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We’ve Heard All This Before
A Message from the Shenandoah Christian Alliance
By J. Jeff Toler for Shenandoah Christian Alliance j.toler@sca4christ.org
- “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” —Ephesians 6:12 (ESV)
I’ve written before about how the term woke traces its roots to Black American vernacular. Woke was coined in the 1940s as part of the speech of Black Americans fighting inequality and racism. More recently (February 2021), the term resurfaced and quickly became a trope for pundits, used to describe the full breadth of our social narrative. It is now invoked to preach level upon level of discontent against the power structure often called Cultural Hegemony. [https://mailchi.mp/040f43dd39fd/can-pastors-save-a-nation-13348239]
During the 2010s and into 2020, with the rise of movements like Black Lives Matter, woke developed into a shorthand for broad awareness of complex identity-based issues such as race, gender, and sexuality. Progressives and many liberals began promoting the idea of structural inequalities tied to personal identity. These activist groups focused debate on matters like discrimination, representation, and systemic bias.
The argument for wokism captured more and more of America’s thinking and helped shape the political narrative that America was inherently racist and sexist. This narrative expanded further when the world was shaken by the pandemic, and the Overton Window shifted in favor of wokism.
Eventually, a growing number of voices on the left began to challenge what they saw as an excessive focus on race and gender, arguing instead that class and economic inequality were being neglected. Influential critics such as Adolph Reed Jr. and politicians like Bernie Sanders argued that economic disparities cut across all identities, making class a central issue in the struggle for justice.
Critics, notably Adolph Reed Jr. and politicians like Bernie Sanders are making the claim that economic disparities cut across all identities.
This debate produced a growing tension within progressive circles, eventually splitting into two wings:
- Identity-centered progressives, who foreground cultural issues and typically find intellectual support in academia and media.
- Class-centered progressives, who prioritize economic inequality and maintain strong ties to labor unions.
By 2020, these tensions had become clear. For socialists especially, class was once again viewed as a central component of social justice.
It is ironic that this shift echoes another era more than 150 years ago, when Karl Marx published Das Kapital (Kritik der politischen Ökonomie).
Ben Shapiro
Ben Shapiro, in a recent Daily Wire editorial, explained it this way:
“One question a lot of people on the right, in the center, and even on the left are asking themselves these days is whether peak woke is over. After all, we suffered through legitimately a decade of wokeness. Wokeness being the proposition that any disparity between groups was evidence of discrimination. And this manifested as DEI. It manifested as the idea that the government had to constantly rig the system in the reverse direction. It was the Ibram X. Kendi ideology, the Robin DiAngelo ideology, that… if any group was performing less well than another group, that had to be a result of a discriminatory system.” [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7aJfNS_q1k]
Marxist thinking is still alive and well. The Democratic Party has embraced not only woke ideology but also many forms of socialism. More troubling is that America’s mediating institutions are doing the same, accelerating a generational transformation.
My abiding concern—and the reason I continue to write these essays for Understanding the Times long after my original “commission” ended—is how little effect the Christian church seems to have in confronting the degraded culture we inhabit. Confrontation is rarely, if ever, popular.
Some Reformed pastors and theologians, such as Douglas Wilson, are exceptions. Wilson belongs to a stream of Reformed leaders who refuse to compartmentalize faith and culture. He insists that Christianity speaks directly to politics, education, sexuality, economics, and art—not merely to private spirituality. For this reason, he is often cited (both positively and negatively) as an example of a pastor who brings theology into cultural warfare.
By contrast, many others prefer a Two Kingdoms approach (common in some Reformed circles), which argues the church should stick to preaching the gospel while individuals apply their faith in public life. This view insists the pulpit should not be politicized. Wilson rejects this, advocating instead for a comprehensive Christian worldview that explicitly challenges politics, education, and culture.
Evangelicals who lean toward the “Two Kingdoms” or quietist approach often see Wilson’s style as overreach. Quietism, more broadly, is not uniquely Reformed but describes Christians who avoid strong political or cultural involvement, focusing instead on personal piety and spiritual life. Those who oppose Wilson aren’t necessarily against cultural engagement, but they differ in degree, method, and tone. Wilson represents a culture-warrior model admired by some for its boldness but rejected by others as unbiblical, unwise, or counterproductive.
Personally, I would not advocate for my pastor to engage in overt political commentary from the pulpit. Church is for worship. Yet I do not doubt that he, like many pastors, is deeply concerned about how vile and destructive our culture has become. Secular rhetoric has become so extreme that it is eroding essential protections against violence and degradation. We face an existential threat, as the basic safeguards we expect from civic leaders are vanishing.
This is the work of Satan. Because Christians know—or should know—his ways, we ought to be the very people most equipped to speak truth to power, even when that power has been corrupted for evil.
Food for thought: If people can embrace the failed religious cult of communism, is it too much to hope they might welcome the true faith that has endured for thousands of years? Marx appealed to societal transformation during the Industrial Age, claiming all people were divided by wealth and class.
When Jesus entered the world—a truly brutal world—the oppressed longed for relief. By dividing time itself, He brought not only the promise of eternity but also the reality of His kingdom on earth.
It has been said that politics is downstream from culture. I would add that Christians should go upstream and offer the living water to politics. I believe it is possible to confront culture in love.
Photo by Colin Lloyd on Unsplash
