No redemption for the woke

Wokism is Christianity without forgiveness

Wokeness as a religion

It is sometimes said that wokeness is a religion, that it's protestant Christianity with the serial numbers filed off. Here's some examples:

This a video of what I can only describe as a woke religious service (via GRIPT):

For other examples of wokeness as a religion, we have Sean Collins in Spiked:

Woke anti-racism certainly appears to have taken on the trappings of religion. White people have been seen washing the feet of black people and asking for forgiveness, a ritual firmly in line with the Christian tradition. And terms like ‘white guilt’ and ‘white privilege’ are treated much as Original Sin used to be – things for which humanity must forever atone.

Or Jody Bottum:

we’re seeing [...] an intense spiritual hunger that has no outlet. There’s no way to see people kneeling, or singing ‘Hands up, don’t shoot’, or swaying while they hold up candles, and avoid acknowledging that it’s driven by a spiritual desire. I perceived this when I wrote about Occupy Wall Street, and it’s become even more like this. It is an intense spiritual hunger that is manifesting itself more violently. Because to the post-Protestants, the world is an outrage and we are all sinners.

James Wood, in Theopolis:

Wokeness, I propose, is a form of post-Protestant neopaganism.

Wood adds:

A major difference between Protestantism and Wokeness is the near-absolute refusal of forgiveness; or at least its lack of resources for atonement and reconciliation. The main mechanisms to deal with the evils which are thematically foregrounded in the Woke vision are for one to escape condemnation by joining the opposition while at the same time denouncing, shaming, and scapegoating others to demonstrate their purity and righteousness. This results in a strange combination of anxiety and arrogance

We'll get back to that.

The Religion Media Center:

Although we’re supposed to be living in a post-religious West, the woke movement is about as thoroughly Christian as any political ideology could possibly be. [...] It reproduces the mindset and even some of the rituals of a particular form of Christianity, 17th-century Protestantism or Puritanism.

Differences from Christianity

One big difference between wokeness and Christianity is that in Christianity, if you repent, you can be forgiven.

Not so with wokeness: there it's "once a sinner, always a sinner". Old infractions that the sinner thought had been forgiven can be brought up again, years later.

Alexi McCammond

Take the case of Alexi McCammond:

Years-old tweets you made as a foolish, ignorant teen, and later profusely apologized for, mean you can’t be trusted as editor of... Teen Vogue.

Alexi McCammond, deemed in 2019 the emerging journalist of the year by the National Association of Black Journalists and supported by Wintour and the rest of top Condé Nast management for the Teen Vogue job, won’t be starting next week as editor-in-chief of the fashion and lifestyle magazine after a staff rebellion over offensive remarks posted in 2011.

Here are the tweets in question:

Conclusion

Every time a wokie gets cancelled by a woke mob, they and bystanders are likely to come to the conclusion that wokeness -- at least in its most virulent forms -- is more trouble that it's worth. Circular firing squads do not make for a healthy social movement, and may well be its downfall.