Wake up to Woke

They are isolated incidents, and yet they are all connected.

• In Australia the national broadcaster’s Play School program features drag queens reading to children.

• In America directors of the Lion King decide that a white man cannot sign the words of African animals for a deaf audience.

• In Canada a fashion label produces a sophisticated advertisement for euthanasia, describing it as a “beautiful end”.

• In the UK a preacher suggests Jesus might have been transgendered.

On and on it goes. It is simply relentless.

It’s easy to dismiss each of these incidents (and hundreds like them every week) as anomalies; just crazies being crazies.

And at an individual level that’s true. But something larger is at work. While all of these incidents are isolated, they are nevertheless connected.

Have you noticed that these ridiculous episodes of Woke stupidity all have common themes?

Whether in America, Canada, the UK, New Zealand or here in Australia, every example of Woketopian idiocy runs along similar lines.

Key things under relentless attack include …

• The value of art

• The sanctity of life

• The importance of law and order

• Freedom of conscience and speech

• The distinction between adults and children

• The sexual binary

These things are historically foundational to Western civilisation. They have both advanced us and protected us.

And they are all under attack.

We are living through a progressive assault on the very foundations of Western civilisation.

As a quick aside, I know some people will wonder why I did not list Christianity as one of the key things under attack. All of those things listed above arose in Western civilisation because of its Christian heritage. I would argue that if you destroy Christianity you destroy those things. But I think some people have worked out that if you destroy those things, you might just destroy Christianity. I digress.

The daily examples of Woke stupid that I bring to your attention in my daily report are really just the tip of the iceberg.

Beneath the argy bargy of these isolated examples, a strong progressive current is sweeping up everything in its path.

Woke ideas are seeping into pre-schools, schools, colleges, universities, workplaces, corporations, community groups, governments and churches.

I was at a large church in Sydney that actually paused to remember the one year anniversary of George Floyd’s death. Why? They never explained.

In another service a highly regarded pastor paused after reading the first few words of the Lord’s Prayer “Our Father …” to apologise if anyone was triggered by those words because they had a bad experience with their father.

During yet another service, during prayer time, we were told that we “stood in solidarity” with Asians in America who evidently had been subject to hate crimes. We didn’t actually pray for Asians in America. It was never explained what “standing in solidarity” meant. And I note that we never prayed for nor stood in solidarity with Nigerian Christians slaughtered in their church that same year. Was I the only one who noticed?

My son submitted an assignment earlier this year which included an acknowledgement of country at the beginning. It was worth extra marks. When I quizzed him about it, he didn’t think anything of it.

I have worked in organisations where appointments were made with consideration to the gender and colour of candidates for the sake of ticking diversity boxes. And so have you, even if you didn’t realise it.

I could go on.

These are examples at my church and school, in my world, where Woke ideas have just become part of the fabric of the culture. I don’t know how it happened. It just did. And they are rarely questioned by those involved.

Well of course not. Does a fish even know that it is wet?

My point is that you might not be interested in Woke, but Woke is interested in you.

Christian virtues are essential, but they can - and must - be embraced without the simultaneous embracing of progressive assumptions.

Don’t be emotionally blackmailed into acquiescing to every demand labelled “progress”.

If we don’t wake up to Woke soon, it will be too late.