In general, God demands blindness to age, ethnic group, and sex, in the sense that it assumes all humans are equal in their status of humanness. This is why a consistent biblical worldview is opposed to partiality, slavery, and abortion. Also, the biblical worldview tempers authentic justice with mercy and forgiveness. In woke social justice, this is absent as can be seen with cancel-culture’s lack of mercy and lack of forgiveness.
The world is full of injustice; monsters of men love to hurt, kill, and destroy. Christian teaching stands diametrically opposed to such injustice. Today we have something called “social justice” that seems to stand sided-by-side of biblical justice. Originally, social justice may have been authentic justice applied to society, as some argue (such as Jerry Bowyer). Now, however, the phrase has become a buzzword for the societal cult of wokness. This cult has washed over society’s largest Western institutions and is threatening the core underpinnings of our society.
First, what is the Cult of Wokeness?
This cult of wokism is born out of Critical Race Theory and often described as identity socialism, grief studies, or Culture Marxism. Critical Race Theory itself grew out of postmodern, Marxist and post-Marxist thought. While Marxism highlights the “conflict theory” of wealth disparities, wokism adds any number of other inequalities. For example, inequalities in race, sex, class, gender, age, ability, and religion are highlighted. The list goes on and on to identify inequity after inequity, and group after subgroup.
Any disparity is often explained as caused by racism (or any other “ism”). Disparities are placed in those boxes, even if they don’t fit, while other reasons for the disparities are ignored.
As in Marxism and Nazism, in woke ideology, one’s group identity is more important than one’s individual identity. Group power disparities, not individual disparities, are magnified. Groups with such power are said to be the cultural hegemony. Groups categorized as the dominant, or the hegemony, are said to be the oppressors. Groups who are said to have historically held power in Western society are said to have created systems of oppression and are the “oppressor” groups. For example, Christian, old, rich, white, male heterosexuals are the “oppressor group.” Contrariwise, the “oppressed” powerless groups consist of people who have been held back, such as young, poor, black, female and LGBTQ individuals.
A group’s moral authority is dependent upon their group’s oppression level compared with other groups. Victims are more or less “morally pure” and are less capable of doing wrong. The reverse is also true; moral guilt belongs to the oppressors. You are often viewed as intrinsically guilty if you reside in the “oppressor” groups. Remember, your moral status is based upon your group you are in, not your behavior. If someone is morally pure because sin doesn’t mean sin for them, the Gospel has been undermined and a Savior is unnecessary.
This is why leftists almost never condemn violent groups like Black Lives Matter (BLM) and Antifa. Since being black (both in skin tone and in political views, see next paragraph) means one experiences greater “oppression,” it also means your moral authority rises. If BLM and Antifa groups terrorize the streets, they are given a pass. This is why “blacks” (unless they are dark skinned conservatives or authentic Christians) can’t do bad things, even if they riot, commit vandalism, etc.
As noted above, your political views and religious affiliation will change your level of moral authority. The oppression status of a disabled, poor, black woman is stripped if she is politically conservative, a Christian, opposed to socialism, opposed to radical environmentalism, or opposed to LGBTQ behavior.
Since we as individuals have not fallen ourselves, even if in the oppressor class, the problem is social and structural. Just like in Marxism and Nazism, the solution is always the collective such as societal or state solutions. For example, I’m not racist myself, but since I’m in white (thus in the white group), I’m racist because of systemic racism. “Antiracists” like Robin DiAngelo would say that black people can’t be racists because of the group they reside in.
The more oppression groups you happen to reside in, the more moral authority you have (and vice versa). Overlapping of “inequalities” is called “intersectionality.” Think of it as a Venn Diagram of oppression or oppressor categories. For example, a Christian, white, rich man is high up on the oppressive scale because he checks so many of the “oppressor” boxes. A queer, black, disabled woman is the opposite; she is way up in the oppressed scale because of the many “oppressed” groups she resides in.
The less “oppressed” you are, the less you understand the struggles of the oppressed groups. In other words, “oppressed” groups have special knowledge and credibility that the “oppressors” don’t have. Thus, if you are in an oppressor class, you are expected to listen and empathize, but not comment. This is why people are shouted down. This is why many conservative, classical liberals and classical feminists speakers are shouted down on college campuses. A great example is the sign that went up at the so-called “George Floyd Square” in Minneapolis, Minnesota that addresses white people only. The rules for white people demanded that they “decenter” themselves (https://nypost.com/2021/04/22/sign-at-george-floyd-square-has-list-of-orders-for-white-visitors/):
