Cancel culture seeks to imitate holiness. It would cut off those who have committed cultural transgressions. But it forgets that holiness has two sides. Yes, there is a sense in which we are cut off from one thing but that doesn’t mean we hang in limbo.  Biblical holiness means being turned toward something else. Holiness means being devoted.  

When I was a young teen trying to get comfortable in my own skin words were a commodity that could make or break you. Utter one wrong word and social standing could be tenuous.  The best you could do was hope that people had short memories and so never bring up your words again. Today things are different. Short memories are a thing of the past. Cameras and recorders have replaced gray matter and they don’t forget.  The consequences are also different. Say one wrong word and you are cancelled. You lose all social currency.  You are finished.

It’s funny to think about it but cancel cultural attempts to mimic God’s holiness. Let me explain. Holy is from root of a Hebrew word meaning “to cut.” Hence it means to separate or cut off. When we describe God as holy we usually mean that God is distinct from all that He created. He is not the creation and the creation is not Him.  Or we think in terms of sin. As James put it, in Him “there is no shadow.”[1] Perhaps a good example of this is found in Gethsemane.  When Christ said to the Father, “Let this cup pass” He was thinking of a cup of wrath meant for sinners. No wonder the Holy Son was repulsed by a fomenting cup meant for sinners.

Cancel culture seeks to imitate holiness. It would cut off those who have committed cultural transgressions. But it forgets that holiness has two sides. Yes, there is a sense in which we are cut off from one thing but that doesn’t mean we hang in limbo.  Biblical holiness means being turned toward something else. Holiness means being devoted.  For example, the persons of the Godhead, though distinct from creation, are devoted to one another. For the Christian, we are separated from the world but devoted to the Triune God. Cancel culture knows nothing of this aspect. It seeks to annihilate those who transgress. They are done.  In this sense, cancel culture knows nothing of holiness.

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