By Jeannie Law
Pastor Michael Todd of Transformation Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was a guest on the morning radio show “The Breakfast Club” where he addressed cancel culture and why he believes so many are quick to try to silence or destroy people over their views.
The pastor was invited on the show to talk about his No. 1 New York Times bestselling book Relationships Goals, where he spoke of his own relationship mishaps and what God showed him about finding lasting love and sustaining a healthy relationship. Co-host Lenard Larry McKelvey, better known as “Charlamagne tha god,” asked the preacher why people no longer allow others to make mistakes.
“So I think it’s two things,” Todd said on the morning program that aired on Sept. 15. “You can never give grace that you haven’t experienced. And that’s why I really go back to my faith. In this moment right here, it’s because I’ve experienced the grace of God over my life.”
“I am broken, my thoughts are jacked up, my heart, if you get on the inside of that thing, has stuff in there that is not good,” he continued. “But through what I believe that Christ did for me, that whole thing is not my identity anymore! I can actually walk in forgiveness and love and all those things. And the only reason I can extend grace is because I’ve received grace.”
Todd, who has become a popular megachurch pastor in recent years, has been honest about his past where he admitted to cheating on his girlfriend, who later became his wife, and has spent the past decade working to regain her trust. God’s restorative process in his own life is why Todd says he doesn’t subscribe to cancel culture.
“I know I am crap without what God’s done in my life. A lot of people have not received grace and it’s not something you have to earn, and that’s the thing that I need everybody to understand. Religion tells you that you need to earn something. God is trying to get you to receive something.”
To illustrate his point, the South Carolina native used the example of buying a gift for each host of an event. But instead of accepting the gift, each person refused to take it.
“If you never open up that box and receive it, it doesn’t mean that it wasn’t given, it just means that you don’t get to partake,” Todd explained. “It is hard for you if you’ve never received a good gift to give a good gift.”
“I think, honestly, that’s what’s happening in culture right now,” he added. “So many people have messed up and people cancel them. So when somebody else messes up, they cancel them. It’s one of those things that’s like, this is not how we are supposed to live, this is not how it was intended. I need grace, so when I see people jacking up and messing up, I don’t talk about them; I pray for them.
“I need forgiveness. So when I see people that are going through a hard situation and a hard time, I’m the one that’s trying to text and call and reach out. Because honestly, you do unto others as you would want them to do unto to you. And I need all the grace that I can get.”
Todd’s comments against cancel culture follow statements made by others in recent weeks, including Grammy Award-winning singer Kelly Rowland who slammed cancel culture, saying it’s created a god complex in those promoting it.
“In this ‘cancel culture’ we live in, I am SO grateful God NEVER canceled me, and I’m sure he could’ve many-a-times!” she declared.
Bill Maher also called for an end to cancel culture because of the impact it’s having on society.
Maher, an HBO talk show host and professed atheist, said “liberals” need to “push back on cancel culture.”
Director Oliver Stone likewise spoke out against cancel culture, saying he would’ve been a victim of it if he began his filmmaking in these times.
“I can tell you that if I made any of my films, I don’t think I’d last. I’d be vilified. I’d be attacked, shamed, whatever you want to call that, culture, cancel f—— culture,” Stone exclaimed on SiriusXM’s “Jim Norton & Sam Roberts.”
“I mean, it’s just impossible. I would have had to step on so many sensitivities. You have to have some freedom to make a movie, unfortunately,” Stone added.
