The controversy over “wokeness” has been a very prominent part of modern society throughout the last several years. In recent times, it emerged with a vengeance with the #MeToo movement. This really took off with the Harvey Weinstein sexual misconduct scandal where women, at a grassroots level, began to push back against sexual exploitation. Following that, it began spreading into other areas such as race and gender. The racial component manifested itself in the DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) and Critical Race Theory movements. The gender component has primarily been centered around the gay and transgender issue.
Many people have the impression that the “woke” debate going on in society these days is primarily about competing versions of morality. It definitely does have moral implications, but the underlying issue is not so much about morality as it is about reality. That is, the reason people have differing beliefs about morality is because they have differing views about the nature of reality itself. Now, that may sound a little philosophical, but stick with me for a moment.
One of the things that has happened is that, over time, the “woke” phenomenon has been taken to such an extreme that half the population was being accused of being immoral for holding traditional values about family and Christian morality, and/or because of their race. It ultimately got bad enough that people who held traditional values had enough and started pushing back with a vengeance. This is now resulting in many companies, educational institutions, and individuals backing off of the more extreme “woke” expressions.
But even though the tide seems to be turning to an extent, the “woke” mindset is still quite strong in some areas. Recently a socialist Chicago city council member made the public comment that it is “racist” to punish criminals, and that America is a “garbage society” (https://www.foxnews.com/media/socialist-chicago-council-member-says-racist-punish-criminals-america-garbage-society). Rossana Rodriguez is on board with the “defund the police” movement and believes it is immoral to arrest and incarcerate people who commit crimes.
While this is truly shocking to most of society’s citizens, based on her mindset it is a perfectly logical point of view. To her, this is actually a race issue. Her reasoning is that the majority of people who commit crimes and get arrested are people of color. Based on her thinking, that is because “white people are ahead in the game” (have an unfair advantage), which is inherently unfair. Her remedy is not to promote a color-blind society where individuals are held responsible for their own actions, but to tear down the “white dominated culture” and elevate the minorities who are being oppressed. For her, it has nothing to do with people’s actions, and everything to do with race. So, to her, promoting safe streets and equal justice under the law is “racist.”
So exactly where does that kind of thinking come from? I mentioned earlier that it was not primarily a matter of competing views of morality, rather competing views of reality.
Rodriguez is a committed Socialist. Socialism is an expression of Marxism, which is based on a naturalistic worldview. Naturalism is the belief that the natural universe, operating by natural laws, is all that exists. In other words, it is atheistic. As an atheistic belief, it views human beings as purely natural creatures whose main purpose in life is survival (on a macro level) and personal fulfillment (on a micro level). And since they do not believe in a God who can reveal right morality, their moral beliefs are sourced from their own personal opinion. If their opinion is in conflict with the opinions of others, the strongest get their way.
Most of those pushing back against the “woke” ideology, on the other hand, have an entirely different way that they look at reality. The great majority of those people look at things based on a biblical worldview. They believe in an objectively real God who has revealed to mankind what is true and right.
According to their beliefs, there is such a thing as objective morality. With that, a person can definitively say something is right or wrong. It is not dependent upon the personal preferences of individuals, and right is not determined by brute power.
According to biblical beliefs, justice is not based on collectivist ideology. It is not determined by what group a person is a part of, but is a direct result of individual actions being evaluated based on objective criteria. Put in the context of this discussion, the morality of the exercise of justice is not based on one’s race, but on the actions they take in life. A person is not unjust because they are white (or any other color), but because they did something that goes against a standard of justice.
In society, that means justice is carried out by judging people according to how they keep civil law. In God’s eyes, it is determined by how they relate to God’s standards. Justice is not in the eye of the beholder. God created the world to exist in a particular way, and that way is understood only based on biblical worldview concepts.