Alienating Half of the Country that Embrace Conservative Values
Interview opportunity with Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer, Senior Pastor of the Historic Moody Church for 36 years
What do Major League Baseball, Coca-Cola and Delta airlines all have in common? They have embraced cancel-culture and alienated half of the country that embrace conservative values. Why would they do such a thing? Helping answer this question is Dr. Erwin Lutzer, senior pastor of the Historic Moody Church for 36 years.
Q&A:
- Major League Baseball has decreed that the All-Star game would not be played in Georgia because their state legislature enacted new voting laws. Aside from whether these laws are racist, how should we react to such an action?
A: Regardless of the laws, this is a terrible precedent. This means that sports—which are the one thing that really brought a sense of unity to the country and provides a health escape from the stress often associated with politics— is now politicized. This further divides us as a nation that is already being torn apart by racial conflicts.
Does this mean that politicians now have to be answerable to how a sports team will react to legislation? Do they need the permission of the sports leagues before they vote on laws. The governor of Georgia said it best, “This is the cancel-culture and it is coming for you.”
- Major corporations including Coca-Cola and Delta airlines have now embraced so-called ‘cancel culture’ and are opposing the Georgia voting reform laws, over being purportedly racist. What do you make of this new development?
A: Companies should remain politically neutral. If we hear a brand name, we should associate with the taste or other attributes of the product, not the political beliefs of its key executives. It’s just common sense, which is becoming less common with each passing day.
- How does the cancel culture work? What are its premises and where did it originate?
A: We must understand collective demonization; this was perfected in Russia. Once the state cancelled someone, everyone else chimed in to protect themselves and show that they agreed with the authorities. People who didn’t even know the person or what he stood for wrote letters agreeing with the state, often out of fear of being sent to Siberian prison camps for daring to disagree or even stay neutral. In USSR people frequently disappeared and were never heard of again.
Totalitarianism, (that is a government that denies people individual freedom and relegates all authority to the state) always insists that people respond in solidarity. Once some person or point of view has been vilified, everyone else is expected to chime in agreement. In Nazi Germany there were churches that would put a swastika on their door, saying in effect, “When you come for the Christians don’t come for us because we are on your side.”
In our country people who agree with the cancel culture are asking themselves, “Am I ‘woke’ enough to be seen as virtuous?”
- You have written a book, We Will Not Be Silenced, and your primary concern is for the survival of the church in this cancel culture…what are those concerns.
A: So far in America we still have religious freedom within the church walls, but that would change dramatically if the Equality Act became law. The legal pressure for churches to change their doctrines about sexuality would be huge.
But already I know that there are Christian media ministries that have been cancelled because they don’t conform to the ideological views of the radical left.
On a personal level, Christians are often not permitted to live out their faith in the so-called public square. To give an example: A schoolteacher asked me this question: “I have a boy in my public school who was born a boy, his parents call him Bert, but in school he identifies as a girl and wants us to call him Bertha. But the principal told me that when his parents come for their consultation, I cannot tell them that in school their son is a girl.” Now the question is: can a Christian teacher maintain his/her integrity by being party to such foolishness?
- So what is your word to the church today?
A: Jesus predicted that days like this would come, and we have to be ready. We have to ask; are we willing to stand for our convictions and take the consequences? We must not react with anger but with strength. Not vengeance but vigilance. As Bonheoffer challenged the Christians of his day to carry the cross of Christ into the world we must do the same. And someone has said that that carrying the cross of Christ into the world sounds like a nice idea until we remember that the cross led to Golgotha and there he was crucified.
We might not be able to change the cancel culture but let us make sure that the culture does not change or cancel us and our moral beliefs.
- Tell us about your newest book and where we may pick up a copy?
A: “We Will Not be Cancelled” is available online at sites like Amazon.com and in many bookstores.
Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer is Pastor Emeritus of The Moody Church where he served as the Senior Pastor for 36 years. He is author of many books including his latest, “We Will Not Be Silenced: Responding Courageously to Our Culture’s Assault on Christianity.”
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