Unclearly Woke
By biblical standards, which loom over the whole “wokeness” issue, the immoral liberals are guilty of some things, while the immoral conservatives are guilty of others. The liberals (which include the “woke”) know this and constantly accuse the latter of a hypocrisy which the conservatives, for their part, do not deal with as they should.
The difference between the liberal and the conservative transgressor (broadly speaking) is that the latter claims to submit to law imposed by God—if he is a Christian, in obedience to Christ—which the liberal knows but does not recognize. The theist, with his profession of this law, operates within it to accuse himself and others of its transgression. If, however, in his opposition to his liberal counterpart, he begins to qualify the teachings of a sanctified conscience about his own sin, he has in fact crossed a critical line and become what he hates in his enemies—a functional liberal—his own god and his own law. He does not typically reject his religion in that case, but clasps it to himself as an excuse for his own transgression: Deus lo vult!
This is the sort of person, I believe, to whom James Lindsay refers when he speaks of woke conservatism. Lindsay is an atheist, at least of sorts, so he is not well-equipped to perceive the stark frontier between the religious conservative as a political creature and “conservative wokeness,” which would appear to such people, I presume, more as a declivity than as a chasm—simply the same thing with greater intensity.
The problem with using “woke” to describe an intransigent religious right wing is that this stock is borrowed from a foreign store, and so is confusing to people who are used to seeing it there and not here. The analogy implied by it is not entirely wrong, but unclear.
S. M. Hutchens is a senior editor and longtime writer for Touchstone.
A Journal of Mere Christianity—Delivered to Your Door
- Essays on theology, culture, and the Church
- Contributors from across the Christian traditions
Six print issues (one year) of Touchstone, plus full online access and PDF downloads for only $39.95.
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95.
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more from the online archives
26.5—Sept/Oct 2013
The Perils of Pragmatism in Christian Attitudes Toward the Liberal Arts by Robin Phillips
14.1—January/February 2001
The Christian Heart of Fatherhood
The Place of Marriage, Authority & Service in the Recovery of Fatherhood by John M. Haas
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
