Christianity and Wokeness

June 7, 2021
Strachan (Reenchanting Humanity), director of the Center for Public Theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, argues that “wokeness is a major threat to the Christian faith” in this strident work. Identifying wokeness as a mix of Black Lives Matter, postmodernism, intersectionality, and “Marxist-inspired” critical race theory, Strachan moves from an examination of the five “most influential ‘woke’ books that have entered evangelical circles in recent decades” (such as Jemar Tisby’s The Color of Compromise) to a biblically inspired 14-point refutation of wokeness. He condemns wokeness for “losing sight of the imago Dei as our constituent identity,” “encourag us to distrust the order God has created in the world He has personally made,” “rejecting God’s design for the sexes,” and “destabilizing the free market.” If, however, the targets of Strachan’s ire are “soaked in a worldly ideology of wokeness,” his own writing is suffused with an evangelical penchant for apocalypticism, and his overbearing, polemical tone will be more likely to divide than engender debate or win converts. Readers aligned with the author’s worldview will find themselves nodding along; others need not apply.