About Woke Church Leaders

and opposing them

First, I am thankful for the many visitors to my new substack who read my post on the attack on Larry Elder and on the woke silence about said attack. 

For those wondering, I am not surprised that the California recall effort fell short.  I am surprised by the margin, about 64%-36% last I looked, and, yes, I do think that margin strains credulity.

But I am not posting to write about that result.  I would like to encourage readers to visit Stand Firm if you have not already, look around, and read my posts there while you are at it.  As you’ll see, I have written a lot for them the past two years.

Part of my writing there has been my Totalitarian Moments series.  Long before the election *cough* of Biden, I noticed trends in government and society that reminded me too much of history under 20th Century totalitarianism.  So I thought it would be good to remind readers of some of that history.  I usually picked episodes that were too much like today.

One of my moments, “Bonhoeffer vs. the Aryan Paragraph”, dealt with “German Christians” collaborating with the Nazi government and its anti-semitism.  I also noted the courageous opposition of Dietrich Bonhoeffer among others. 

I could have picked other times in the 20th Century when church leaders collaborated with totalitarians.  I have bad memories of seeing what was my denomination and other mainline denominations becoming tools of the Soviet Union and other Communists.  (In case one thinks I am being overwrought, here’s some history of the National Council of Churches.)

Today, to my grief, I see even evangelicals – perhaps I should say especially evangelicals – becoming mouthpieces of wokeness, a collection of ideologies with disturbing totalitarian streaks.  I think we need Bonhoeffers today to stand up and say this is not acceptable, and we will not be in fellowship with leaders and teachers who so abuse the church and so pervert the Christian message to push such evil on us Christians and on society.

Readers may find my comparison of woke churchers with German Christians entirely unfair.  In a way, I agree.  The German Christians were likely under much more pressure to collaborate with a totalitarian ideology than woke churchers today. 

Anyway, readers may find my Stand Firm post, “Bonhoeffer vs. the Aryan Paragraph”, along with the rest of the Totalitarian Moments series, relevant – too relevant.