Embracing Wokeness Excludes Oneself from God

Parents need to be wary of their kids getting advice and being influenced from the world – aka the culture/society. Social media, the news media, government-run school systems, the entertainment industry, and immoral or ill-informed celebrities and athletes are society’s dominant sources of influence, especially for children, teens, and young adults. They all to one degree or another promote an ideology that mimics Christianity by perverting the Truth which Jesus teaches and falsely claiming a show of compassion to the marginalized. In reality, this ideology the world is promoting – referred to as “wokeness” – harms more than helps and creates division not only among friends and families but from God.

The popularized slang word “woke” might be best defined as a socio-political ideology that manipulates noble goals, exaggerates political correctness, and has as its evil culmination the destruction of our traditional, Judeo-Christian society. To be woke is to be in direct opposition to authentic Christianity. Wokeness has become its own counterfeit religion. It is cult-like in how deep people who are woke have gotten themselves imbedded in a belief system that rejects Jesus – the genuine way, truth, and life – and in its place embraces the falsity that it is best for each of us to live by so-called “one’s truth.”

A woke person fears society’s rejection so will comply with whatever the popular culture does and believes as a way to show compliance and to avoid being rejected by the world. Someone who is woke is said to be “virtue signaling” when he or she says politically-correct things and displays so-called tolerance with an ulterior motive of looking good in the eyes of peers. Be it a fear of ostracism or a desire to be part of the “in crowd,” what these woke, virtue-signaling people are actually doing are showing that they dread losing acceptance by the world more than they worry about losing a relationship with their God.

You might be able to spot a virtue-signaler simply by noting if she has a so-called pride flag or Ukraine flag on her social media account, has a “coexist” bumper sticker on her electric car, wears a facemask when outdoors, or introduces himself with “he/him” pronouns (even though he’s always been a heterosexual). 

Social media is one of the biggest contributors to the increase in one’s wokeness depending on what sites and sources are used when scrolling on the web. That is why it is a good idea for us to choose conservative sources for news and entertainment and limit the sites we follow on Instagram/Facebook/Twitter (X) to like-minded people and groups. Woke ideology will seep into our lives if we spend too much time on the internet or watching TV without smartly discriminating what we read, watch, and listen to. This is especially vital for any preteens or teens, as their excessive and improper use of social media has been the biggest booster of wokeness and its accompanying negative effects which include depression, suicide, overdoses, anxiety, addiction, and gender dysphoria.

As important as cutting back on exposure to the woke culture, we should strengthen our relationship with Our Lord by adding to our schedule weekly Mass attendance and daily prayer time. By doing so, we will be cutting down on the time we spend with virtual exposure to secular society which will lead to increasing our inner peace and improving our mental health. 

Another way to push against the woke culture is to refuse to go along with their reworking of definitions and false choice of words. Authentic Catholics should be truthful by using proper terminology themselves and by correcting others in a conversation it they are using woke-created, made-up terms. Some of the more common examples are:

• Don’t say “my truth” … say “the truth” (but if it’s just a person’s feelings, then don’t claim it’s “truth” at all);
• Don’t say “gender affirming care” … say “child mutilation and sterilization for profit”;
• Don’t say “family friendly drag show” and “drag queen story hour” … say “pedophile dance party” and “children’s strip show”;
• Don’t say “identifies as” … say “is delusional by pretending to be”;
• Don’t say “transgender woman” … say “man who is pretending he is a woman”;
• Don’t say “transgender man” … say “woman who is pretending she is a man”;
• Don’t say “reproductive rights” … say “infanticide”;
• Don’t say “pro-choice” … say “supporter of murder”;
• Don’t say “undocumented” … say “illegal”.

Catholics will better be able to resist wokeness and not give in to social pressures and media hype that the world pushes by having strong bonds with like-minded families and friendships and by finding a Church community led by an authentic shepherd and filled with faithful believers. For families with children, these bonds are extremely necessary so your kids will see that there are other families like them, thereby reducing the possibility they will want to seek out popular culture and woke friends. Similarly, knowing enrolling your kids in a public school will greatly speed up their exposure to immoral, profane peers and secular, manipulative information, parents must choose homeschooling or an orthodox Catholic school to significantly improve their youngsters’ chances of staying faithful, innocent, and well grounded.

Parents must consistently speak up over the woke world’s negative, lying voices which are so loud and prevalent nowadays, so that their children will clearly hear Jesus’s words and not the fabrications coming from non-Christian or perverted influencers, such as Megan Rapinoe, JoJo Siwa, or so-called gay pride promoters. Youngsters need to be educated that it’s not just mom and dad urging moral, principled living but that Jesus Himself said God will keep people from heaven if they follow lies from the world.

“Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” (Matthew 7:13-15)

It is a good idea for parents to pray nightly before going to bed that God guards their children’s minds from the harmful lies of the world, grants their youngsters discernment to distinguish truth from woke, and makes them strong and courageous so to be able to withstand societal pressure. Here is one example of a fundamental prayer that is worth mom and dad praying on a regular basis.

Authentically Christian parents realize they are duty-bound to warn their sons and daughters that unending punishment looms for those who ignore the truths Christ preached. Embracing wokeness by placing the approval of society higher than the approval of the Almighty may win one so-called friends this year, but our focus needs to be on our future eternity. Inform your children that refusing to join their virtue-signaling peers and the woke culture may cause them to experience some ostracism or loneliness at times, but turning to the Lord will help them to not lose sight of the fact that worldly things and our earthly home are only temporary. There is a more essential eternal reward we all should desire.