Something cultural I've been kind of watching, and find myself, even now, just resisting in my spirit, is the idea that it's ok to sum people up as "toxic" and consequently throw them away, or whatever we define as 'no longer serving us' (I'm not talking clinical personality disorders here, I'm talking the flippancy of it - you said something mean, or that I don't agree with, therefore you are toxic, therefore I'm justified in ghosting you.) Aren't we all a little toxic? We all need grace for our faults, not to be labeled and thrown out like week old meat.
(We all need grace.)
This is just one reason why I am a Christian (despite it being a wildly unpopular path). Think of the rebellion of Jesus. Jesus didn't play by the rules. He upset culture. Confronted it. People didn't know what to do with Him. He couldn't be labeled or shoved in a box. Thrown in the trash. Christianity - the real, unscrewed up, if everyone modeled it perfectly, Biblical Christianity - is uniquely distinguished amongst other religions and belief systems by GRACE - the idea that we get what we don't deserve. <Who does that???> We can't earn it, it's not based on how good or bad we are, or the things we do or don't do; with Christianity it's - we literally have no other card to play - but Jesus. Maybe that needs to be emphasized more.
Jesus holds sick people close, and we are all sick. It's the human condition. Have you ever thought of it that way? That maybe it's not hypocrisy you see but the human condition? I've seen the human condition inside and outside of the church.
Culture can do whatever they want with Christianity, they will and they do; the church will do what it wants with Christianity, it will and it does, and even now, the Church, Jesus' Bride is crying out in the same key as the world, for things to be made right, for justice, but none of anything we see unfolding holds a candle to the love and teachings of Jesus Himself.
His Love is unstoppable. He pursues even the weakest, most distant, angry, lonely, broken, the darkest, the most far gone, the most sociopathic, the most indoctrinated, the most - you name it - person - and He doesn't give up, and He doesn't throw people away. I choose to follow Him, and I will keep following Him despite the ebb and flow of culture. If you're toxic, cool, so am I. Welcome to the busted up hearts club; we're depending on antivenom that is not of this world.
It's never been cool to follow Jesus, I suspect it never will be. Jesus said in John's gospel that the world hated Him because He spoke out against its deeds and darkness (paraphrase). It's choosing today who I will serve. Culture or Jesus. The pull or Jesus. People or Jesus. Approval or Jesus.