Cancel culture looks a lot like old-fashioned church discipline

[TexasTowelie]

by Christopher Schelin
Assistant Professor of Practical and Political Theologies, Starr King School for the Ministry


Blink and you may have missed one of the more recent controversies over cancel culture.

On March 23, 2021, columnist Hemal Jhaveri published an opinion piece at For The Win, a sports commentary website operated by USA Today. In it, she remarked on the “Cinderella story” then forming around the surprising success of Oral Roberts University, an evangelical Christian school, in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Rather than cheer, Jhaveri suggested, fans should protest the team over the “university’s deeply bigoted anti-LGBTQ+ policies.”

Two days later, USA Today published a response by Ed Stetzer, a professor at the evangelical Wheaton College, who criticized a supposed “mob” for rushing to cancel ORU from March Madness. Ironically, it was Jhaveri who was canceled – that is to say, fired – by USA Today the next day in the wake of a tweet about mass shootings, one that she would acknowledge was ill-considered. ORU’s basketball team, meanwhile, was removed from the tournament not by howling protesters but by Arkansas in a Sweet 16 matchup.

Church discipline

Extensive debate has swirled around the purpose, effectiveness and even the very existence of what has been called “cancel culture.” The phrase itself may have originated as a joke. But the phenomenon is rooted in what has been characterized as efforts by political progressives to “call out” individuals and organizations engaged in offensive or damaging behavior. It entails public efforts, usually on social media, to shame the perpetrator and instill consequences and has been seized on by many on the political right as a wedge issue in the so-called culture wars.

But “canceling” is not wholly embraced on the left, nor is it unknown among political or religious conservatives.

Read more: https://theconversation.com/cancel-culture-looks-a-lot-like-old-fashioned-church-discipline-158685