Resolution 84:08: Cancel Culture

Whereas, “cancel culture” is an attempt to remove support from a particular public figure after he or she has said or done something considered offensive. To “cancel” someone, in this context, means to shun or remove someone from the culture, usually by raising a public outcry, often on social media; and

Whereas, we acknowledge that some speech should be “cancelled” in that it violates the agreed upon ethical norms of a society, particularly those derived from biblical revelation (Ephesians 5:11); and

Whereas, we also recognize that existence within a culture as diverse as that of the United States requires the toleration of the expression of opinions with which orthodox Christian thought will necessarily disagree; and

Whereas, the current attempts to “cancel” public figures for speech which would have been uncontroversially within mainstream opinion a mere ten or fifteen years ago mark a seismic shift in the movement of our culture away from a basically Christian ethic and toward unapologetic and exclusive secularism; and

Whereas, our confession claims “Yet, as nursing fathers, it is the duty of civil magistrates to protect the Church of our common Lord… in such a manner that all ecclesiastical persons whatever shall enjoy the full, free, and unquestioned liberty of discharging every part of their sacred functions, without violence or danger,” we recognize therein that, for the well-being of the nation, the civil magistrate has an active interest in protecting the expression of Christian speech and practice of Christian religion (WCF 23.31).  Now, therefore, be it

Resolved to appeal to the government of the United States maintain its duty in protecting the rights to free speech and religion guaranteed in the First Amendment of the U. S. Constitution by protecting both the expression of orthodox Christian belief and the practice which proceeds from it.

Adopted by the 84th General Synod of the Bible Presbyterian Church, meeting at Cape Canaveral, Florida, August 5-9, 2021.