Awake, Not Woke (Part 1)

Welcome to family policy matters in engaging and informative weekly radio show and podcast produced by the North Carolina family policy Council hi this is John Rustin, presidency, family, and were grateful to have you with us for this week's program is our prayer that you will be informed, encouraged and inspired by what you hear on family policy matters and that you will fold better equipped to be a voice of persuasion for family values in your community, state and nation, and now here's our house to family policy matters. Tracy Devitt Griggs thanks for joining us this week for family policy matters must look around our society today and become discouraged by the far-reaching tentacles of radical progressive ideologies that are so pervasive and everything from schools to legislatures to communities, and even some churches. So how should Christians respond while Noel marrying a fellow at the ethics and Public policy Center, editor of the theology of home website and wife and mother of six children joins us today to discuss that and her newest book in that book is entitled awake, not woke the Christian response to the cult of progressive ideology Noel marrying welcome to family policy matters. Thank you so much right to be here okay so first of all you call this a call to so that's pretty strong language. Why do you think that's the case, we pick the word called because you think that this is more than a political movement. I think that it really is aiming to ultimately replace Christianity, not necessarily in the minds of its adherents, who are often times motivated by goodwill and justice and compassion, and rightly so.

The ideology itself takes a good motivation and introduces all sort of conclusion that are really contradictory to the faith and really started mimic the fate though, and that it's being ritualistic more closely mimic more fundamentalist kind of almost extreme cold type of religion where there is a silencing shaming very dogmatic, unreasonable, which is very different optically from what Christianity is meant to be witches united with reasoning opened the truth to protect the people not not sorry if so, it mimic the cult of those ways and I go into it more deeply in the book, but that with that sort the outline. If you think reason for that word just to back up and talk about the fact that you're not trying to say that there are injustices in the world that need to be fixed right it's just the manner by which these people are going about trying to fix injustices exactly right. So I think it really operates on Christian precepts initially and not in part why it is so confusing.

Why wanted to write the book is kind of test strips through with actually happening because we are called as Christians to walk with a marginalized walk of the oppressed walk of the suffering. Those are true and right precepts, but it it takes those good premises and then inserts ideological conclusions that ultimately kind of in a very dogmatic way to interpret what love looks like and how we help the oppressed, how we help the suffering in a way that is antithetical to the Christian method of doing that and ultimately doesn't even help the people that it mentally clean help and try to get that far more harm than good in that way and that was really my motivation for writing this so speaking of doing harm. Do you think that some Christians even made shy away from some of these very important issues because of the way that it's being presented by this woke crowd. Yeah, I think it's true, I think that there's a tendency to be reactionary, especially in today's world where things are so polarized and so divided and try to get Christian 20 really careful that we are not dismissing issues of injustice because we see it being the territory of the woke effect until completely untrue and historically inaccurate. You know the church is always advocated against injustice, and walked with the suffering.

So I don't think that we can have that response but we do have to be very careful because so much that's done in the name of justice. He saved actually social justice. You know this woke ideology.

Fundamentally, reducing people down to being totems of a group and also rejection of natural law and embodied reality ways that are very harm harmful to our culture. So we've mentioned this word woke do you know where that came from and is it as radical as says, we often hear the word woke initially arose in reference to racial injustice in the idea just being awake and attuned to the layers of oppression in society but it can be expanded to include areas and all that sort of hot button injustice issue so feminism and gender issues, sexuality, transgender issues, and it it really has become an umbrella for what I go to the book is sort of a neo-Marxist and neo-Freudian and postmodern credits do at all combined to create that sort of woke movement which is really aiming to destabilize us from body nature and also for one another. I think it fundamentally is movement of rapture. It grows through creating this right consciousness where we become aware at how much were hated or how much hatred we have a heart and then try to agitate for a revolution for social change but not social change is built on the common humanity or common narratives or shared brotherhood and sisterhood as we would want is. As Christians, but rather as a revolution that based on divisional so what you think.

The ultimate goal is of this revolution that what your conclusion on that or do you have one, I think probably depends on who you're talking to.

I kind of intimated earlier that I think you know you you might have a friend who is woke or neighbor, and aunt Susan, and they generally just want truly to alleviate the injustice in the world but if you read the literature. The goal really is far more radical. It's often times equity.

No equity of outcome unit which is more or less a Marxist principle that we can engineer society so that we have certain results without any reference to freedom of human agency in order to do that. You really have to kind of break down what human person you know this was in Maoist China solids Russia. The idea that human nature can be fundamentally deconstructed and rebuilt. According to the utopian vision and that's what I be happy with the woke movement and why this is why gender ideology is so big because that most the best, most effective tool for breaking down a person's understanding of what he or she is is to confuse them about what they are so fundamentally in the embodied reality could distance himself from the body ultimately link the body is meaningless, which we know is somebody people that that means, and therefore we are and it's really underneath it a very despairing nihilistic ideology.

I'm sure we have some young people who are listening in, and I'm often surprised when I talk about Marxism or socialism that they don't necessarily see what the problem is with that so can you talk just very briefly about why you think that's a danger if were going in that direction. I agree with you. I see that that problem to and truly other people said this before you communism should be understood to be as much of a pejorative as Nazi is that there's no reason to think that communism is any better. In fact the body count is higher so you know I think it's dangerous because we see every time it's been implemented.

The same pattern because it's an ideology is based on heart by totalizing one filter the way we see each other and in this case the lens of power that were supposed to see all human relationships call hemodynamics to the lens of power it creates this opportunity for this endless power struggle where people are suspicious of each other where they are being virtue and being hurt by someone else at two years a prompt you to look for ways in which her heart and defined virtue and moral stature.

Not it creates a culture of accusation and and every time it's been implemented into the same thing because it is built on it's only fundamental lies has to maintain power by coercion silencing propaganda because it's not fundamentally oriented toward truth and the truth is the thing that frees us to pursue were free to pursue the truth.

If we have truth is our goal. If we have powers or goal, and it becomes far more coercive farmer quickly. Okay, let's talk you talk about the harm that this ideology can do our there's certain areas of our culture and society that you find have been the most hurt so far.

Because of this whole cash having so many you know I think they wanted think they'd be that's been the most harmful is that it creates a whole host of social pathology. So in the literature over and over again will you seepage from Marxism to the woke is that the enemy to social justice is the faith in the family and you see that there is a been a real goal to break down society by through the Avenue breaking down the family.

What that does is it creates a whole host of wounds will create a whole population of wounded people because you know you encourage licentiousness in men that creates a lot of distrust and hardening calla singing women and children who are rebellious and it hurts every person in society to reduce the family this way with for the sake of revolution so I think the people are most hurt by it are probably the most vulnerable children and the children not having that fundamental stability that that can equip them to walk into the world with a competent safety knowing that they are known and loved. At the first fundamental most fundamental level, as children, and those are wounds that don't heal easily, but they also further the cause of the ideology because it's far easier to radicalize someone who is deeply rooted you play into those wounds and it's much easier to see the world as being under this oppressive place. When you have been deeply hurt and and and so then you lock into your you become like a street blowing in the winter not rooted grounded and very easy to get swept up into the things that they cannot it's not helpful and it's not only to happiness and so no I think that we have to as Christians finds a way to speak into those quotes would love also the truth and I think people are hungry for the true truth that the purpose and that's what we have to offer. So you have six children right I do. What is the oldest of the of your children.

22.

Our oldest daughter daughter 22,009. See you dealing with this. I'm sure every day of your children aren't immune from this.

So how do you suggest his parents.

What we do. What are some strategies that we could employ a great question. We we were very fortunate. By having a great school where a favor and kind buffered from a lot of the stuff, but it's impossible to be totally buffered and I think that social media should be severely restricted.

I don't let my kids do any social media told her 18 and at that point, another adult it can, you know, I think you're wondering, the most important thing to do is we have to be presenting a positive vision, so we cannot be family families that are no comprehensive or afraid of the world are sort of a crouch, you know, I fear we need to be competent in what we have to offer and teacher keep a really positive message even just to the way we lead our daily lives, which should be one that cheerful and positive and bright and encouraging family culture where we do fun things together. We have interesting conversations were honest with each other week yet we talk about these types of things that we always talk with our kids about the outsourcer cultural issues in the Chinese age-appropriate but I think that that sort of positive understanding where the lived understanding of the beauty of family life carries far more weight than just propositional understanding the importance of family. As you know that we have actually lived in body in our own families. You mentioned presenting a positive vision and then you also said you talked a lot about a cultural issue. So to that how you present difficult and ugly parts of our history and our country while also showing say the brilliance of our founding fathers. How do we go about finding that balance.

To think that's a great question in a manner that would just be prompted by something they are reading it rule or something that was happening at the news or just short of natural conversations as they came up we would try to pay attention to those what they were kind of thinking about interested in and then see how we could have a productive conversation about that.

You, my husband loves reading American history and so he would talk to with the kids a lot about just how the formation of the country founding fathers and their school was great about that to but yeah I just think organically, naturally, as things are, they may come across something you know it just floating around, either in our society about whatever is happening in the politics or just think it inquiring about what the reading at school you know that a lot of great discussion right, you mentioned education and your children's school several times. I know that my kids were in public schools when they were coming up on the grandmother now and I start to look at her parents sending her to public schools. And I don't even water in elementary schools now public elementary schools is that overstating the case are is it's is it seeping down to even the levels of kindergarten and first grade you think. I do think so and I don't think that overstating the case, and it's hard in a way to have the conversation because it feels reactionary, you know, not even hearing myself speak about it, but I do feel like it's gotten to the point where it's escalated so quickly directly to public school to it think it's very very different now and so II think that we have to be really not complacent and really aware of all rationing records are public school that there's an have to be a lot of parental involvement. As far as to let that happen and if not, I would like to if it seems to be a school where the parent bulk not welcome and I think we have to look for alternatives because it has become so agenda highest selected school is not in all schools and great teachers from different places and so there's also the nuances of qualifiers there, but but a conference because generally I would say that guy was equally wary of listening to family policy matters. This is been part one of the Tupelo program was also no will will merely be sure to tune in next week. Supposed to learn more about the nuclear family policy Council and solution to additional episodes of family policy matters.

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