“White people should be less white.” “Whiteness is white supremacy.” “Silence is violence.” “You can never overcome your racism.”You’ve heard these baffling views—but do you know where they come from? The “wokeness” that emerged from the social unrest of 2020 has swept through schools, businesses, and even sports. Driven by the radical ideologies of Critical Race Theory and intersectionality, it has destabilized public and private life—including the Church.Many evangelicals have joined the crusade. Gripped by a desire for justice and rightly grieved by past evils like slavery, many pastors are preaching the woke gospel—identifying “whiteness” (an imaginary concept) with “white supremacy,” calling bewildered Christians to repent of their supposed guilt for the sins of past generations.But as theologian Owen Strachan makes clear, this is not true justice, nor is it true Christianity. While wokeness employs biblical vocabulary and concepts, it is an alternative religion, far from Christianity in both its methods and its fruit. A potent blend of racism, paganism, and grievance, wokeness encourages “partiality” and undermines the unifying work of the Holy Spirit. It is not simply not the Gospel; it is anti-Gospel.As Strachan traces the origins of wokeness, lays out its premises, and follows them to their logical conclusions, the contrast of that false faith with the Word of God stands out unmistakably. This succinct but groundbreaking work reveals that wokeness, like other heresies, is not really new. Nor is the antidote: Christ crucified for us.
