At the heart of the woke movement is not unity but rupture — rupture from our shared past, from a shared vocabulary, from an ability to reason together, from a canon of Western philosophy and literature, and from a shared purpose and identity as human beings.
This scattering has severe and far-reaching effects. Globally, we have seen for years a concern over an epidemic of woundedness and hurt. There’s an irony there, that an impersonal society that degrades and reduces the human person creates people who take everything personally. It is another sign of the way in which we make gods of ourselves, each becoming tyrants of our separate kingdom cells.
We try to patch over these ruptures with be nice campaigns, corporate sermons on consent, and celebrity sing-a-longs to “Imagine,” But when life inevitably and suddenly ignites and collapses, we realize the scope of the horror just beneath the surface and the utter insufficiency of our remedies… A movement which is animated by hatred of the Logos and innocence, if allowed to fester, will end in violence and persecution of Christians. We need courage and a love of Christ and his cross.
— Noelle Mering
Cited from Awake: Not Woke: A Christian Response to the Cult of Progressive Ideology (Gastonia, NC: TAN Books, 2021), 227-228
If memory serves correct, “woke” initially referred to being alert to racial injustice; however, it has expanded to encompass perceived oppression in areas such as gender and sexuality, forming a revolutionary ideology with religious overtones that views every relationship and institution through a social critical lens of power. Dialectic presuppositions such as oppressed against oppressor; underprivileged against the privileged; Black against white, so forth, are en vogue. Woke ideology thrives on continual grievance and outrage, fueling social upheaval that has also influenced many American Christians. Even some professing Christians reinterpret their faith through a woke framework, claiming Jesus would align with movements like Black Lives Matter or feminist causes in the name of compassion—a claim amplified by media and culture. Yet, the movement often overly simplifies complex moral issues to slogans such as “Love is love” and “Believe all women,” undermining reasoned debate and promoting conformity over free speech. Its deeper goal is to destabilize the moral and cultural foundations of the West—especially faith and family, which affirm human dignity and resist political tribalism. A well-formed Christian conscience and strong family life, rooted in love and moral order, provide the clearest defense against this ideology, which distorts the primacy of the person, replaces reason with will, and exalts human power over divine authority.
Noelle Mering: is a Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and co-director of its Theology of Home Project. She is the author of Awake, Not Woke: A Christian Response to the Cult of Progressive Ideology and co-author of the Theology of Home book series. Her writing has appeared in outlets such as the National Catholic Register, The American Mind, The Federalist, and Catholic World Report.
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