A student sits in the counsellor’s office crying, because, by the press of a button, she has just been cancelled by her hundred friends on her social media platform. Her heart-felt hunger for connection with her peers has been dashed. She brought her most human desire for relationship and discovered the brokenness that can come with using the least human means to realise it.
Cancel culture is a phrase used in the contemporary world to refer to a form of ostracism, where a person is rejected and shunned, usually from on-line platforms by others in their social or professional groups. The word ‘cancel’ in this context has roots in hip-hop culture, with a reference to a person being cancelled in the 1991 film New Jack City.
In our society we are seeing ‘cancel’ culture play out where people lose their jobs, students shut down speakers on their university campuses and achievers in sports and the Arts are stripped of accolades because they are supposedly on the ‘wrong side’ of the cultural debate. For our students, “cancel culture”, which encourages people to be swift to cancel, defies how our students are to grow and develop as humans. Social media has expanded the reach of shaming, stripping away a human context and leaving a permanent trail of broken people. The ‘pile on’ received from an indignant mob for a real or perceived transgression of an agreed social rule or having a different viewpoint can leave an adolescent shattered and their sense of identity in tatters. As with ancient ostracizations, it uses shame to diminish another person. It leaves the individual feeling worthless because they think they deserve to be hated. Everyone then questions their involvement with the person because anyone watching might be the next to be cancelled. This culture seeks to dominate and control others. How do we, as Christian teachers, cancel “cancel culture?”
As we have seen in our western culture, there is a crisis of the human spirit and much confusion around the essence of what it means to be human. Our young people are longing for a sense of identity that will bring meaning to their lives and many are seeking this through their devices, where friendship has been reduced to data connection. God’s people are mandated not to just do kind things, but to see the world differently, to know that the way of new creation is not in putting people down or cancelling them, but in raising them up, for the fruit of the Kingdom is belonging, not cancellation.
As God made us for community, learning is primarily a communal act where teachers and students live in a loving community, seeking to grapple with and understand the reality of what God has created. Our classes will be places where the stories, habits and practices reflect ‘love of neighbour’ and where true friendships are forged. Though made up of imperfect people, the community will embody the presence of God’s Kingdom rule. “The hope is that all students … Through the work of the Spirit in their lives, might come to understand something of the love of God … through their experience of being in a Christian community where the virtue of selfishness is replaced by the virtues of grace, compassion and humility.” [1]
In this environment, students will be led to explore their core identity as a unique image-bearer of God, which is a gift from their Creator. They will be valued and encouraged to develop and use their gifts to bless others. We will seek to open their eyes to the wonder of their creation, rather than defining themselves horizontally in relation to others whom they try to please in the virtual world.
Relationships amongst teachers and students are to be based on love, forgiveness, justice and acceptance. Children learn from their mistakes and so we teach them to own their wrongdoing, apologize and restore relationships with others and provide new opportunities for growth. Why do we live this way? We point to Jesus, who despite our rejection of God’s right to rule in our lives, demonstrated His sacrificial love by dying on the cross for everyone. When we put our trust in Him, our DEBT is paid and CANCELLED. This is the cancellation that our students need to embrace. Let us teach our children what it means to be wise peacemakers in a world of broken relationships.
Colossians 2: 13,14 “… God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and stood opposed to us; He took it away, nailing it to the cross.”[2]
Grace and Peace
The TEC Team
[1] James Pietsch, Character Reborn-A Philosophy of Christian Education, (Sydney: Acorn Press, 2001), 191
[2] NIV