Why you can't be frank (but maybe should be)

I'm sure you've heard the saying, "Can I be frank with you?." And, of course, the answer nowadays seems to be, "No, you can't be frank." Only Franks can be frank. The rest of us, if we want to be honest, are playing a risky game of dare.

I can remember back in the early 1990s when our pastor at the time said from the pulpit that he could no longer be honest with us. It would be detrimental to his health and safety. I, along with many others, were aghast. What? Why, that was scandalous... This was church, after all. Where we were supposed to be all about the truth.

Myeah... and this is 2023. You really can't be honest publicly anymore. Which is why I'm writing this on my blog that no one reads (besides you) and not on social media...

Anyway, Scot McKnight has a substack posting on 9/9/23 where he includes this article by Lisa Clark Diller (History, Cancel Culter, and the Desire for Innocence). SM includes this clip from it:

Today we think of “cancel culture” much more broadly. While conservative purists may have invented highly effective tactic of cancelling performers and preachers who strayed certain ways, in the era of social media following and influencer culture, progressives also have quickly learned to call out and then boycott folks whose behavior and ideas they find reprehensible.

I’m not saying anything new here. People have the right to stop following or giving money to people they disagree with or whose behavior they don’t want to reward.  “Shunning” is what it was called in the pre-modern world, and it is an extremely effective form of punishment. Humans are a herd species. We need each other and being ignored or excluded is incredibly painful. It’s meant to be. I’m not entirely opposed to this as a necessary activity in a world where our individual actions are perhaps our only areas of control and celebrity culture seeps in to all our actions.

However, I spend my days and weeks with 18-25 year olds. This is now the only world they know. And they have imbibed this sort of “purity culture” (on both the right and the left) so very thoroughly that they don’t know how to be part of communities that include people they disagree with and how to belong in a society where not everyone behaves appropriately or morally. They don’t know how to be part of a loyal dissent, or how to confront while staying present with a group over a long period of time. What I see going on is a cult of innocence.

So, in kind of seems... we really can't be honest, or we run the risk of being cancelled. 

How far will this go? Where does grace fit into this? What do we make of Jesus and forgiveness, and all that?

Anyway, we watched the movie 'Jesus Revolution' this past weekend. I know it has been perhaps fairly criticized for being a bit naive and overlooking some sins of the people it depicts (in the opinion of some). However there was one quote that really stood out to me. I don't even remember who said it, but I made a note of it on my phone...

"Don't be so arrogant to think that God can't work through your failure."

That really cut to my heart. 99.9% of the time I feel like a failure. Most people I know want to dismiss the work of Bill Hybels, John Ortberg, and - geez, I can't even remember the names of so many more. People we used to quote and admire, but because some scandal was uncovered, suddenly they're "no good" (in our opinion). 

I'm not trying to say there aren't consequences for our actions... But I've lately been looking at the biblical accounts of Judas and Peter. Both disciples who flat out betrayed Jesus. And, yet, at least in Peter's case, Jesus went out of his way to reaffirm. 

Personally, I want to be a part of a 'love culture' more than a 'cancel culture.' A 'redemption culture.' A 'grace culture.' Which reminds me of another thread I want to lace someday on how the world's idea of grace is so much different than Jesus's idea of grace.

For now, at least for me, I am trying to learn to work through this "cancelling" thing. I've done it too much, and too extreme (even in regard to myself).

I want to repent of all that.