For most of my life, I have lived simultaneously in two very different worlds. In my most recent book, “I’m The Worst,” I detail my story of both having grown up a pastor’s kid and the son of a bestselling Christian author, living within the faith community many know as “the Christian Church,” and at the very same time, working as a television and film actor in the entertainment industry, or as some know it, “secular Hollywood,” for the better part of two decades.
If you listen to some preachers or much of the mainstream media, they would have you believe that both of these worlds are completely different, and from an outside perspective fueled by blogs, headlines and comment sections, it makes sense. But having lived in and loved both worlds, I can tell you they have many wonderful things in common. They each revolve around great stories, they each have immeasurable influence around the world, and they each are filled with people trying to make the world a better place. But, while sharing many similar values, every now and again during my tenure in Hollywood, I would take note of the meaningful differences between the way of Jesus and the way of Hollywood.
One of the most clear examples I saw of the differences between these worldviews came in the late 2010s, with the seemingly sudden and meteoric rise of the #MeToo movement — a movement addressing longstanding and often covered-up abuse that plagued the industry for decades. And while the movement began in Hollywood, it quickly caught fire and spread to numerous other industries and communities, including the church.
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There was a lot of good that came out of the movement — justice for victims, increased accountability for people in power, a greater sense of professionalism and safety. Most saw these changes as good. But as with most things, another equally powerful and controversial thing was created from this moment. As excitement for seeing justice being served grew, so did the online mobs who, after lighting their digital torches, began hunting for any public figures who were (or even slightly looked) problematic to take down. This phenomenon was quickly and aptly deemed “cancel culture.”
It was fascinating living in Hollywood at this time, when I would go to church on Sunday, and be on set on Monday, where I had a firsthand look into the effect that cancel culture was having on the people around me, and the difference between how Christianity and Hollywood dealt with this issue. Christianity is no stranger to having to deal with broken and toxic people. It is, however, unique in its philosophy and practice of how it does.
As I watched cancel culture unfold into the city and industry around me, I found myself remembering how Christ taught us to deal with these issues, and how far secular culture had drifted from God’s way of handling people caught sinning. I began to have some concerns, not with the justice being served and boundaries being made, but rather with some of the unintended consequences to the entire idea of “canceling.” And I wondered how God thought of the whole situation.
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In looking at scripture and comparing and contrasting how justice and accountability was practiced by the early church and how they were being practiced by secular culture, I began to formulate where I saw the cancel culture movement go wrong.
First, that the threat of being canceled didn’t actually make people better — just better at hiding their worst parts. Then, that cancel culture seemed to have become a mechanism for punishment with no chance at redemption, only condemnation. And lastly, that cancel culture made all of us experts at seeing the flaws, mistakes and sins of others while inhibiting our ability to address or even see our own.
The God found in scripture is big on calling out and putting a stop to evil in swift, substantive, even dramatic ways (throwing tables over with a whip in the temple, destroying towers, turning people to salt). But He’s also big on being outwardly and inwardly righteous, being honest about our faults and need for help, and on forgiving, restoring, and redeeming broken people.
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While cancel culture started and acted out of a desire for justice in a broken world, without the leading of God it can quickly devolve into a mob filled witchhunt that doesn’t resolve, redeem and rebuild, but merely destroys. The world’s way turned out to be strictly reactive, punitive and destructive, whereas the Christian way was of justice, is holistically redemptive and restorative.
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In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul says, “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you” (Colossians 3:13, NIV) — reminding us that we all are broken and in need of forgiveness, and that knowledge of the mercy God has given us should change how we approach judging and others. There’s an old saying: “To err is human, to forgive is divine.” But perhaps we could say, “To cancel is human.”
It’s a very human proclivity to see and point out the flaws in others while ignoring our own. We have become experts in seeing the specs in others’ eyes while ignoring the logs in our own. This is natural. But God calls us to a better way, a supernatural way.
Living as a Christian in Hollywood, I of course have and still do have the temptation when I see someone fail or fall to join the mob, pick up some digital stones and start hurling. Especially if it can distract me from my own shortcomings. But in making the choice to follow God’s way, I try to remind myself to choose a different way — a better way. One that both calls out bad behavior and offers the forgiveness I, myself, have been given. One that both seeks justice and desires redemption and restoration. One that is honest about both the sins of others and the sins of myself.
