A lot of commentators have noted that just about everything seems to be religious at the moment. Whether that be lockdowns, wokeness, cancel culture – the list goes on. But why is it like that? In this video we look at a short passage from the Bible to help explain why we can’t get away from religion.
If you’d like a book which explains this in greater detail, check out Counterfeit Gods by Tim Keller, which I highly recommend.
One of the things everyone’s been talking about (well, everyone on Twitter, which is not everyone, but still) over the last month or so is “Cancel culture” and what we can do about it. This has been rumbling on for a few years now, but the thing which seemed to cause it to erupt was J.K. Rowling writing an article defending her views on sex and gender (and transgender).
This seemed to cause the internet to go into meltdown, with even people such as Daniel Radcliffe coming out to distance himself from her. This follows hard on the heels of the whole Black Lives Matter movement which I blogged about recently.
I think many people have been simply bemused as to what on earth is going on. How have we got to this point, and what can we do about it? The Christian faith offers some insights into what is going on. I don’t claim to know all the answers, but I think it helps to explain a lot of what we are seeing.
I’m not sure whether “Woke” is the right word to use, but I’ll use it because it’s nice and short. It basically means, a set of liberal-progressive beliefs which you need to hold in order to be considered ‘not a bigot’: at the moment, one of the biggest woke battlegrounds is the area of transgender – you absolutely have to believe that transmen are men, and that transwomen are women, and to question that will get you cancelled.
But it’s not limited to trans issues – you could include gay marriage and sexuality, black lives matter – even face masks are becoming something of a political battleground. (Now there’s a sentence I never thought I’d write!)
What’s interesting to me is the way that ‘wokeness’ seems to have such a religious quality to it. The ‘woke’ seem to behave in ways that people accuse fundamentalist Christians of.
For example, looking at a list of the 10 characteristics of religious fundamentalists, let’s see how many of them would apply to the ‘woke’:
Well I think this fits the “woke” fairly well, judging by (for example) the reaction to J.K. Rowling on Twitter. She received some horrible abuse for what she said. That is just one tiny example.
I don’t think that the “Woke” believe that they were chosen per se, but I think they do see themselves as the morally pure ones.
Judging by how many of J.K. Rowling’s associates (such as Daniel Radcliffe) felt the need to come out and distance themselves from her and her opinions, I think we can mark this one up as well.
I think this is also a “yes”: the “woke” do not seem willing to engage in a logical defense of their position on e.g. transgender. Most people I think would appreciate that there are nuances and that we want to care for and show love to folks with gender dysphoria. But many people have questions about the appropriateness of what’s happening with children and so on. But no – to ask questions is to be cast out.
In fact, this is what ‘cancel culture’ is all about: if you have the wrong “bigoted” views, you get cancelled. The right views must be believed at all times, by everybody – or you get cancelled. It’s like the Spanish Inquisition (and nobody expected that!)
As an aside, watch that video and try to imagine Owen Jones being one of the man who comes in and shouts “NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION”. It absolutely made my day.
So – what has caused this new religion to rise up? I think in large part it’s been caused by…
Over the last 50 years, religion in the UK (and across the whole Western world) has declined. One of the minor headline news stories last year was that in the Church of England, usual Sunday attendance dipped below one million for the first time.
We, as a society, have completely abandoned the notion of being a Christian country in any meaningful sense. Christianity is still there, in the background (as Tom Holland argued in his excellent book Dominion), but most people have very little idea about what Christianity teaches or how it’s relevant.
The problem with this is that we human beings are religious creatures. We are built to worship. I believe it was G.K. Chesterton who said, when you stop worshipping God, you don’t worship nothing – you worship anything. And I think this is what has happened: ‘woke’ beliefs have started to take the place of Christian beliefs.
Yesterday I watched a helpful video by Speak Life: Moving Beyond Cancel Culture. The whole video was helpful, but I think this analysis by Glen was the best bit:
A few years ago, “The Sacred” used to be God, “The Political” used to be politics, and “The Secular” used to be sports and entertainment. But, now God has been taken out of the picture – everything has been moved up a notch. Politics is the only sacred thing left.
It’s not very pleasant when things such as politics take the place of God, is it?
This is simply what we should expect. This is what the Bible has to say about us human beings:
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. …
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
Romans 1:18-19, 21-23
The Bible diagnoses the human condition pretty bleakly: we are constantly trying to substitute God for gods of our own creation. That may come in all shapes and forms, but as a society at the moment I think the new god is politics and ‘wokeness’. That’s why “woke” is a kind of religion, why it seems to have such a religious character.
Only, it’s not really religious – it’s a distortion – and that’s why it’s so loud, harsh and unforgiving.
So – here’s the million dollar question…
I’m going to suggest something simple and yet radical. If you want to do something about what’s going on in society, there’s a very simple solution. The problem, as I’ve shown, is largely a religious one: one religion (“woke”) is being substituted for another one (Christianity).
Therefore, if you want to take a stand against cancel culture and wokeness, you need to take a stand for Christianity: Go to church. Read the Bible. Pray. That’s … well, that’s it.
I’m being 100% serious here: in order to undo some of the nasty changes which have been happening in our society lately, we need to rediscover our Christian roots. A religious problem needs a religious solution – and we need to seek the One who can help.
This verse from the Bible has been one I’ve gone back to a lot recently, and I think it’s appropriate to end with it here:
if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14
If you’d like some help learning about Christianity, check out my site Understand the Bible. It’s for people who want to learn the Christian faith through online video sessions. It’s all free and you don’t have to commit to anything…
Earlier today I watched a fascinating interview with Laurence Fox on Triggernometry. It was an interesting interview, talking about many of the problems going on at the moment in society. I don’t want to get into all the politics and rights and wrongs of what’s happening in society at the moment, but I think many people feel that there is a real sickness and it’s getting worse.
Konstantin Kisin, one of the interviewers in Triggernometry, said the other day:
A couple of years ago, I recorded a Christmas message called “Do you fell the shadows deepen?” If that was the case back at the end of 2018, it’s even more the case in mid-2020!
The most fascinating part of the interview I watched was the part starting at 38 minutes in.
If you don’t want to watch, here’s a transcript (typed quickly by myself – so might have a few mistakes..)
Konstantin: I don’t know, man, I want to have an answer. I want to go this is what we do, then this is what we do, then this is what we do. But all I can see now as we look into the future is, how do you stop the violence in the short term? OK, you prevent the protesters from both sides getting together, that’s what you do, right? What do you do after that? What’s the next step?
Laurence: (Pointing upwards) It’s that one up there I’m afraid, it’s the only answer, whether you believe in it or not, it’s the only answer. Because, what are we gonna come out of this with? We’re certainly not going to come out of the situation we’ve just been through with a great faith in scientists (laughter) … scientists are the new estate agents. People need meaning, right?
We’ve spent a long time looking to science, we have to turn around and look to the values, the real values society was built on, and those are Judeo-Christian values, and that’s – you’ve gotta look up there, and look at what was said by him and by the people that followed him. That’s what I reckon.
And that’s not coming from a person who’s profoundly religious. I’m just going, there is a manual, they wrote a book about this before, you know, and try and bring some of those values back. There are very complex things in the Bible which are really tricky to get your head around, and they can educate.
After that the conversation moved onto other things (although Laurence did briefly return to it later on by talking about Jesus’ words “love your enemies”.
I find it intriguing that Laurence recognises that what we need is a return to Judeo-Christian values. This is what I think a number of people have begun to realise, including people like Douglas Murray and John Anderson (former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia) – to name but two examples.
What I want to say is: can you have the fruit of Judeo-Christian values, without the roots of Christianity? Can you have all the good stuff – loving your enemies, for example – without the roots of actually believing in Jesus?
One of Jesus’ most famous teachings is “love your neighbour as yourself”. A lot of people have heard of that one. What most people don’t know is that this is only the second most important commandment. Let me quote the whole section of the Bible:
Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’
Jesus replied: ‘“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’
Matthew 22:34-40
So the first greatest commandment is to love God with everything we have. Now, the question is: can you have the second commandment without the first? Can we really love our neighbour without loving God?
I think Jesus would say, no, you can’t. That’s because we need his help, we need the kind of love that only he can give. In John 15:5, Jesus says: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” I’ve been reflecting on those words a lot lately: “apart from me you can do nothing”. Jesus says that we cannot do anything apart from him. The ‘fruit’ that he talks about is the fruit of obedience to God – love.
Love is not something which we can simply work up in ourselves; it’s something which is given to us by God. If we seek him, he will give it to us.
Is it really surprising that in a society which ignores and rejects God (like ours), that it doesn’t really love? Is it really surprising that there is so little forgiveness? Is it really surprising that woke heresy hunters are cancelling anyone who doesn’t agree with them? These are the fruits of a society which has turned its back on God.
So the choice that we face as a society for the road ahead is not between Judeo-Christian values and other values. It’s deeper than that: it’s between seeking God or not seeking him. It’s not what we will choose, but who. Will we choose the Lord who made us?
if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14
As Laurence said: “There are very complex things in the Bible which are really tricky to get your head around”. If you’re struggling to make sense of the Bible, do have a look at my website Understand the Bible. It’s dedicated to helping people understand the Bible and the Christian faith from scratch (no prior experience or knowledge required). The course content is all free, there’s even a mobile app you can download to make it easier.