Cancel Culture, Cancel Free Will

“You my brothers and sisters were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.” – Galatians 5:13

A number of years ago, I was studying to be a librarian. One of the main ongoing debates in library land is whether or not certain books should be banned based on their objectionable content. Such classics like Animal Farm and Catcher in Rye have been banned at one time or another because the content of the book may not agreeable with some people’s views. As it stands at this moment in time library land in Canada has decided to put books with objectionable content in Canadian libraries. Why? As humans, we are gifted with free will. It’s up to us whether if we choose to read these books or not. If we ban a book, many other books will subsequently be banned. That’s just how censorship goes. Censor one thing, you censor them all.

Censorship is a very hot topic in the media right now, especially with this whole critic of cancel culture. Cancelling culture is a lot like banning books. You silence one person, you silence many. For years the West fought against the ideology of silencing others (ie Communism), but now it seems the Western World has entered into its own version of Communist silence. There are many people out there who want to shut down others whose opinions they don’t agree with. That my friends is not freedom of speech and it certainly is not the free will that God gave us. Free will also means freedom of expression.

To honest, I don’t particularly agree with a lot of what goes on in the world. I feel the world is skimpy on love, loyalty, honesty, morals, modesty, temperance and most of all God. However, I also recognize that God gave all of us free will. He gave us the freedom to accept or reject what is not of Him. If I don’t agree with someone, that’s okay. We can agree to disagree like normal, rational, level headed adults. I don’t agree with television. Instead of making everyone else’s life a living misery and urging everyone to get rid of their television sets, I choose to simply not have one. I let other people come to their own conclusions about their television set. I actually don’t agree with a great many things, and I have to admit that I do feel restricted from being honest about my feelings at times because of how other people react. Healthy debate is dying. We live in a group think society where some opinions matter and other opinions are downright “wrong”. Yes, some opinions may very well be wrong, but the bigger crime here is not hearing from an array of voices, even ones that don’t agree with yours. Some of the best discoveries have been born out of controversy. We will lose that if culture is cancelled.

Diversity is not just about the colour of your skin or about your culture. It is also about your voice. Diversity also means respecting (not necessarily agreeing), but respecting that other opinions are permitted to be shared in love.