Introduction
Every culture is a shame culture, it’s just a matter of what’s being shamed in that culture…What are we ashamed of and what are we not ashamed of? The way we answer these questions, ultimately, finds their starting point in what we worship.
Every culture, then, is downstream from religion …or as Henry Van Til said, culture is “religion externalized” or that culture is simply “lived religion.” Therefore, what we are ashamed by and unashamed by, is reflective of what we worship, or if you will, our deepest love. That which holds our greatest affections is that which we want to honor most. And that which acts in a way most dishonoring to that which we love most, is most shaming, most defiling, most abhorrent, perhaps, one may even be tempted to call it “an abomination.”
With all of this in mind, it should be clear to anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear and a mind to understand that we are in the middle of a hot holy war. The cultural disunity, divide, division, or perhaps more adequately stated, Chasm…is, in fact, a Chasm because, on either side you have different Gods, both of which demand complete allegiance.
“And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word.” 1 King 18:21
Doug Wilson pointed this out in a Blog, entitled, "The Shameless v. The Unashamed” when he said,
“Being shameless and being unashamed have certain similarities on the surface, but there is an ethical chasm that lies between them. God has spoken certain ‘thou shalt nots’ into the world, and the shameless transgress these commands, and impudently raise their heads. God has spoken His pure words into a corrupt and sinful world, and the unashamed take them up and hang them as a garland around the neck. The shameless refuse to be ashamed when any decent person would be ashamed, and the unashamed refuse to be ashamed when it would be an utter moral failure to be ashamed.”
The point being, there is no neutrality! Evangelicals that have bought into the secular lie that there is a mythical secular realm where all religions operate without any influence of said religion is the equivalent of someone who believes in other mythical creatures like unicorns and leprechauns, or maybe centaurs, minotaurs, mermaids, or the ever evasive righteous politician…Actually, the person who believes in those creatures and the realms they occupy is far less dangerous than the evangelical who believes in the neutral realm.
It's true, the person that believes in mythical creatures is completely out of touch with reality and is most certainly an absolute dork, but is harmless, and is almost guaranteed to do very little damage to civilization because they will most likely, never be given the opportunity to procreate.
However, the evangelical that believes in the mythical beast of secular neutrality is much more dangerous because they believe that everyone is playing by the same rules of niceness that they are. And even worse than that, they’ve conceded ground after ground after ground to the enemy and can’t figure out why there is no space left for them in the public square, and that’s just the ones who have the where withal to complain.
However, a good chunk of evangelicals today don’t even have the where withal to complain, because after all, operating in the mythical secular realm of neutrality means that they have to abandon Christian principles and operate with secular presuppositions because the secularist is not religious or anything, and because the secularist told them so. And of course, secularist can never be won to Christ, unless you think and speak and act and believe like a secularist which, again, is not religious or anything, and because the secularist told them so.
Where does this leave us? As Wilson, pointed out, there is an ethical chasm that lies between being shameless and unashamed, and unfortunately far too many who call themselves evangelical feel no shame regarding things that they should be ashamed by and ashamed by things for which they should absolutely feel no shame.
All the while, not realizing that in allowing the world, to set the agenda as too what we can, and should, and ought to be ashamed by, without question, we are not only dishonoring Christ, but also further advancing the idolatry of secularism.
This, by definition, not only puts the church on a collision course with our progressively
advancing pagan culture, but also, creates a situation where a painful reckoning is inevitable within the church that has unknowingly, in many cases, become progressively pagan.
Cancel Culture
Cancel culture is simply mob justice through the public shaming of someone who is unashamed by something that secularist think you should be ashamed by, or perhaps, in some cases, you may feel shamed and even publicly profess said shame, however, it is evident that it’s not a great enough degree of shame. Therefore, in such cases, repentance has to be determined to only be a repentance of the flesh and not of the heart.
At the heart of cancel culture is the idea of shame. What should we be ashamed of? Who says and by what standard? Cancel culture looks to remove things from the broader culture at large that we should be ashamed by, thus purifying the culture and bringing it into conformity to the ideal, the standard, or the norm…or if you will, bringing it into conformity to the image of their god.
In order to cancel someone, you first have to identify the transgression and then judge it as such, which invokes strong negative emotions, which makes sense because said transgression is a violation against what we should love most…
If repentance in sack cloth and ashes doesn’t occur fast enough and in a powerful enough way, than wrath must come down in the “hell fire and brimstone” kinda way. Because the secularism, that many evangelicals still believe is not a religion, is like all other false religions, it’s works based and devoid of grace, and is every bit as fanatical.
When we allow our outrage-ometer to be set by the world, we will become like the world
because the standard by which things are judged are of the world.
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” 1 John 2:15-17
When we think of this text, our mind usually runs to obvious temptations regarding the flesh, the eyes and the pride of life, and that’s not wrong. However, this also applies to the things that the world is outraged by – in that, we should not be conformed to their outrage. In other words, we should be unashamed by the things that they are ashamed by and ashamed by the things that they are unashamed by.
Now, at this point, many Christians will try and take the high road, or the point of least resistance, which is actually the point of no resistance, while trying very hard to look like the adult in the room, by saying something along the lines of, “being about the gospel,” or something like that.
The idea being, they are ok with everything around them going to hell in a hand basket, which they feel under no obligation to speak out about (because heathens gonna heath), and because they think the gospel is not being attacked. They may even have the audacity to quote Romans 1:16-17
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
But the gospel is exactly what’s being attacked…perhaps not the bodily resurrection proper, but everything that it presupposes. Case in point, you can’t say that human beings (that is male and female) are made in the image and likeness of God, and that the Son of God, Jesus Christ became a man, and then turn around and accept, or even tolerate someone who says human beings are more like a wax nose or that gentiles are like Mr. Potato Head parts.
All of this homo madness and tranny madness are distinctly gospel issues which is exactly why the left is pushing them are hard as they are. Because they know that if they can get Christians to be ashamed for saying those things that are shameful and an abomination to God than they have already won you over to their side. Whether you profess it or not that’s where you are. This is why Luther said,
“If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at the moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved. And to be steady on all the battle fields besides is merely flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.” Martin Luther
This is also seen in the recent case of Tranny murders – that is, Trannies specifically targeting Christians to murder. Transvestites are an abomination to God, and are obviously dangerous and have lost touch with reality a long time ago – and it should be noted that everything I just said would have not been considered controversial even twenty years. But today were told that anything other than a full orbed whole-hearted embrace of the “trans community” whatever that is, is hateful and should be repented of.
So when mentally deranged trannies go on a killing spree, we are told that it was the Christians fault because they provoked the trannies by saying that trannies ought to be ashamed of themselves and should not be allowed around children. So when children are murdered by a tranny nut job were told by those neutral secularist that Christians should apologize.
What do our brethren and sistren in Big Eva do? They rush in to save the day, by apologizing to the tranny-community (whatever that is), and this should come as no surprise to us because these soft turds have been bending over backwards for years in the name of homo-hospitality which we’re told is the way to win the homo and tranny communities (whatever they are), which is obviously working, and can be tangibly measured over the past 20 years, at least for the homos and trannies.
When we allow ourselves to be shamed by the world, and not ashamed of the world, we have already been conformed to the world, which is clearly, and painfully evident in the things that you’re disgusted by, and not disgusted by, and by the things we accept and the things we reject.
Homosexuality is shameful, transvestitism is shameful, giving trannies an audience with children is shameful, socialism and communism are shameful, teaching people that they should be ashamed because of the color of their skin is shameful, performing gentile mutilation surgery on children is shameful…
All of these things are disgusting to God and we should be ashamed by them, and we should be unashamed of calling them shameful. And if Christians can’t clearly, unequivocally and unapologetically denounce those things, than shame on them for conforming to an idol and not to
Christ.
Sin brings guilt and guilt brings shame. Shame in and of itself, is not bad. There are certainly things that we should be ashamed by, like, breaking the law of God – sin is lawlessness. This shame is meant to drive us to repentance, and sacrifice in order to atone for our sin and remove our guilt and cleanse us from our shame. So that we can be washed, cleansed and made new, not burdened by the weight of guilt, nor dirtied by the defilement of shame.
This is what the entirety of the Old Testament sacrificial system and cleanliness code were pointing us forward to in Christ. The record of debt that stood against us because of our sin was nailed to the cross, which means that through repentance and faith in Jesus our sin is removed and with it our guilt, and with it our shame.
When Christians allow themselves to be shamed by the world for no other reason than because of what Christ said and did, then Christ will be ashamed of them. Love for the world is enmity with God. As Christians, the last thing in the world we are asked to do is apologize for Jesus. Can you imagine standing before the Lord of glory on the day of judgment and telling Him what a great evangelist you were and how winsome you were because you apologized for, and were ashamed of everything He said and did?
There is no condemnation in Christ, therefore, when Christians constantly allow themselves to be condemned by the world, or condemned by other Christians who have conformed to the spirit of the age, it not only completely minimizes the work of Christ, but also completely dishonors Him in His Person. If the Lord has set you free you are free indeed. Yes, shame is real and can be good when it drives us to the cross of Christ, when it causes us to cry out for forgiveness and cleansing…this kind of shame is a gift from the Holy Spirit, because it brings us to Christ, and should also cause us to have compassion on one another, and to encourage one another to repent and to walk in newness of life.
Conclusion
Christians should be about canceling sin, first in their own lives and then helping others to do so. Part of us helping others to do so is calling out those who are publicly condoning that which is shameful and to do so unashamedly. And to not be ashamed when they are trying to do the same thing to us, knowing full well that there is a full-scale effort to try and bring the Christian into conformity to that which is anti-Christ.
They will not apologize for publicly shaming you because they believe it to be a necessary part evangelism to their god. This is a wonderful opportunity to declare that there is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, and that sin has been atoned for and with it the removal of our guilt and shame. This is something that we should never apologize for, nor be ashamed by. So come and welcome to Jesus Christ.
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