Welcome to St. Wokes
Woke Progressivism rarely celebrates or even recognizes actual progress but instead, has made a religion of genuflecting to only that which is wrong. I’ve been pondering why one half of our great divide continually tells us that things have never been worse, while the opposing half insists; things have never been better. Are we truly worse off than a generation ago? Two generations ago? Two centuries ago?
On a whim, I thought to simply ask Miriam Webster what he thinks the word “Progress” means. I initially feared Miriam had been a busy bee, tweaking age-old definitions when I read; “A royal journey marked by pomp and pageant. A state of procession”. But then quickly realized this is quite an apt description, if — derived from the standpoint of our ruling, woke elites.
Scenes from The Hunger Games hit my mind’s eye of the decadent, imperious pageantry fawning over itself whilst the beaten-down citizenry watches with vengeful disdain. President Snow Biden has prophetically promised a doomsday winter of continued darkness, but; should we believe him?
I then realized this was the noun sense of the word. The verb sense reads; “To move forward. To proceed. To develop a higher, better, more advantaged stage”. Now that’s a definition of progress we can all get behind! This begs the question; is our current day ‘ism based on the verb or the noun?
Hopefully, you have followed Steven Pinker’s compelling work in this field: Based on vitally crucial and life-centric metrics, he carefully researches whether life here on Earth is better or worse off than 30 years ago. Realizing the 2020 pandemic has halted all bets on the felt, it is still certainly worthwhile to objectively compare empirical data points, such as homicide, poverty, famine, and emitted particulates of pollution; all of which are undeniably and significantly improved. The verb-ness of this progress will never be heralded by the noun-huggers as they proclaim perpetual doom while sauntering before us like a royally ensconced brigade, counting their millions while sounding their horns of calamity.
The number of wars, autocracies, and nuclear weapons have all consistently been on the decline while life’s vital signs like, life expectancy, prosperity, peace, safety, leisure, and happiness are all measurably on the rise. As Pinker surmises, “Intellectual’s hate progress. And, intellectuals who call themselves progressives really hate progress”. If you saw his Ted Talk, leave space here for the agreeable audience laughter.
Pinker then displays a graphic of a team meeting in a conference room with The Onion’s caption, “CNN holds morning meeting to determine what viewers should panic about for rest of day”. It is here that we begin to see the vast difference between those who promote and preserve that which is good and getting better, versus those who are hopelessly addicted to casting their dimming floodlights upon that which is bad — and only getting worse. It’s the new replacement theology.
Progressive noun’ers want us addicted to the fight. If Paris must fall, then we must perpetually march for revolution. If the one-percenters hold the keys to the happiness of the rest of us in lanes two through ninety-nine, then we must remain consumed with rebellion. And if anyone dare oppose the noun’ers, we will yank your pillows off the back of the big-box store truck like a loose tooth tied to a slamming doorknob. For a movement that should be calibrated to deliver a more advantaged stage, progressivism seems oddly akin to; pessimism.
When is the last time you heard a truly inspiring speech by one of our politicians?
It reminds me of preachers who are compelled to persistently preach on sin. You can feel their excitement rise as they expound in great detail: What’s wrong with the world, what’s wrong with the church, and for that matter — what’s wrong with you? How sad the eternally beautiful and glorious story of salvation be relegated to a never-ending exegesis of our wrath-worthy state. Is the Good News merely a get-out-of-hell card or, the beckoning to lift our eyes and behold the glory that is contained in this life? Strikingly similar to how these fundamentalist preachers bellow the flames of sin, the woke progressives have taken a vow to never, ever show us anything glorious on this earthly plot. The glass can never be half glory — only half doom.
Fundamental progressivism systematically deracinates the cultural centricity of the Judeo-Christian substrate yet confusingly, remains constrained to the choice, religious provisos of guilt, condemnation, and eternal punishment. Believing victory and vindication were in their grasp, they fail to ascertain that when these tenets of doom are decoupled from the provisions of forgiveness, reconciliation, and redemption, the resultant is a toxic and irredeemable ethos — an ethos which is incapable of alleviating guilt.
These woke fundamentalists consistently bull-horn from their Pol Pot-ian pulpits against those who oppress the oppressed. Yet oddly, the murderous archetypal heroes of their narratives have long since died; and as far as I can tell, none have awoke from the dead just yet. Note to self: Jesus is the only woke savior.
Because the fact is: We are all created to worship. The attempted removal of God from the populace does not change this inherent imaging of our existence. So while woke progressivism tries to shove shards of glass into the god-shaped hole, we suddenly realize the rejection of age-old religious thought has merely been supplanted with a new, photo negative replacement.
Church services are replaced with peaceful protests and small group meetings reconstituted as riotous mobs. And no need for an offering plate — just grab yourself a new pair of Nike’s and a flat-screen TV on your way out. Because, here at St. Wokes, rioting is like high voltage electrical lines; we love what you do, just don’t do it anywhere near my property.
Holy Scripture has been replaced with vulgar graffiti and there is no need to venerate statues as they have all been ripped free from their paint-stained plinths. The confessional has been ousted for a Twitter feed where instead of confessing your sins, you unrelentingly expose the trespasses of others. And speaking of the Socials, ex-communication means; you’re canceled.
Let there be no fear of an Armageddon because the new thief in the night, climate catastrophe, has displaced it as the leading foe to end our existence; just barely eking out a rogue asteroid. And if originating singularities are your thing, no need to search for the Garden of Eden, simply behold the genesis of Chaz, where no tree is off-limits.
No, here in the post-modern, Christian-less landscape, priests are backfilled for politicians and the new original sin is whiteness — you are just immutably born with it. And if you are searching the About Page for the doctrines of life after death, seek no more: The denomination of Wokeism refuses to even admit there is life before birth.
The way to win a Super Bowl is to beat the other team. The way to win a nation is to forge one team. Progressive, conservative, Christian, atheist — how can we stop trying to beat the other team and instead, find common ground and become a better team? Cock-eyed optimism, you say? Well, when I read the ancient scriptures, they speak of a glory covering the entire earth and a light so bright, the nations are drawn to it. Imagine, the very Spirit of God falling upon all people and a resurrection power which births the reconciliation of all things. (And in the original the text, the word for, “All things”, means, “All things”).
Some Jewish Rabbis define sin as; anything which disrupts Shalom. You probably know that Shalom is an ancient Hebrew word for peace, yet it means so much more. It describes right standing with God, right standing with our fellow man, proper stewardship of creation, divine health, provision, and prosperity to such a measure that it transforms everything around us like yeast through dough for the eternal better. Anything we do that disrupts these realities — there you will find sin. When is the last time you heard a sermon which framed sin quite like that?
So I work here to expose the church of St. Wokes not merely as a semantic game, but rather to make us think more deeply and discern the spires of lies being erected around us. Lift your eyes higher and see that the culmination of Shalom which, by definition, will satiate both sides of the great divide and perhaps inaugurate the two to finally become one.
