Wokeness is a political concept that connotes an awareness of and adherence to a set of social justice and ethical norms. The constituent elements of these norms one has to adopt to be woke appear to evolve with the varying zeitgeist of collective passions and opinions of the political Left.  For example, ‘defunding the police’ did not enter woke doctrine until the June of this year, but it has quickly become one of its most potent tenets. Hence, the title of being woke must be repeatedly earned and refreshed. It is not the purpose of this article to evaluate the rightness or wrongness of woke doctrine, or even to comment on its ethical value. Our primary goal is to explore the construct of wokeness, and the act of being woke irrespective of its constituent doctrines. We bring to light surprising parallels between wokeness and traditional Judeo-Christianity.

Awakening is a Judeo-Christian phenomenon involving spiritual ‘coming-to-awareness’ of large numbers of people. Historians generally agree on four Great Awakenings that have left their indelible mark on the social and cultural landscape in America. The Old and New Testaments of the Bible count some 60 instances of  language that urges humankind to awake or arise, or to shun spiritual slumber or sleep. From such Biblical bases, preachers have called for conscious awareness and observances of various scriptural teachings. Beside the mass Awakenings, there have been, from time to time, more localized revival movements. These events are typified by a return to deeper dedicated practice, evangelistic zeal, and calls to repentance and devotion.

Each of the four Great Awakenings in the United States has impelled powerful societal movements that propelled beneficial advances. The Second Great Awakening spanning 1790 to 1840, for example, has been credited for sowing the seeds of the slavery abolition and women’s suffrage movements. The coincidental rise and participation of the African American churches in the underground railroad underscores the role that religious awakening played in pragmatic social change. Similarly, the Civil Rights movement accompanied the Fourth Great Awakening, and shared luminaries like the Reverend Martin Luther King. This confluence may best be exemplified by Dr. King’s final sermon, “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution” at the National Cathedral just four days before he was assassinated.

Wokeness shares with religious revival movements the theme of a widespread calling of people to awareness and practice of a set of precepts. However, while the various Awakenings and the sundry more localized revival movements are founded on ecclesiastical entreaty to return to overtly Biblical teachings, wokeness invokes doctrinal practices grounded in political goals. Indeed, social change is the explicit primary mission of wokeness.

The modern wokeness phenomenon has a second analog in Judeo-Christianity  — the concept of the fear of God. A God-fearing person is one who is constantly aware and observant of one’s obligation of piety and obedience toward God. Judeo-Christian God-fearingness is grounded in personal belief in, and a commitment to moment-by-moment devotion to, an omnipresent and omniscient Deity. Wokeness, likewise, requires constant circumspection with respect to the set of beliefs and duties owed to the woke canon.

There are, however, notable differences between God-fearingness and wokeness. First, while God-fearingness may include externally observable practices such as regular church/synagogue-going and participation, acts of benevolence, and adherence to moral rules, they are typically not subject to external policing. In Roman Catholicism, for example, the Fear of God is one of seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. In his June 11, 2014 St. Peter’s Square address, Pope Francis explained: “Fear of the Lord is an ‘alarm.’ When a person is not on the right path, … the holy fear of God draws his attention: You will not be happy like this, this way you will end badly.” It serves as a personal reminder, and it is in the purview of the individual to respond to this awareness. Formal ecclesiastical censures are extremely rare, and reserved only for exceptionally egregious public offences.

Wokeness, on the other hand, is associated with a strong interest in external accountability and enforcement through the allied punishments of the cancel culture. The threshold for this enforcement may be a single tweet or recalcitrant statement. The most recent “Silence is Violence” wokeness precept demands overt assent to the values of Black Lives Matters. Some proponents even took their protests into restaurants. They surrounded tables and allowed patrons to proceed with their meals only if they raised a fist as a woke expression.

Second, the constituent observances of Judeo-Christian God-fearingness tend to be based on settled doctrine or are established through clear ecclesiastical processes. Indeed, God-fearingness would be untenable if moral rules were fungible. This is why Judeo-Christianity celebrates the idea that God makes His law known. The proposition of trying to satisfy an all-knowing God with unknown or changing demands is terrifying.

Wokeness, conversely, amalgamates the interweaving interests of an evolving social movement in the age of the Internet with the religious aspects of demanding fealty and constant circumspection. Hence, the precepts of wokeness are constantly evolving in response to precipitating events in society. The ‘Green New Deal’ entered the woke canon through a political announcement; ‘Believe all women’ emerged with the #MeToo movement triggered by the publication of Ronin Farrow’s exposé; and, ‘Defund the Police’ and the taboo of saying ‘Blue Lives Matter’ materialized out of the alleged abuse by law enforcement in Minneapolis. Anticipating the next big woke article of faith is as much a science as predicting what video will go viral next in social media. To be woke, one has to be constantly aware of the evolving moral trends and adjust one’s practice to keep up.

It may seem ironic that wokeness would mirror so well the practices of Judeo-Christianity whose global influence coincides with the spread of the Euro-Caucasio culture over the last half millennium. A key precept, after all, in the canon of wokeness is a rejection of ‘white privilege’ and its concomitant traditions and values. However, the similarity is not at all surprising. Every socio-cultural development arises out of a backdrop of the history and experience of its cultural context. It is inevitable that wokeness would mimic the practices of the broader religious traditions in the United States that bears the deep imprint of its historically dominant Judeo-Christian influence. Of course, whether or not wokeness will become the new dominant religion that governs our national conscience is open to the adjudication of history.

Copyright. Francis Quek, August 24, 2020. Rights to disseminate with attribution freely granted to all.