I Am Not a Woke Preacher

Written by Antwuan Malone

For the record. I reject "woke theology."

Any "theology" that centers race, gender, age or national origin as greater or less is a "me" theology, and is thus anti-God. Any centrism that is not Christo-Centrism is Me-centrism under a different name. We can call it ethnocentrism, or Christian Nationalism, or the centering of my sexual orientation or gender or anything else we might try to call it. It’s just me-ism: a centering of myself as the arbiter of, chief example for what should have value.

In these cases, it is right to preach a gospel-centered resistance and you can count mine as a critical voice against such thinking, rhetoric, and practice. If being "woke" means this, then you can still consider me fast asleep.

However, because I am Christo-centric, I do embrace Christ’s commandment to "love thy neighbor," which means I am not released from the pursuit of treating my neighbors, friends and enemies with the value God created them with and the love God created them for. I am not released from "bearing the burdens" (Galatians) of my brothers and sisters. I cannot embrace the improper Western theological cocktail of “holy individualism.” Jesus demands the opposite. I am commanded to carry my brothers’ burdens alongside my own. I am encouraged to "give greater honor to the lesser members" (1 Corinthians), to speak out against individual and social injustices. I am encouraged to lay down my life for my friends (Gospel of John).

The energy to live out the obedience of Christ's command does not come from my racial, age, gender, or national status or identity. It comes from my Kingdom status, as a son and servant of God and as a disciple of Jesus the Christ; as a reflection of God's selfless love in a society addicted to, and codependent upon, itself and its own pride, power, and status; to be a witness to God's grace and a soldier for his good and just desire for how His creation should reflect Himself.

Any desire or action to speak out against, and rid our society from, racial injustice (or injustice of any other sort for that matter) is born from a love for God that mandates advocation and action against the mistreatment of those he suffered and died for as both an act of obedience and an outpouring of authentic care for someone other than myself and my posterity.

It's my love for Christ, not some collection of social sciences and ideologies, or a desire to protect myself through social or ethnic identification, that won't let me live as though injustice either doesn't exist or is an inevitable that we are hopeless to fight against or resist.

It may not have that veracity for you. And that's fine.

But for those of you who would mistaken (and therefore mislabel) the pursuit to obey and express God's love for all as "pandering to the current culture," "compromising the gospel." or "chasing worldly ideas" is as disappointing as it is incorrect. And frankly it begs the question, what exactly are you doing to be obedient to the command to love? What do you think Jesus expects from you when he says, “greater love has no man than this, than to lay down his life for a friend”? What does it practically look like to carry the burdens of our brothers, and love others as though they were us (as we love ourselves)?

In the meantime, don't call me a "woke" preacher. I'm not one. Call me a Bible preacher. It just so happens that the Bible won't let me sleep.