I guess no-one wants my theological ‘hot take’ on the letter signed by dozens of writers & authors, inc. JKR, Noam C etc re ‘cancel culture’... but *even* simple clergy have thoughts ... so here comes my ‘thought’... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53330105

Firstly, I want to leave aside the lively conversation about e.g. whether Ezra Pound should be studied *at all* because he supported Mussolini... I’ve encountered that position in class & (in the UK) it’s interesting & raises fascinating points about ‘cancelling’ canon, but ...

Equally, I am horrified by the way in which social media can be used to monster actual living persons through the vilest threats... the level of so-called ‘discourse’ is just unutterably bleak no matter what one’s position ... it’s so bad some days I want to ‘cancel’ social media

I am also fascinated by the uses of power in media ... e.g there may be some who raise an eyebrow when a group of established, successful, powerful writers unite in solidarity and use their access to traditional media to say ‘x’ is wrong & should stop ...

... while predominantly lower-powered, less established, less privileged voices lack such attention and access and find they must deploy newer medias to find ways in solidarity to address what they sense is injustice etc.

There’s a lot going on! My rather modest theological take is this:
To what extent is this (seemingly) generational/power discourse a moment in what happens when a culture that carries the traces of religious/biblical memory stops believing? Is it a kind of Theo-hauntology?

For what’s sticking in my head is that image of the ‘great biblical patriarchal bargain’(Pat Barker): Abraham & Isaac ... you know the story... where the young boy trusts the old man ... even though a knife is held over him ...

In this story the bargain arguably is: ‘If you who are young would only trust me who am old, in time you will come into your inheritance... trust my actions and rules and you will see that God/culture/the world will provide ...’

But ... I sense that those who are ‘young’/powerless etc in our world just won’t buy this image the older generation (subconsciously) wish to foist upon them ... for what they see is the knife, its threat, and they have no assurance that God/the world will provide ...

What they see is a Father/Mother figure telling them to trust in nuanced grown-ups whilst said group of grown-ups hold a weapon in front of them ... a weapon shaped around traditional authority, & ways of going on ...

They see Father/Mother figures who are terrifying in the weapons they can bring to bear ... who say ‘we’re not all bad you know ... but meanwhile please lay still while I bind you up ...listen to me please ... I know stuff ...’

And on the other side are the Father/Mother figures who want the best for their children, but are crapping themselves... not necessarily because their power is seemingly in danger of draining away in old age (though it may be) ...

... but because the tools and skills and opportunities they were given and used to navigate the world feel like they don’t have as much traction as they did ... but still, these tools are what they have & they want their BELOVED children to KNOW how the world actually is ...

These Elders want to be remembered as honoured elders but they want also to teach their children that the world is full of knives wielded by those who are older and more powerful & we HAVE to come to terms with that horror and mess ...

And these Elders - who were young too once - are horrified that now it is their turn to teach the lesson ... and they, unlike our Father Abraham, no longer believe in God to provide ... they fear the ram will not be provided ...

Or ... in other terms, they fear that there is no resurrection built into the ecology of the Cross ... that for all of us, old or young, there is no Garden of Promise ... there is only knife and fear and the absence of a Ram ... but still the lesson must be learned ...