A Christian kind of woke: What the Church can do to redeem social justice

In August this year, entrepreneur Elon Musk shared a video clip on his social media platform X and declared it “wisdom”. It attracted over 30 million views.

It was an excerpt of an interview with Singapore’s Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong, in which he talked about woke culture making life “very burdensome” instead of bringing cohesiveness and solidarity to a society.

Wokeism, or woke culture, has become a defining aspect of the era we live in, and in recent times has received increasing backlash. The term refers to being attentive to social and political injustices, particularly in relation to issues of race, gender and inequality.

“It is one of the major movements of our time,” said Suzanne Choo, author of When Woke Goes Broke: Redeeming Social Justice for the Church.

Suzanne is an Associate Professor at the English Language and Literature department at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University.

When Woke Goes Broke is the first book in GraceWorks’ new series The Gospel Way, edited by Leow Wen Pin. The series helps churches answer the call to be missional towards an ever-evolving world.

When Woke Goes Broke is the first book in The Gospel Way series, written by Suzanne and edited by Leow Wen Pin (right).

In her book, Suzanne briefly discusses the rise of woke movements in the West such as Black Lives Matter and #metoo. She also analyses these movements in relation to influential philosophies such as postmodernism.

A crucial part of the book is her reflection on what a Christian approach to social justice would look like.

“Wokeism is not just a Western thing,” she told Salt&Light. “The #metoo movement, for example, was observed in various parts of Asia including South Korea and Taiwan. In Singapore, issues of sexual misconduct in our local universities led to calls for greater institutional accountability.”

But what does this have to do with Christians, you may ask? 

“I realised that a lot of young people are very interested in social justice these days,” said Suzanne.

“Woke culture and woke language is also a very important part of the social justice movement.

“And because social justice is a vital part of what the Bible calls us to do – to help the fatherless, the poor, the widows, the sick, the foreigners – I became interested in finding out: What, then, is an appropriate Christian response? How might a Christian response to social justice be different from some of the aggressive forms of woke culture that we see in the world today?”

Be like Jesus: CARE

Secular woke culture has contributed to some transformative changes in society, but there is a form of aggressive woke culture that has developed.

Suzanne uses an acronym for the qualities of this aggressive woke culture: SADD, which stands for self-righteousness (assuming they are right and others are wrong), aggressive behaviour (shaming and cancelling others), disinformed (basing responses on half truths or post-truths, and disengaged (seeing the other party as the enemy).

Christian woke is different, said Suzanne. “In the Bible, Christians are called to be woke to injustices. I use the acronym CARE: Christlikeness, being attuned, redemptive at its core, and engaged with culture.”

She expanded, “Jesus is described as being full of grace and truth. Likewise, Christians should pursue both aspects in our daily lives and ministries. We must exercise grace in our relations with others. We must also be committed to seeking truth.

“Second, we need to be attuned to the movements and ideologies of secular culture. To pursue truth means Christians must discern underlying ideologies, motivations and values.

“Third, at the heart of Christian social justice is redemption. When God calls out sin, it is to redeem the sinner, not to reject him or her.

Finally, Christians should be engaged with culture. “We cannot be disconnected from others, even those who may have different views from others,” Suzanne pointed out.

Suzanne presented the differences between SADD and CARE woke at the Intentional Disciple Making Conference in September.

Why should we be woke?

If Christians are to be salt and light of the world (Matthew 5:13-14), they need to practise the kind of justice characteristic of God, Suzanne writes in her book.

But “on the flip side of being woke, some Christians don’t care about social justice,” she told Salt&Light.

“In whatever sphere of influence you are in the world, you can be involved in tackling injustice. Maybe you’re in a position where you can shape policy and you can make your policies more equitable.

“In every sphere we can get engaged,” she added. “We should be sensitive to the injustices around us particularly those that are systemic.”

She points out that injustice goes beyond physical forms. “The more powerful kinds of injustice are invisible, implicit in the systems that we inhabit and the cultural norms we internalise. Christians can play a role in influencing these systems so that they are fairer, more just, so that they uplift those who are marginalised or defenceless. 

“Because in the Bible, we glimpse God’s heart for the widows, the orphans, the poor. I believe we must have that special compassion for the marginalised.”

To call in the sinner, not to cancel

One of the defining elements of wokeism is cancel culture, where someone who is accused of acting or speaking in an unacceptable manner is called out, boycotted and publicly shamed.

“The cancelling of people is not what the Bible teaches,” stated Suzanne. 

“Once, God wanted to cancel the human race (Genesis 6:7). But in Genesis 8:9, He made a covenant with Noah that never again would He destroy all humanity.

“If God made a covenant to not cancel humans, who are we to do so? Christ is the prime example of one who was unjustly cancelled. He took the injustices of sin upon Himself to open the way for the restoration of humanity to God.”

But when injustice or wrong teaching is being perpetrated, what can a Christian do? “Not cancelling doesn’t mean you accept every single secular idea,” she explained. “Discern and differentiate between the person and the idea.

So should Christians be angry?

“In the Bible, most instances when Jesus became angry had to do with self-righteous, woke people, namely the Pharisees. On several occasions, they were easily triggered by something Jesus said that contradicted their views,” Suzanne pointed out. 

In her book, Suzanne explores how God’s justice as righteousness and love is demonstrated in the book of Jonah.

Jonah is called by God to be attentive to injustice, to go to Nineveh and call out against the great city for their evil ways. But the thought that God might spare the Ninevites if they repent angers Jonah.

Yet, the book ends with an insight into God’s desire to show compassion even on those who are morally and spiritually corrupt.

How the Church can equip the saints

The book ends with a call for believers to go deep in the Word of God.

“Christian wokeness emerges from being rooted in God’s truth which should be the primary driver behind the ways we interpret and respond to culture,” she said.

Having received Christ, believers are called to continue to grow in maturity through developing their skills of biblical interpretation.

Churches and church leaders can also help by equipping their congregations with fundamental hermeneutical skills, proposed Suzanne, who is currently doing her Master of Arts in Theology and Integrative Studies with the Biblical Graduate School of Theology.

An Associate Professor at the English Language and Literature department at NIE, NTU, Suzanne is also the mother of one.

Suzanne recognised that many Christians still think of such deep study as something you only do in seminary. But “if you’re not deepening your knowledge, understanding, and your hermeneutical skills, it becomes easy to be affected by the ways of the world,” she said.

“When one is rooted to God’s Word, one stands on solid ground and becomes less easily taken in and shaken by the trends of the world.”

However, one key challenge today is the combination of wokeism with postmodern skepticism and post-truth. Her book explores the importance of sustaining an orientation towards truth even when truth is under attack in the world.

“There is a need for church leaders to train lay people to be more discerning, to train them in interpretive literacy,” she observed. 

One suggestion she made was for pastors to, on occasion, “let their congregation understand how they arrived at a particular interpretation of scripture and the skills and processes involved.”

Suzanne called on believers to develop a habit of double interpretation as they approach new information: “First we need to learn to read culture and discern its worldly philosophies. Then we read the world through the Word.” 

She said, “In this way, our acts of social justice can flow from the ways we learn to see the world through God’s eyes and heart.”

When Woke Goes Broke is available here. Suzanne will be giving a lecture on the topic of Christianity and Wokeism on October 24 at Bible House, 7.30-9pm.

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