“What Christians Should Know About the New Moralism”
a review of “Woke – An Evangelical Guide to postmodernism, Liberalism, Critical Race Theory, and more” by John Stackhouse, Ph.D., 2023
Canadian Professor John Stackhouse is fully aware of the dangerous hypocrisies of the New Moralism called Woke that have recently exploded on the world scene but he wants Christians to understand the backstory so they can act constructively rather than react destructively. The backstory he outlines comes from the megatrends in philosophy over the past few centuries: From traditional societies, where elders teach traditions and use stories to pass down learning, to Modernism, where citizens seek new truths through exploration and science to adapt to accelerating changes, especially in economics and technology.
Postmodernism enters when rapid change opens society to grandiose ideologies that end in carnage and disillusionment (WW I and WW II). Postmodernism combines a fragmentation of society and knowledge into more manageable units with a deep skepticism of utopian “meta-narratives” – such as grandiose ideologies like communism and fascism. By contrast, Critical Theory follows in the tradition of Modernism – but seeking “truth” in meta-narratives of culture and identity, instead of the anti-capitalism and bourgeoisie of Marx, or the liberal principles of the Enlightenment. This may lead to progressive politics except when this politics becomes highly partisan, which is the current meaning of “woke”.
Stackhouse concludes that “Critical Theory’s basic politics are hopefully democratic, while postmodern politics (at least in theory) would be skeptically democratic” (p 23). Thus he sees nothing wrong with Critical Race Theory (CRT) in theory (pointing out possible residues of historical racism) but that as “advocacy” it has “become censorship and coercion”, hence “fiercely illiberal”. He traces part of the furor over CRT to how the US Declaration of Independence and Constitution are held as sacred: That is, a single, archaic element of racism in the Constitution (the 3/5 rule) is interpreted by CRT advocates to justify their claim that the US remains a “racist nation” even today, while to others this is an insult because it ignores both much of our history (Civil War, Civil Rights movement) and the current vastly diminished role of race.
In fact, Stackhouse worries that what we are getting from CRT is not a “humble recognition” of the racial prejudice that remains but “a malignant and arrogant insistence on perpetual race warfare”. And the larger woke agenda includes “implacably opposed conceptions of sex and gender and constant class struggle” (p 41). In particular “anti-racism” has become an insidious mandate - an accusation of racism itself if you are insufficiently anti-racist. Some even claim that this accusation applies automatically to all Americans identified as “white” by their ancestry. Stackhouse concludes that the “holy war of some activists rightly alarms many people, especially conservative-minded Christians, who would nonetheless agree with the basic concepts of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) and CRT” (p 44).
Stackhouse also takes on “politically correct speech codes” and the nasty cancel culture for inadvertent violators, while noting that “as Christians we ought to use considerate speech” (p 49) - that “increasing appreciation for ‘the other’ is good” (p 51). Another speech issue he takes on is to ask Christians to recognize democratic socialism as a viable political alternative, to be distinguished from totalitarian communism. Yet the larger danger today is a “dictatorship of the aggrieved”. That is, “the ‘oppressed group du jour’ cannot simply have everything their way” – “no society can tolerate agents working directly against it” – “they vandalize the very society that embraces them” (p 69). Here he means DEI privileges that are abused, for example, to cancel others who have legitimate differences of opinion.
In the final analysis, Stackhouse advises Christians to not be sucked into the cultural wars. This self-righteous “New Moralism” means that “we face people who are completely convinced of the correctness and importance of their views”. Remember the formula “Certainty + Importance + Conflict = Warfare”. In other words “compromise with enemies in a cultural war is impossible”. Yet “writing them off as paranoid or pathetically self-pitying means the end of our common life” (p 94). Instead just become “authentic” – lead “a quiet life, well-lived and characterized by good works indisputable to fellow citizens” (p 95). This could mean “authentic Christian communities, especially churches and families, simply live accordingly” (p 99).