In the well-known tale, the frog stayed in the pot of water too long and got cooked because the water was heating up imperceptibly. Today we are sitting in a warming ideological pot.  And if we can't explain the meaning of woke, critical race theory and social justice, we are cooking in the pot and don’t know it. Woke thinking is endemic and hard to escape.  Most politicians, educators and media people, either believe it or feel they must go along with the madness.

The woke say that they are now awokened or “enlightened” perhaps by Critical Race Theory, to the evils of Western institutions. CRT is a theory that looks at how race intersects with social stratification, gender, class and nationalities but seemingly has become a criticism against Christians, Christmas, boys’ and girls’ clubs, the Ten Commandments, and an illogical offence at the Christianized development of the world. Woke people believe that they are oppressed victims of others and are offended at everything that gave them wealth, and education, like capitalism, white people, exploration, and colonization. They are even offended at things that gave them life itself, marriage, heterosexuality and carbon dioxide which is only 0.04% of the atmosphere! 

To undo the “evils” of the West’s pioneering history, they want all connections with the past, that give us reason to be proud of our heritage, to be removed. Statues are being taken down or defaced, and books are being removed from libraries. History is being reinterpreted to magnify any abuses committed by the pioneers.

But some people are noticing the temperature rising in the pot. My 10-year-old grandson came home from school and said, “I think they are trying to get us all to hate the colonialists from Britain, but they forget they brought us the Gospel of Jesus.” Exactly, while there have been obvious abuses during modernization, they ignore completely the benefits they inherited, of transport, technology, governance, science, health, and Christian missions. The gospel light brought an end to murder and mayhem among the Māori who became believers and delivered untold millions from the spiritual darkness of paganism around the world.

Those who are truly awake, know who the real oppressor is. Satan has colonized the earth and has oppressed all mankind. The good news is that Jesus paid the penalty for our sins on the Cross to free us all including the woke, from the oppression of sin and Satan’s rule over us and is now alive to heal and deliver all that will call upon Him.  The same wonderful Jesus that has blessed the whole world spiritually through the Church and materially through the “Christianized West,” continues to save and bless the awakened.