Pursuing Christ alone

One of the accounts I follow on X is called Exploding Heads. It offers a satirical take on the way we interact with the news, and has a great character called ‘Colin from Portsmouth’ who constantly phones into a radio station to express outrage about the state of the country.

One of the funniest sketches involves him shouting out a ‘list of woke things’ to the bemused radio host, all of which pose a ‘threat to Western civilisation’. They include: The Guardian, the British Army nowadays, almond milk, ‘King Prince Charles’, and the laws of physics.

The British are great at using comedy to take the edge off situations that really rile people, and this provides an important safety valve amidst the rising culture war between left-wing ‘woke agendas’ and ‘traditional values’ of the right.

The Collins Dictionary defines ‘woke’ as being ‘very aware of social and political unfairness’. It is concerned with challenging ingrained injustices and seeking a fairer society for those it perceives as downtrodden or oppressed. These issues are often taken up by people on the left of the political spectrum, including many Christians seeking to pursue social justice.

However, many on the right fear that this is a concerted plot to overturn a British way of life, for example by redefining gender and reinterpreting our colonial past. Many evangelical Christians share a concern that this is part of an attack on Christianity and its values, and have thus taken a stance against ‘wokeism’.

But I would warn Christians against picking a side in this war. Both ‘wokeism’ and ‘anti-wokeism’ have taken on a pseudo-religious status. They each come with a package of beliefs, with which their followers must align or be cast out, and a promise to redeem society from the other side’s wickedness.

Christians need to be committed to following the way of Christ – not pursuing ideological partisanship. We should not fit easily into any package of values that do not find their source in the Bible, and this will challenge us because we will find ourselves bestriding both sides. We should be concerned about racial justice AND unborn children; climate change AND family life.

The gospel is disturbing and unsettling for both the woke and anti-woke. It tells us we need a Saviour because we cannot redeem ourselves. This is a huge stumbling block to a culture that believes we save ourselves by throwing off the shackles of authority and being true to our authentic inner selves.

But the gospel also tells of Jesus’s overwhelming grace and His call to love our neighbour as ourselves. This is unpalatable to those who seek to preserve their way of life by viewing those who are different as threats and invaders. The Good Samaritan in Luke 10 cared for his Jewish enemy as for his own flesh and blood.

If Christianity is truly counter cultural, it should challenge us. Otherwise we have simply made God in our image instead of accepting that every human is made in His.

As the election approaches and these disputes increase in volume and unpleasantness, let’s try not to be drawn in. As Christians we should support some issues, oppose some, and approach others from a totally different angle. Where Scripture differs from our culture, for example on issues such as sexuality and self-identity, it also calls us to be gentle and loving in our response to others, so that our conversation is ‘always full of grace, seasoned with salt” (Col. 4:6). Let’s pray that we will be effective witnesses to His word this year.

Tim Farron has been the MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale since 2005. He is the author of A Mucky Business: Why Christians Should Get Involved in Politics