Jesus Is Still Woke

Commentary

by

Perspectives

Baptist News Global | Jan. 20, 2025

Despite the stampede of corporations running away from any identification with diversity, equity and inclusion work, the gospel has not changed. Jesus is still woke.

In the Second Coming of Donald Trump, we’re seeing a flood of headlines declaring the death of DEI initiatives, the end of affirmative action, the demise of “woke” efforts to enfranchise minorities, the refutation of LGBTQ inclusion, the thumping of any talk of equal leadership for women, and the peril of anything deemed threatening to white males.

Not so fast.

For one thing, the rumors of this demise are exaggerated. And it is wishful thinking by people who narrowly won a battle and think they’ve won a war. Conservative evangelicals and their allies in conservative politics imagine Donald Trump won the presidency by a “landslide” and has a “mandate” for his agenda. Neither is true.

UCLA public policy and political science expert Mark Peterson: “Trump won only a plurality of the popular vote, with one of the slimmest margins in history and among the smallest electoral college wins, while the GOP’s majority in the House is among the thinnest in the past century and in the Senate well short of breaking a filibuster — all far short, too, of what Bill Clinton and Barack Obama experienced when they entered office. Perhaps the only thing empirically historic about the Trump and Republican win is the gap between the mandate claims and the actual evidence.”

“It is wishful thinking by people who narrowly won a battle and think they’ve won a war.”

Second, majorities of Americans still favor the things Trump and his MAGA minions think they have a mandate to kill off. Not that Crusaders care about public opinion.

Most important, however, the rush to turn back the clock to 1955 is no more biblical today than it was then. Even though this campaign has evangelicals as its drum major and cheerleaders, it does not follow the way of Jesus.

Jesus did not come to make us un-woke.

To be “woke” is to be awakened to the realities of injustice around us, to be concerned with the coming kingdom of God, to seek God’s kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven.”

Begin with Jesus’ opening salvo at the synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4) where he declared the purpose of his ministry: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Follow on with what Jesus did: He healed the sick, stood up for the poor, cared for widows, suffered the children to come unto him, fought the pious religious establishment, held rich people to a higher standard, elevated women and put others ahead of himself. And, by the way, didn’t say a mumbling word about gay people.

Jesus didn’t walk on earth to Make Jerusalem Great Again.

“We have been soaked in a false gospel and wrongly believe it is the truth.”

The way of Jesus is the path of loving others, including others, forgiving others, confessing sins, treating people fairly, humbling oneself. But this has not been the path of the Christian church in America from the beginning. We have been soaked in a false gospel and wrongly believe it is the truth. We have been trained from birth to read the Bible and immediately justify why we’re not able to live like that.

The call to wokeness is the call to awaken from this slumber, to admit Jesus meant what he said and to repent of slapping a Jesus sticker on baggage that is not his.

Mike Johnson and his House of Representatives can pass whatever legislation they choose, but that doesn’t mean their bills are written in the spirit of Jesus. Remember, our Savior himself explained, “Not everyone who says, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Sadly, a majority of the American church has been sold a bill of goods about what it means to follow Jesus. Squashing a “woke” agenda can’t change the words of Jesus himself.

Jesus is still woke.

Mark Wingfield serves as executive director and publisher of Baptist News Global. He is the author of Honestly: Telling the Truth About the Bible and Ourselves and Why Churches Need to Talk About Sexuality. His latest book is Troubling the Truth and Other Tales from the News.