The Fault Line of Woke

There are some serious, if not dangerous, fault lines in American discourse these days.  Some have been around for decades – notably attitudes toward guns and abortion;  and we take care to avoid these issues or tread lightly around them in conversation with people who come at them from the other side.  But a new crevasse has cracked into our culture in the past several years:  being woke.  And more and more people seem to have something to say about it.  For some, being woke is a badge of honor, in that one is open (awakened) to new ideas, insights and perspectives.  For others, woke is regarded as an ideological hammer, brought down on people who hold onto traditional notions of patriotism, religion and history.  In her response to the State of the Union address last week, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas derided the President’s “woke fantasies”, suggesting that Mr. Biden does not live in the real world, and refuses to adequately honor the legacy of those who have fought for freedom.

The woke and non-woke are digging in and doubling down — and hurling nastiness across the growing divide.

There are many days when I pride myself on being woke.  That I am enlightened, and open – and can see that the country we live in does not provide a level playing field.  And there are occasional moments on those days when I diminish – or dismiss, people who are unable – or unwilling, to see the inequities that are baked into our society.  And when I do that (and I know I am not alone in this), the fault line deepens and becomes ever wider.

A friend and colleague reminded me recently of the faith and brilliance of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945).  A  German theologian, Bonhoeffer came to this country for a short time in 1939 to teach, but returned to his homeland after a few weeks to offer his wisdom and commitment to thwart the advancing menace of the Third Reich.  In a letter to Reinhold Niebuhr, who was then America’s most prominent theologian, Bonhoeffer explained his decision to return to Germany:

  “I have come to the conclusion that I made a mistake in coming to America. I must live through this difficult period in our national history with the people of Germany. I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people … Christians in Germany will have to face the terrible alternative of either willing the defeat of their nation in order that Christian civilization may survive or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying civilization. I know which of these alternatives I must choose but I cannot make that choice from security.” 

Committed to nonviolence and peaceful protest, he nevertheless participated in a plot to kill Hitler.  He was arrested in 1943 and was hanged just a few weeks before Germany surrendered.

Bonhoeffer challenged people to be awake, which for him meant to live without illusion.  He encouraged people to open their eyes to the stark reality of a murderous machine, and to confess a faith that was committed to justice, rather than acquiesce to the dictates of a totalitarian state.  For Bonhoeffer, being awake involved engaged in a discipline of removing illusions.  Nearly eighty years later, as “wokeness” becomes another issue in an expanding culture war, those who claim to be woke need to recognize the illusion of having “arrived” – of claiming moral superiority; and those who denounce wokeness need to recognize the illusion of airbrushing out moments of history and denying examples of injustice that are not aligned with one’s preferred world view.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer could have remained in the United States.  He would have been safe.  But he recognized that his need for security would blind him to the stark reality of the world.  He worked at confronting, naming, and then discarding, his illusions. He followed the call to be awake, which for Bonhoeffer — and for us, is an ongoing exercise.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

 

.

 

 

Recent Posts

Intellectual Scrutiny vs. Religious Expression

Intellectual Scrutiny vs. Religious Expression

“While in college, his Jesuit formation did not stand up to intellectual scrutiny.”  So said the introduction to my college’s new president in the Alumni magazine published several decades ago.  Intellectual rigor won out over religious expression.  Again. By the time...

Survival of the Fittest and Silicon Valley Bank

Survival of the Fittest and Silicon Valley Bank

Survival of the fittest is an adage that has long been planted in our psyches.  The phrase emerged as a terse summary of Charles Darwin's findings that the strongest and fittest of a species have the best chance of passing their genes on to the next generation.  The...

The World As it Is vs. the World As it Should Be

The World As it Is vs. the World As it Should Be

It is a tension that has confounded people for centuries:  ‘the world as it is’ vs. ‘the world as it should be’.   Most people make some commitment to doing something that will help bring about the world as it should be, but their commitment may falter, or may even be...

Pride:  a Refusal to Accept our Limitations

Pride: a Refusal to Accept our Limitations

I have not been one who has subscribed to the notion of original sin, which is the legacy Christians have inherited from Adam and Eve, whom the Judeo-Christian tradition have identified as the first man and first woman.  We meet them in the Garden of Eden, which is...

The Journey From the Ego to the Soul

The Journey From the Ego to the Soul

The fear mongers and the anger entrepreneurs are ubiquitous. Their messages — on air, screen or in print, are intended to arouse the ego and trigger a reaction. Fill us with resentment, indignation or fear. Concepts and issues that had once invited conversation are...

Intellectual Scrutiny vs. Religious Expression

“While in college, his Jesuit formation did not stand up to intellectual scrutiny.”  So said the introduction to my college’s new president in the Alumni magazine published several decades ago.  Intellectual rigor won out over religious expression.  Again. By the time...

Survival of the Fittest and Silicon Valley Bank

Survival of the fittest is an adage that has long been planted in our psyches.  The phrase emerged as a terse summary of Charles Darwin's findings that the strongest and fittest of a species have the best chance of passing their genes on to the next generation.  The...

The World As it Is vs. the World As it Should Be

It is a tension that has confounded people for centuries:  ‘the world as it is’ vs. ‘the world as it should be’.   Most people make some commitment to doing something that will help bring about the world as it should be, but their commitment may falter, or may even be...

Pride: a Refusal to Accept our Limitations

I have not been one who has subscribed to the notion of original sin, which is the legacy Christians have inherited from Adam and Eve, whom the Judeo-Christian tradition have identified as the first man and first woman.  We meet them in the Garden of Eden, which is...

The Journey From the Ego to the Soul

The fear mongers and the anger entrepreneurs are ubiquitous. Their messages — on air, screen or in print, are intended to arouse the ego and trigger a reaction. Fill us with resentment, indignation or fear. Concepts and issues that had once invited conversation are...

The Disabling Debate on Freedom of Speech

Free speech, which most people in America recognize as a fundamental right, is undergoing endless and painful scrutiny these days.  What opinions should be allowed – or prohibited, on Facebook or Twitter?  When do stated certain political or religious convictions...

The Killing of Tyre Nichols: An Eruption of Violence

If you haven’t seen the video, you certainly have heard about the savage beating of Tyre Nichols, which led to his death,  murder charges brought against five Memphis police offers who carried out the atrocity, and their subsequent firing. Brutal, horrific, evil.  And...

The Confounding Paradox of the Gun Divide

In the wake of 40 mass shootings so far this January, I am struck by – and stuck on, some paradoxical statements that have echoes in different parts of the country.  The first, from Shannon Watts, who is the founder of Moms Demand Action, a gun violence prevention...

Dr. Martin Luther King: Joining Holiness and Justice

Our country pauses today to honor the memory and challenge of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  We remember him as a prophet for civil rights who, throughout his public ministry, dared to bend the arc of history toward justice. But it didn’t start out that way.  As...

Lament: A More Effective Way to Deal with Outrage

Like most of us, my first reaction upon hearing of a six-year-old boy shooting his teacher with a gun at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, was outrage.  How can a six-year-old get a gun?  How does he know how to use it?  How is he supervised?  How...
Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Join my mailing list to receive the latest blog updates.

You have Successfully Subscribed!