in Scripture. I see a much larger – inscrutably larger and wiser – kind of divine mercy at work.

Think about Noah. He preached righteousness for 120 years and saved a remnant of humanity from the Flood. And then he may have become an alcoholic. But what is he remembered and commended for? Building the ark.

Think about Gideon. He led an army of 300 against an army of 10,000 and prevailed. And then he led Israel into idolatry. But what do we remember him for? Defeating Midian.

Think about King David. He made his share of mistakes; not just with Bathsheba, but also policy decisions, parenting decisions, military decisions. He did not always act honourably, any more than you or I are capable of acting honourably 100% of the time. And yet he wrote great swathes of the largest book in the Bible! Neither we nor God have seen fit to rip the Psalms out of our Bibles because their writer performed poorly. Possibly we have not cancelled David because he showed a repentant heart. And yet … even on David’s deathbed he was holding a grudge and ordering a hit on a heckler. As far as we know, he took this unrepentant sin to the grave. But God still didn’t see fit to cancel David. God didn’t see fit to cancel the work he did on the Psalms, which were written at the height of his godly motives. In fact, God has gone out of His way to ensure that the Psalms survived all these centuries.

Have nothing do to with the fruitless deeds of darkness (Ephesians 5:11), but hold space in your heart for the memory of the good that chequered people have done. A good thing done in a good spirit stands unsullied. Reject what is evil; cling to what is good (Romans 12:9). In other words, be selective in what you boycott – and remember your own frailty.

We don’t know what the future holds for those who let us down. We don’t know the plans God has to help them turn things around, and we don’t know to what extent they resist or yearn for those plans. We don’t know if they will respond to God, rise up, and have a second, even better heyday! We do know that God works all things together for the God-lovers and the God-called. And we do know that even should we feel enmity towards someone, we are to pray for them. So, we mind our own business, and we cherish the things we have gained in God – whomever they came to us through. We trust Him, and we lean on Him and His expansive mercy and enabling grace to keep us from being the let-down-ers ourselves. And we move forward with joy and expectation.

Without naming names, have you ever faced a tough decision or experience regarding endorsement?