I never like it when I can’t explain something in simple terms.  But most important topics are not easily distilled.  I mean, a leftist may tell me they believe woke is compatible with Christianity.  And it (like MAGA) absolutely is not.  Sure, there’s a message of justice in the Gospels.  We learn how the first shall be last and the last shall be first.  Jesus broke down barriers of ethnicity and gender—took on the religious elites.  However, he taught a message of repentance rather than pride or demanding recognition.

1) Woke externalizes blame, Christianity takes responsibility: Jesus taught us to answer for our own sins—that God will judge those who mistreat us.  Basically Jesus turns fundamental attribution error inside out by asking us to completely own our own actions and then to be merciful to those who offend us.  This is not to say that we’re silent about injustice—we just remove the beam from our own eye first and never blame others for our own sins.

2) Woke replaces identity in Christ with group identity: Woke ideology organizes people into categories of oppressors and victims based on race, gender, or sexual orientation. The gospel teaches that primary identity is found in Christ (Galatians 3:28) and unites all people under one common banner of humanity rather than into competing factions arguing over who must serve who.  All should serve in the manner of Christ who died for the sake of his oppressor rather than fight and demand fair treatment.

3) Woke rejects absolute truth in favor of the subjective experience: Woke culture often promotes the idea that truth is relative and based on “lived experience” or their social construction, whereas Biblical Christianity is founded on the unchanging, objective truth of Jesus as being God’s Word.  The Gospels claim that Jesus was there from the beginning and that he is the one and only correct path to salvation: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No man comes to the Father but by me.” 

4) Woke promotes judgment, not forgiveness: Woke culture is “cancel culture,” which is very unforgiving and aims to ostracize those who deviate on even the slightest bit of the current dogma. Conversely, Jesus taught a path of mercy, forgiveness, grace, and redemption, offering hope and reconciliation for all, rather than a never-ending cycle of shaming others and condemnation.

5) Woke is a total inversion of the Christian standard: Woke ideology attempts to redefine traditional moral standards, and in particular with regard to sexual ethics, or marriage, and gender, which Jesus explicitly upheld.  Jesus confronted the Pharisees for their hypocrisy—not over disagreement with the law.  If the law does not matter there’s no hypocrisy.  However, Jesus did not say that there’s no set standard—only that the religious and political elites kept the letter of the law and neglected the spirit.

6) Woke focuses on political activism rather than spiritual renewal: Wokeism prioritizes changing societal structures and the power dynamics as the primary solution to human issues. In contrast the teachings of Jesus emphasize that the greatest problem is sin (our own first) and that all lasting change flows from spiritual transformation of us individually, not just structural reform.  Woke is about screaming into a bullhorn while the Gospel is focused on introspection and repentance.

7) Woke divides people by identity tribes and does not create unity: While Jesus calls for love and unity among believers, forgiveness of our enemies—woke political ideology creates more division, fuels conflict, resentment, and “hatred, contentions, [and] outbursts of wrath” (Galatians 5:19-21) by focusing on oppression narratives, or historical and group grievances.  There’s no love of offenders or forgiveness in woke—only role reversal and vengeance against the prescribed villains.

8) Woke assigns collective guilt rather than protecting individual rights: Woke ideology tends to attribute collective, inherited guilt to entire groups based on skin color or social status. The Gospel teaches that every individual is responsible for their own sin before God and is justified by their own faith. 

9) Woke focuses on vertical power struggles over reconciliation with God: Wokeism is concerned with the dismantling of traditional power structures, often adopting a Marxist-style analysis of human relationships. Biblical justice, on the other hand, is a hierarchy rooted in God’s perfect righteousness and focuses primarily on reconciling sinners to God, which then informs how they live with others. 

Both Woke and MAGA: Counterfeit Gospels of Grievance and Pride

Yes, there’s certainly some overlap between woke and the Gospel.   But one rejected the fight for control over worldly political power structures, the other simply attempts to flip the script on current rulers. 

One chants “down with the hierarchy” whereas the other restates hierarchy with a twist: Those at the top—rather than domineer—are supposed to serve those below them in an authority that their submission to God’s will gives them.

There’s never an inner change—they believe that their own bad behavior is a justified result of the external conditions.

Woke says you are fine the way you are, change is unnecessary for you—then it demands others change to accommodate you instead.  Yes, they claim to own love and kindness, but it is only in the same way Trump believes he should be awarded a Noble Peace Prize. 

Trump is basically woke right in that he uses the same power of identity and tribal grievance to advance his political agenda.  His calling out of “fake news” and inventing his own facts is more post-modern than it is conservative.  That’s why he has turned on those principled people of his coalition, like Thomas Massie, because his own ever-changing truth is all that matters. 

Woke—like MAGA—is unmoored from historical precedent, not capable of self-awareness and eats its own the moment they doubt the rage mob.

Furthermore, Trump and DEI wokeism believe that holding position and title or just identifying yourself as something is the same thing as being it.  Trump’s presidency is increasingly rejected by those who simply cannot respect his authority as a morally compromised man who constantly lies thinking we won’t notice.  The parallel is a man who believes we should call him “ma’am” simply because he is taking sex hormones and completes having his junk removed. 

As the Turkish proverb goes, “When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus”.

Putting an unqualified person in a position only ever degrades the position.  Allowing transgender men to compete in women’s competition will not legitimize their transition.  If anything it serves to highlight the difference while dismissing the true uniqueness of the female gender.  Yes, Trump is legally the President, like I can legally become a woman, but the social contract has a vote as well and power abused to create an unreality tends to snap back like a rubber band pulled too far.

Trump and woke are just two grotesque forms of American exceptionalism.  Both are composed of people who feel entitled to special treatment and have no need to adjust themselves or their own attitudes—they believe wherever they stand is made sacred by their very presence.  It is exactly what Paula White-Cane (the ‘spiritual advisor’ of Trump) has said—anywhere she stands is “holy ground.”  That’s just narcissistic bull crap. 

White has also said, “Anyone who tells you to deny yourself is from Satan.”  Which is a direct contradiction with Jesus, in Matthew 16:24 (and Luke 9:23): “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” 

Must be her “Judeo-Christian values” that make her accuse Jesus of being from Satan?

Christianity is all about subduing the flesh and bringing our impulses under control—White, like woke, is about indulging herself and pride.  It’s no wonder there’s so much agreement between these Pulp Fiction Christians and a self-declared “chosen people” who never kept their own side of their Covenant.

MAGA uses Christian imagery, but always in this perverse manner that honors the Trump political brand and not Christ.  The shooting at the White House Correspondence dinner, for example, has already been described as God’s protective hand on Trump as if some guy in the lobby had even a remote chance of success.  Maybe we should just remember Jesus was killed and Hitler survived multiple attempts on his life?

In the end, both woke ideology and MAGA cult tribalism offer a counterfeit gospel: one of pride, grievance, and external blame rather than a life of repentance, taking personal responsibility, and genuine transformation through Christ.