One of the most challenging features of our cultural moment is what has come to be called “cancel culture.” I’ve thought about it a lot, and I want to offer a few reflections.

At its most basic level, cancel culture refers to the attempt to publicly discredit, deplatform, or socially exclude someone because of something they’ve said or done, usually something perceived as morally or ideologically unacceptable. These dynamics manifest differently, but they exist across ideological lines… left and right, secular and Christian.

What seems increasingly common is something like second-generation canceling: not just distancing ourselves from people we disagree with but distancing ourselves from people who associate with those people.

• Person A is controversial.
• Person B quotes, platforms, or associates with Person A.
• Person B is then scrutinized or condemned.

I see it all the time and I know you do, too.

And let me be clear: Christians don’t just observe this dynamic, we participate in it.

In this post and the next few, I want to offer four reasons why this tendency is so unhealthy for Christians and suggest a better way forward.

#1. Cancel culture is shaped more by algorithmic groupthink than careful discernment.

Part of what makes the pastoral task in America so difficult right now is that nearly everyone “sitting in the pews” (or watching online) is being discipled by their algorithm. And I don’t think that’s an exaggeration. Hours of algorithm-shaped media intake, designed to maximize agreement and amplify outrage, are deeply forming how people process reality and filter everything they hear.

The challenge, as it relates to this point, is that many times when a thinker or author is scrutinized or condemned, it isn’t based on an honest exploration of their work. It’s based on a social media post or YouTube video from someone else summarizing it and labeling it as dangerous.

Is there deceptive or dangerous content in the world? Absolutely. Scripture has much to say about false teaching. But Christians are called to be people of discernment, shaped by Scripture and Spirit, not just outrage cycles and tribal reinforcement.

The Bereans ought to be our example who, upon hearing the Apostle Paul, “received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11). Rather than pre-labeling some voices as “safe” and others as “dangerous,” their practice was to look for themselves and think for themselves….. no matter where the message came from!

Do Christians need help cultivating discernment? Yes. But there is a difference between helping someone learn how to think and telling them what to think. I’m wary of any pastor or teacher who acts like other Christians, who have a brain, a Bible, and the Spirit of God, are incapable of forming biblically-grounded conclusions. The command to “test the spirits” (1 John 4:1) was given to the whole church, not just the clergy.

So, what’s the path forward? Becoming people formed more by careful discernment than algorithmic groupthink. Jesus warned in the Sermon on the Mount about false prophets but didn’t call His followers to suspicion and panic. He invited us to examine fruit (Matthew 7:15–20), and that requires patience (not reactivity), a measure of proximity (instead of writing off someone from a distance), and above all discernment.

Here are a few questions I commend to you, as you engage with various Christian teachers and teachings and seek to practice discernment:

1. What do they say, or not say, about Jesus?
2. How does what they teach align with the New Testament?
3. As I pray, how do I sense God’s Spirit working inside me?
4. What is the lifestyle of the speaker and those shaped by their teaching?
5. Am I becoming more like Jesus as a result of their influence in my life?

In the next post, I want to explore another way cancel culture deforms us: by flattening theology and treating every issue as equally central.