Article February 11, 2019 Issue

‘Canceled,’ or welcomed home?

Kevin Graunke

Originally published in The Christian Science Monitor’s Christian Science Perspective column, September 4, 2018.

I was recently reading how a lot of high-profile people have been “canceled” this year. This trendy notion of canceling someone whose expressions you disagree with means making a public statement of withdrawing support from that person. It is mostly connected to social media, and is directed at those whose political, artistic, or other views are seen as unacceptable. It’s sometimes described as a cultural boycott, depriving someone of attention, status, or prestige.

It’s certainly important to be alert to inappropriate, offensive behavior. But these days, the rush to find fault with, insult, and blame others has reached a deafening crescendo that goes even beyond canceling someone on social media. This got me thinking: Is dismissing or overtly rejecting someone a healing response? What if we considered a different approach, one in which what we “cancel,” reject, and dismiss isn’t each other, but every statement, intent, or act that would stain and darken our world?

In my own life I’ve consistently seen the value of a spiritual response to challenges of all kinds. For instance, there was a period in my life when I was active in occasionally speaking about Christian Science with groups of men and women in prison. I often found many of them quietly yet clearly rediscovering their own spiritual worth and that of their fellow inmates. Once, though, as I walked into the meeting room of a women’s prison, I found each of the inmates wearing a required badge that said “Offender.” I understood why the badges were necessary, but it felt as if these women had been “canceled,” seen as irredeemable.

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