One Cannot Serve God and Wokeness

More evidence that The Faith and Woke Leftism are not compatible

This post is prompted by an X thread by Ryan Burge of

Graphs about Religion

.  It begins:

Well, look at this.

Among college students who become more politically conservative, they also become more religious.

Among those who become more liberal, they become less religious.

More compelling evidence of the God Gap == there's no place for religious liberals.

While I will quibble that “Leftist” or “woke” are more accurate terms today as yesterday’s liberal is today’s conservative, and the politics of the Left have become very illiberal, I recommend you examine the thread.  I hope Burge will say more on his substack, and I may later add that at the end here if he does.

But this confirms my thinking which perhaps should come with a trigger warning because I’m sure it will offend.  So brace yourself as I will be frank.  For reality checks are needful today.  Ready?

The Faith and idolatry are not compatible.  The Faith and idolatry have never been compatible.  It’s not for nothing that idolatry was the Lord’s most frequent indictment of His people before the Exile.  It’s not for nothing that He exiled them to Babylon to punish them for and cure them of idolatry.

Today, Rightist and Centrist politics are a mixed bag.  But the politics of the Left have long been versions of the Idolatry of the State.  The Idolatry of the State in inherent in just about all Leftisms, save Anarchism.  Leftisms also tend to be totalitarian or totalitarian adjacent.  And totalitarianism is inherently idolatrous.  Add to that the overweaning influence of Critical Theory (aka wokeness) on Leftist politics today.  Wokeness is quite totalitarian.  One might say correctly that wokeness wants to control “all the things” and tear down whatever and whoever resists its control. And the idolatry of “oppressed” identities drives Critical Theories and their totalitarian predations.  Wokeness has thereby turbocharged the idolatry of Leftist politics.

So the politics of the Left today are overwhelmingly idolatry, a toxic combination of the Idolatry of the State with the totalitarian ideologies of Critical Theory.  (I am heartened to see an increasing number of people of the Left rejecting wokeness and its idolatrous demands.  I consider these principled people allies, but such remain exceptional.)

In the Old Testament, idolatry corrupted the religious practice of Israel and Judah.  And God utterly rejected such corrupted religion.  To worship God and to worship idols was not to worship Him at all.  It was to insult Him as just another god or as not good enough for His people.  The Lord would have none of it.  Nor should He as idolatry led to actual idols and evil practices, including ritual sexual immorality, even in the Temple. Outside the Temple, idolatry led even to the horrors of child sacrifice at pagan altars.

Today, churches that push Leftist politics are rarely faithful.  Many even support the child sacrifice of abortion.  Many “affirm” sexual immorality of various sorts.  Some Leftist churches and Christians may remain faithful or seem faithful for a time, but usually the inherent idolatry of Left/woke ideologies corrupts their thinking and discernment, and they eventually fall away into apostasy.

Yes, I can hear Leftist Christians now shrieking it isn’t so.  But I’ve been around and seen too much.  A Leftist Christian who remains faithful is a rare bird.  God is merciful and gracious, and we all are off in various ways.  But any kind of idolatry and The Faith do not mix.  Usually either the idolatry is repented of and cast off, or The Faith is cast off.

Now the age of the Old Testament was a time where being a “none,” where having no religion at all was unthinkable.  But today one who has given over themselves to Leftist ideologies is more likely to leave the church altogether than go to a corrupted woke church.  And in a way I cannot blame them.  If, God forbid, I ever fell away from The Faith, fake church would be utterly uninteresting to me.  I’d rather have my Sunday mornings to myself, thank you.

Now I concede I am painting with a broad brush.  And just about all Christians have sorely mistaken opinions of some sort.  I myself remained pro-abortion for a time after coming to faith.  And we all have to fight tendencies to idolatry.  A few years ago, I saw I had made chess an idol, and it was a prolonged process breaking off from that.  I have surely had worse idols than that and maybe have some now for all I know.  Yet God remains gracious and faithful even when we are less than faithful.

But now an increasing number of statistics are confirming that idolatrous woke ideologies and The Faith are not compatible.  The Christian who adopts woke politics will either eventually come to his senses and repent, or he will fall away from The Faith. I could almost put it in creedal form:

Woke politics and The Faith are not compatible.

Faithlessness today often leads to woke politics.

Woke politics usually leads to faithlessness soon.

One cannot serve God and idols.

One cannot serve God and totalitarianism.

One cannot serve God and wokeness.

If any woke Christian reads this, I have probably angered you. Know that I love you (or at least try to).  And know that you must repent for the sake not only of your neighbor but also for the sake of your own soul.