1:19

• The term cancel culture was evident on social media where people vocalize their support for certain causes or advocacies. As this term became popular on many social media platforms, some people experience being cancelled because of difference in opinions.

2:02 – What’s the difference between cancel culture and call-out culture?

• Cancel Culture is cancelling support for a person/organization. Because of social media, every person now has his/her own megaphone to share opinions in, especially when Twitter became popular and tweets easily trended.

• Call-out culture is not as bad as cancel culture––it’s calling out someone to change their ways.

• Cancel culture is not new to us. Some of us can actually relate with this through open forums in school.

5:36 – This calling out of wrong behavior came from a good intention, but how come it became toxic?

• All of us are prone to abuses and excesses. Cancel culture started as a call to demand accountability from people who possess power.

• Since eastern culture is communal, our cancel culture is rooted in shame-based culture. This means you are expected to act based on what your community upholds. If you don’t subscribe to it, you become an outcast in society. Social media platforms highlight this since we are globally connected.

• This became popular because young people have become passionate about causes and activism (woke culture). This has been magnified because of the opportunity presented by social media platforms to the youth to join a conversation that was once shared only among adults.

• Because of the people’s desire for action, it caused confusion regarding our standard. For instance, the mob rule––where we intimidate those in power with the power of the masses.

10:10

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

– 1 Corinthians 13:1

• If I speak without love, “toxic ako pakinggan.“ Anything done without love has the capacity to get toxic.

• We can call out people for doing something wrong, but anything done out of anger and impatience becomes toxic.

• Calling out a person or an organization is calling out for action and demanding for accountability. Cancel culture is toxic because even the personhood of the person is being cancelled.

• We have to know the difference between calling out and ganging up. We do not demean someone when we call them out. If we do so, we are killing the destiny of the person. There’s a clear difference between calling out because of love, and calling out due to annoyance.

• Good question for us to reflect on is to ask our motive. Are we really calling out or are we demeaning the person?

15:30 – What if you are talking to someone who doesn’t share the same thoughts as yours?

• We have the tendency to be tribalistic. We are very much collaborative, but we can also be inclusive. Even though our beliefs with one another don’t match, we can converse without cancelling anyone out.

• When there is something to be called out, it has to be in the context of a loving relationship. If we are secured with our relationship, this is a safe place for calling out the behavior and calling out the greater destiny of that person.

• Even if people don’t agree with you when you call them out, we still push for relationships.

What if it’s public and we have no personal relationship with the person?

• Good question to ask before we call out: Does it lead to building up which leads to results, or are we just crushing the person?

• The danger of calling out in social media platforms is that the margin for adjustments and openness become blurry. This results in neo-tribalism which is a social concept where people form a tribe that agrees with their ideologies. We don’t agree to disagree. This sounds like: “If you disagree with me, we cannot be friends. You are cancelled.”

22:37

• However, there should be invitations for conversations, rather than arguments.

• Calling out can be a good thing as long as we are inviting people for dialogue and conversations. That’s why it’s important to be part of a community that encourages this.

• Cancel culture is shaming the person or boycotting. That is not our way to go, we are not discouraging people to speak up. There should be invitations for conversations rather than cancellation. This is an invitation for us to have better listening skills. 

26:30 How far have we gone when it comes to cancel culture?

• We have gone very far with cancel culture. Anything that is founded on a sinful nature can really go to the extreme, as we see it in social media platforms; it can become cyber bullying. Instead of leading for change, it results in the breaking of lives.

How do we go counter-cultural? Is there a way to cancel the cancel culture?

• We all have different opinions, but we don’t go the route of cancelling people.

32:00

• Jesus is the perfect example who did not cancel anyone despite the different opinions that surrounded Him. Instead of cancelling people, He restored those people who were cancelled by the society.

• We are in a very-empowered generation, but we have to ask ourselves if we know our true identity: Are you a Christ-follower or an online citizen? Are you an online citizen or kingdom citizen?

• We are kingdom citizens more than online citizens.

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; – James 1:19

• The only foundational truth that we have to remember is that we belong to God.

Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. – Colossians 3:12

• If we forget that we are God’s citizens, it’s easy to react to anger. The way that we act and the way we speak reflect the God that we are serving.

34:15 How can we honor God and make disciples as a student and as a campus missionary?

Jesus exemplified this:

LOVE demands to reach out to the person,

TRUTH demands to call out the person,

GRACE demands to empathize and value the person.

• Rather than just demanding goodness from people and organizations, preaching and demonstrating the good news must be our focus over demanding goodness.

• Questions to ask ourselves: Are we also demanding goodness from ourselves, in our own ways? Are we preaching and demonstrating the good news in our own ways?

• Even though people don’t see what I’m doing offline, I am doing what God demands of me out from the overflow of my relationship with Him.

37:52

• Self-awareness is very important. There has to be no difference between my identity online with my identity offline. I am more than a netizen, I am a kingdom citizen.

• We also have to be watchful of what we post and share. Sometimes, we are unaware that we are taking part in cancel culture through the things we post and share.

How do we respond when we see different issues online?

• We repent if we react sinfully. We act in grace and love.

Sometimes, we need to understand that other people are not wrong, they are just different.

41:30 

• Cancel culture can be a reflection of our anxieties, but God tells us to cast our anxieties to Him. (1 Peter 5:7)

• Cancelling people is not the way of Christ. The church that Jesus Christ built is for those who are cancelled. Even His choice of disciples were those who were cancelled by the society (tax collectors, prostitutes, zealots). The very people who responded to Jesus are those people who were cancelled by society.

• Are we that kind of community that brings grace and truth?

• In a world that cancels people because of differences,imperfections, and flaws, we must be that community for the cancelled that calls out God’s purpose and destiny from within them.

Today on Campus is hosted by Jello de los Reyes and Dave Estrera. They are joined in this episode by Job Wahiman and Ria Corda.