Woke stands for an awakening that one has become aware of. It has its background in African-American slang and comes from the word awake. Much like in the days of revival, people were talking about someone who has been awakened, that is, someone who has woken up from their slumber about God and now understands the seriousness of sin and the sweetness of the gospel.

Today, another awakening is at the center. It is about awareness of oppression and injustice between different groups, focusing on race, gender, and sexuality.

Think of a class reunion or a conversation about the former community in the youth group. When someone tells about their experience of being invisible and ignored, the others can suddenly realize something that was going on all the time but that they had not previously perceived. There is an awakening, and you see something that has always been visible but that has once fallen outside your self-absorbed field of vision.

This is one of our great human shortcomings based on the Christian faith. We can even ignore the most crucial fact of reality, disregard God, and ignore our obvious needs for Him. The New Testament uses strong words about the fallen man and describes us as blinded and darkened. So we certainly need to wake up from our deep slumber – both to God and to our fellow human beings – and we need to humbly realize our ability to deceive ourselves and lose sight of reality.

Awakening is needed!

But our problems do not end there; they also follow us after an awakening. Those who have gained a new insight – those who have seen the light – are tempted to look down on those who are still blinded and often let the wisdom they have just acquired cast a shadow over new areas. You go from one eye to another, from one denial to another.

This is characteristic of the new woke culture, tearing apart so much of Western civilization. Those who have become aware also perceive themselves as superior and therefore do not have to condescend to take the blinded seriously. The result is a polarized and aggressive debate climate.

All factual objections can be rejected by considering them as ill-masked ways of continuing the oppression. Therefore, complaints should be ignored and silenced, not addressed. People you disagree with should be regarded as evil and put in ideological quarantine if possible.

Pride ideology is currently the most current example of this. All critical discussion can end with an accusation of oppression of minorities.

The phenomenon is not new. Within the Marxist movement, there was the same mentality. It could be interpreted as the ruling class’s attempt to retain power, whatever critics said. All arguments were woven into an analysis of power, and thus the issues could be set aside. But in the long run, this leads to the oppressed becoming the new oppressors.

Freud’s theory also contained similar features. Each objection could be turned into a disguised confirmation of the idea – which thus became inaccessible to factual debate.

Issues of racism, gender, and sexuality are essential issues, and we need to debate them. But no one can claim to have seen everything that can be seen in those areas. We all have more to learn from each other.

This can only happen if we start listening to each other instead of despising and trying to silence each other.