People talk about wokeism today as if it is dead and gone. Trump’s re-election and subsequent dismantling of many of its elements have created the false sense that it will soon be a thing of the past.
But this is short-sighted and foolish.
Wokeism will survive, and its power over believers will be decided, not by elections or laws, but by repentance and obedience.
This article will explain why wokeism is sure to endure, the ways it will change to move forward, and how believers should respond to its present decline.
The Survival of Wokeism
Here are several reasons wokeism will survive:
It has millions of adherents. Kamala Harris received 75 million votes in the 2024 election. That is nearly half the popular vote (48.3%) and one third of the adult population in the U.S. These people did not just disappear.
Its adherents are true believers. Imagine the election had gone the other way. Would you have just abandoned your convictions because your candidate did not win? Of course, you wouldn’t have. Then why would you expect the other side would?
Major components of it are still in place. Wokeism is propelled by institutions like the K-12 and university systems, federal and state governments, entertainment and social media, and big business. In many cases, Trump’s policies have limited or discouraged further overt woke activities in these sectors, but they have not eliminated them. Furthermore, when a woke administration returns to the White House, many of the institutions that have abandoned wokeism will quickly take it up again.[1]
Many of its strategies have been successfully used by Satan since the beginning. Wokeism uses threats, retaliation, manipulation, and indoctrination to control and oppress people. Satan has used these tactics since the Garden of Eden, and he is not about to relinquish his most effective weapons because of a single failed election.
An Altered Strategy for a New Situation
All of this is not to say that wokeism will not change. Leaders of this movement are clever, and they will retool and rebrand their cause to move it forward. How are they likely to do that? Consider a few ways:
Shift the names of its activities. Changing names allows an idea to endure without its prior baggage. Think of “pro-choice” instead of “abortionist,” “gay” instead of “homosexual,” and “transgender” instead of “transvestite.” For this reason, hot button woke terms like “gender,” “equity,” “social justice,” and "DEI" may end up with new names in the future.
Become less in-your-face and more insidious. One reason for the backlash against wokeism is that it has been too direct. Liberals overestimated the American people's appetite for their ideas. They will not make this mistake twice, so look for them to carry out their dirty deeds in more of an under-the-radar fashion in the future.
Double down in their areas of strength. The most powerful weapon the godless have is the educational system, both K-12 and university. To be sure, these institutions have come under fire for their woke ideas, but the changes that will be made because of this criticism will likely be minor in the grand scheme of things. After the dust settles, look for activists to up their indoctrination game with our children and young adults.
Create fear to regain power. The American public is easily led by fear. Because of this, woke activists will use every negative news account, negative economic report, tragedy, and disaster to criticize the current administration and stir up fear about the future. They will then use this fear to position themselves as the only ones who can remove it.
How should believers respond?
My greatest concern with the euphoria stemming from wokeism’s decline is that Christians will misunderstand its meaning. Most believers see this as a blessing from God to protect his innocent, helpless people. But this is the wrong conclusion to draw.
The temporary reprieve of wokeism is not a sign of God’s pleasure with his people; it is an act of mercy shown to a church that is under his judgment.
God has been showing his displeasure with American believers for decades. He has closed our churches, eroded our rights, and raised up powerful enemies to persecute us. Events of recent weeks have not changed that.
Our first response, then, is to wake up and repent.
What do we have to repent for?
Our sins are legion. American Christians support homosexual marriage and ordain homosexual ministers; sleep together out of wedlock, divorce, watch porn, murder unwanted babies; refuse to evangelize, refuse to care for the poor, and refuse to stand for the truth.
Our sermons are irrelevant, our pulpits are impotent, our leaders are cowards. And, if all of that were not enough, we are some of the biggest supporters of woke ideas in the entire country.
I have spent a great deal of time documenting the areas in which the American church has failed the Lord. For more detail on these failures, see the following resources:
What to do after repentance
Repentance is the starting point for our response, but it is not the end. Once it is offered, I recommend two additional steps.
Strive for full obedience as a church. Most churches are not even aware of the full scope of what Christ requires them to do as a congregation. This makes their obedience partial at best, a situation that must be reversed if we are to experience the Lord’s favor again. To help churches understand their full work, I developed a model called the “7 Pillars of the Church.” Space does not permit a full discussion of those pillars here, but you can learn more about them by consulting these resources:
Get ahead of the plans of evildoers. The American church is perpetually behind the strategies and actions of the wicked, responding to their lies and attacks instead of staying ahead of them. This keeps us in disarray and allows our enemies to advance by leaps and bounds before we even know what is happening. The setback wokeism is presently experiencing provides an opportunity for us not only to catch up but also to get out in front, stunting their future efforts before they even start. How do we do this? Counter existing woke ideas with biblical truth. We must thoroughly address current woke ideas in our Sunday services, Sunday school programs, youth groups, colleges, and seminaries. These include social justice, transgenderism, homosexuality, socialism, climate alarmism, abortion, gambling, and marijuana legalization. Our goal here should be to have our people so well trained in the Bible’s truth in these areas that the future efforts of the godless cannot sway them. For more on these topics, see the following resources:
Get ahead of their plans. We must then get out in front of them by teaching the truth on issues they are likely to take up in the future. These include legalized prostitution, polygamy, assisted suicide, and psychedelic drug legalization (like Magic Mushrooms). Doing this will make it more difficult for them to gain a foothold in these areas in the coming years. For more on these issues, see the following resources:
Conclusion
Despite popular belief, wokeism is not dead, and it will return in the future with vigor if believers do not respond appropriately. Doing that means understanding that its decline is an act of God's mercy toward a disobedient church, and, because of that mercy, respond in repentance and obedience. Only after we do this can we begin to wisely preparation for wokeism’s future advances.
Notes:
[1] Why would I say this? Because the institutions that are shedding wokeism at present do so out of either force or self-interest. For those same reasons, they will go back to it in the future if a woke administration returns to power.