Rachel Nichols, Cancel Culture and a World in Need of Grace

The world we’re creating is void of grace. We’re back in the time of Leviticus; new laws, new punishments, and a whole lot of stones killing people (figuratively speaking of online stoning). We crave justice yet we are seeking it unjustly. We crave love yet we are seeking it with hate. We crave unity yet we are seeking it through division. We crave glory yet we have rejected it’s Maker.

I’ve enjoyed watching the NBA playoffs this year and have been a longtime NBA and ESPN fan and follower. There is a woman who has led ESPN’s NBA pregame show for many years (I think around 20). Only because it matters for the context of what I write, she is a white woman. Her name is Rachel Nichols. If you google her right now you will be flooded with articles applauding how she has been canceled by ESPN because of some leaked conversations she’s had in the past.

Essentially, there are two things at play:

1. For the last several years ESPN has been corporate pioneers for diversity in the workplace. Fifteen years ago just about every show was led by white men. Most journalists were white men. Most radio shows were the voices of white men. Whereas today, very few white men are still standing. ESPN prioritizes diversity and they’ve done a good job at accomplishing their goal.
2. Rachel Nichols has tenure and many years of experience hosting the NBA Finals pregame show (the pinnacle of people in her industry), but this year I’m assuming (based on the quote you’re about to read) there began internal conversations about her possibly being replaced by a younger, less experienced, colleague. Only because it matters for the context of what I write, she is a black woman. Her name is Maria Taylor.

Rachel was apparently not happy about this decision and was unknowingly recorded in a conversation she had about it back in July of 2020. She said:

“I wish Maria Taylor all the success in the world — she covers football, she covers basketball… If ESPN needs to give her more things to do because they are feeling pressure about their crappy longtime record on diversity — which, by the way, I know personally from the female side of it — like, go for it. Just find it somewhere else. You are not going to find it from me or taking my thing away.”

These comments were just recently leaked and ESPN moved Rachel off of the show. Many people — including her co-hosts — have thrown their stones of disapproval at her. Her career seems to be on the rocks for stating an opinion on phone call that was secretly recorded.

I am not going to make any commentary on the content of this recorded statement. The point of me writing is to ask ourselves… is this the world we want to live in? Because this is the world we are all creating and contributing to. We pick up our stones to throw at those who have broken the unstated, yet clearly-you-should-have-known-better laws. This is a world without grace. There must be something better… and there is.

But what is it?

Adam Silver, the Commissioner of the NBA has now gotten involved — and I’m sure he’s next in line to be canceled, since a white man now looks to be defending a white woman, which our society would see as clear systemic racism — but he got involved saying this:

“When long-term employees that are in good standing make comments that people recognize as mistakes — their careers shouldn’t be erased by a single comment…We should be judging people by the larger context of their body of work and who they are and what we know about them.”

Do you see what Adam has done? He has replaced law with more law. Let’s not judge people by one comment, let’s judge them by all of their comments. Either way, we are to judge them.

And I get what he’s saying, and I agree with his sentiment. It’s the lesser of two evils. But I was taken aback when he encouraged the public to resist judging only by a less extreme version of judgment. He did this because he didn’t have the tool of undeserved grace in his tool bag. And in a fragile world, where leaked words are received with condemnation, we are crippled by fear to say anything. We don’t want to say the wrong thing and lose our job. The 2021 Levitical Law is rigid, and stones are everywhere waiting to be thrown.

Is there something better out there? Yes!

In a world trying to shape us into law-abiding Pharisee’s let’s take the better path. (For context, the Pharisee’s were the people who arrived on the Israelite scene around 300 B.C. and governed the Jews in the days of Jesus. They were know as those who would judge others and boast in just how obedient they were to the law’s of their day.) Let’s listen to Jesus when he says,

10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’

13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”(Lk 18:10–14)

Grace is seeing Rachel’s comments — and the many other comments made by individuals every day that take you aback — and instead of condemning and canceling and putting yourself out there as one of the “good guys” we say, “that’s it! Oh gosh, I’ve said (or thought) so much worse! God be merciful to me, a sinner.”

Law produces a Spirit where we stand up and say with our chest puffed out, “Thank God I’m not like Rachel. That unjust, ungrateful, privileged woman. Look how much better I am than her. Look how awakened I am to injustice, race and diversity.”

Grace levels the playing field. It receives and loves people who don’t deserve it. Grace receives Maria and Rachel. Grace is how we walk when we recognize we’re far worse then the rest of the people in each room we enter into, yet we recognize we are received and loved and bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

As the western world looks to a more rigid law to deliver and redeem us from our trials, let us — the Church — continue to look to grace and God’s redemptive love as the only true power to save us.

Lord have mercy on us, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy.