Guys, cancel culture and forgiveness

Here's my November article:

1st Hibaldstow and Scawby Scouting group bonfire 2025

It's been many years since I saw children outside shops asking for a 'penny for the guy.'  Even then it was a dying practice, and if you actually gave them just a penny they scowled at you!  The tradition of lighting bonfires to celebrate the foiling of the treasonous Gunpowder Plot started the same year, 1605.  The earliest records of effigies being burned on them was 1625, although these were effigies of the pope and the devil. An effigy of Guy Fawkes was used at a display in 1647 at Lincoln's Inn Fields. From then onwards, 'guys' have been made and burned on bonfires, sometimes representing Fawkes himself and sometimes representing other, usually contemporary, figures of public anger.

Although the anger directed towards these 'hate figures' can be deeply felt, it doesn't lead to actual violence against the person represented.  In some ways the 'guy' is a way to voice and to vent that anger in a controlled manner.  What is more dangerous is what has been termed 'cancel culture.'  This is when people or groups call for someone who they have deemed to have said or done something unacceptable to be ostracised, boycotted, shunned or fired.  The transgression may be a heinous crime or it could simply be an opinion that the 'cancellers' find offensive or merely disagree with.

Crimes should, of course, be exposed and punished, and the judicial system is the means to achieve that.  And throughout history there has been public dispute over opinions, often involving lambasting and lampooning – freedom of speech, including the freedom to criticise, is important to uphold.  What is different with cancel culture is the vitriol and the all-encompassing extent of the cancelling, which is often fuelled by social media.

The targets are not just cancelled from the time of their offence, but the whole of their previous history and achievements are demanded to be erased. It is a chilling echo of George Orwell's words in his book '1984': 

Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered.

However, more worringly, the deeming of someone as deserving cancellation results in them being seen as unforgiveable and even to their assasination as being both justified and a cause for celebration.

Because of his words and actions, Jesus was seen as a threat to the interests and power of both the religious and the secular leaders of his day.  They too wanted him cancelled, and they thought they had by crucifying him.  Jesus' response was not anger or vengeance, but forgiveness, both whilst he was dying (Luke 23:34) and when he came back to life again.  Though he was rejected by those he had created, which is the ultimate treason, he accepted death so that they, and we, could be forgiven (Romans 5:8).  We have offended God by our sin, but he doesn't cancel us, instead he offers us forgiveness and eternal life with him.