The Counterrevolution Starts in Our Churches: Lessons on how to save America and Our Churches from the Woke Revolution.
Prologue: The Woke Shepherds of Big Eva
Ezekiel 34: “And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 2 Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks? 3 Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock. 4 gThe diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither ihave ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither lhave ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. 5 And they were scattered, nbecause there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered. 6 My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them.”[1]
Self-promotion and self-enrichment are the ways of Big Evangelicalism. Big Eva rewards one another with book deals, conference speaking assignments, and million-dollar severance packages. This self-aggrandizement is now pervasive. It is a systemic injustice. The Shepherds feed themselves on the riches of the Church but fail to feed the flock the Biblical message. Instead, the Woke shepherds offer a political message and preach a Social Justice Gospel while they teach the Law of Racial Identity Politics.
These shepherds present a danger. They directly threaten to the Church. They must be removed, or new churches founded.
Introduction: The Church is in Danger
“I see a connection between the infiltration of woke/antiracist ideology and soft-selling the danger of progressive politics.”[2]—Voddie Baucham
The Church is in danger. John MacArthur calls wokeness, “the greatest danger to the Church that he has seen in six decades of Gospel ministry.”[3] The danger is subtle, as that quote from Voddie Baucham above notes. We should not be shocked by that—the serpent was craftier than the other creatures, Thus, his latest ruse will take many unaware.
The Woke Progressive mobs have infiltrated our conservative churches. (There is a film coming out about this soon: Enemies Within the Church.) This is true of all denominations. It has happened in hierarchical churches (see the Roman Catholic Church, Church of England and even the United Methodist Church) and congregational churches like the Southern Baptist Convention. As Michael O’Fallon of Sovereign Nations warned, there is even a Woke infiltration of conservative Islam with ideas like radical feminism and intersectionality. The goal of the religious infiltration is simple: to render all religions effete before the neoliberal crusade for political power with sexual liberation the weapon.
Why embark on this quest to oust woke pastors?
Because the church is worth it. Your church is worth it.
And, because victory is assured.
While you may not recover your individual church, you will be doing God’s work. This is a reward and it needs to additional argument. It is, after all, your duty. And who knows, you might lay the foundation of a new, biblically faithful church in the process of holding your current church accountable.
We are not promised victory in one battle; however, we are promised victory in the ultimate battle for Hell “shall not prevail against the Church.” Take heart that even if your part of the battle fails, the Great General in His Providence guides the battlefield. It is enough for you to do your duty as God gives you the grace to do it.
So, then to the battle of ideas!
How to Identify a Woke Pastor or Church Staff
The hardest part of finding a liberal or progressive pastor is identification. These men learned the lesson of the Conservative Resurgence. They cannot openly challenge penal substitutionary atonement or inerrancy. Instead, other methods must be used. Infiltration of the Woke Pastor that is followed by promotion of poisonous ideologies like Critical Race Theory begins.
The subtle infiltration scheme depends on using the language of compassion, humility, and grace to deceive you. That means it is important to identify and deal with the Woke scourge.
But who is Woke? What does Woke even mean?
The simplest way to understand Woke is that while it once began as a definition of someone awake to racial problems in America, the definition has morphed to encompass anyone who embraces the general elements of progressive Critical Theory.[4] It focuses on power and upending traditional hierarchy. This makes the traditional family along with capitalism and even the US Constitution its targets.
To be Woke is to be radical and progressive. It is why the Black Lives Matter movement advocated not only for protecting black lives but the overthrow of the traditional family and elimination of private property.
It is safe to summarize Woke as a shorthand for anyone accepting the rhetoric of Social Justice, any of Critical Theory or Neo-Marxism.
However, much like a definition of an ailment, that only helps conceptualize the issue. What doctors need is a list of symptoms. This allows for easy diagnosis in the field.
Here are a few ways to check if your pastor is Woke: Who do they attack? What books do they read? What conferences do they attend?
The best way to know if your pastor is Woke is to identify who they attack from the pulpit. Do they attack fundamentalists? Do they attack Fox News? Do they attack Tucker Carlson? Do they attack John MacArthur for defying a lockdown?
If the pastor always attacks people on the political and theological Right, then they are a Leftist. This is the basis of our test: How to detect a Leftist in Church and State. Pas d’Ennemi à gauche (No enemies to the Left) is the operational policy of all Leftists. It is how revolutionaries and their fellow travelers work.
What books do they read and quote approvingly in their sermons? Voddie Baucham? Owen Strachan? John MacArthur? Tom Ascol? Those are good. Excellent in fact.
Bad examples would be just about anyone published by The Gospel Coalition or Woke Church or Be the Bridge or The Color of Compromise. (This is not an exhaustive list of course.)
What conferences does your pastor attend?
Do they go to G3 Conferences? That’s good.
Do they attend a Founders event? That’s good.
Do they join the Conservative Baptist Network (CBN)? That’s good too.
Are they going to T4G? That’s problematic. Remember that is where David Platt threw off the mask of orthodox Christian belief and declared people guilty of the sins of their fathers. This is one of the best theological items to identify the Woke—they teach that you have guilt for the sins of your ancestors.
What podcasts does he listen to daily or weekly?
Does the pastor listen to Jon Harris or A.D. Robles or Michael O’Fallon? Those are good.
Do they listen to something published by Christianity Today? That would be bad.
If you are Southern Baptist, is your church and pastor part of the Conservative Baptist Network (CBN)? Ask. And if the answer is “No,” then demand to know, “Why not?” This could be a very huge warning sign about the pastor being Woke or at least a Crypto-Woke tribalist loyal to the Regime instead of the Truth.
A presentation of an exhaustive list of good and bad sources would be impossible. The best way to know if something is good and conservative or dangerous and woke, would be to ask fellow conservatives. Crowd source from the very knowledgeable group of online conservatives.
This leads us to the most important step as you act.
Tactics: Form or Join a Network
In the words of General Stanley McChrystal: “It takes a network to defeat a network.”
And Woke pastors are in a network. Notice all the letters signed against the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee. Some of those signatures come from pastors like David Sons, who proudly tweeted praise of radical Leftist Democrat President Barack Obama.
Also, Woke pastors coordinate messaging through groups like The Gospel Coalition—which thinks lockdowns are just fine and in fact churches in Canada are not being persecuted!
So, conservatives must build networks to defeat these networks. There are a few reasons for this.
Information is valuable in any ideological struggle, and in this type of contest between right and wrong within the church, you must be knowledgeable.
Sharing information is one of the biggest benefits of networking. You can learn a great deal on social media and dissident websites. Specifically, seek out those leading the fight against the Woke Social Justice movement. Read real conservatives and ignore the fake ones promoted by Big Evangelicalism.
You will find conservative theological critiques of the Woke Social Justice movement.
You will find political critiques of the Woke Social Justice Movement.
These are both important because the Woke Social Justice Movement is mutually theological and political. There is a reason lifelong Democrat Russell Moore was heavily involved in the attacks on conservative Southern Baptists.
There is another benefit to forming networks. One person is easily crushed. However, larger numbers are harder. In a small church, two people standing together might be enough to demand accountability. In larger churches, that number might be five, ten, or even 150. As Ben Shapiro noted in his book on the secular trend to Woke authoritarian workplaces, that workers organized to resist have a better chance at having their grievances heard.
It is harder to steamroll a group than to silence an individual. It is the same when confronting a Woke pastor.
Plus, it is good to know that you are not alone.
Tactics: Hold their hypocrisy up to derision
“And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, ‘Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.’” –I Kings 18:27 ESV
The great Achilles Heel of Big Evangelicalism is its hypocrisy. At one minute it calls for truth, accountability, and transparency. The next moment it ignores such calls as it hides its financial documents and protects its own.
Point out their corruption. Point out how a Southern Baptist “servant” was given a one-million-dollar severance package after destroying LifeWay.
Point out the SBC Elites attack on Will McRaney. And how they told lies to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals!
At the local church level, notice how one church held its pastor accountable when he told repeated lies from the pulpit.
This video tweet is the perfect way to mock the lies by pointing out the inconvenient truth:
Organize your arguments and then move to confrontation.
Tactics: Confront through use of the Congregational Business Meeting
Since many evangelical churches benefit from a congregational system of church government, this gives the individual sitting in the pew a great deal of power.
The pastors fear this. Though, to be honest, not as much as they fear you cutting off money.
The confrontation of Woke pastors begins with reading your church constitution and bylaws. While there are similarities across these documents, there are typically significant differences. Each church is different, and its organizational documents reflect the history of the church. So, you will need to get copies and read them together.
Remember the network? Use it. Share tactics. Create online communities to engage with one another to share tactics. Learn from the victories and defeats of others.
And this leads us to one great example of humbling the Woke Regime—the faithful people of McLean Bible Church.
Case Study: McLean Bible Church & the Power in the Pew
Resistance to Woke David Platt was effective at McLean Bible Church because it combined top leadership willing to confront Platt and a grassroots organization.
What do I mean by effective at McLean Bible Church considering that Platt remains pastor? Specifically, Platt and his Woke Regime were exposed by the pressure of the organized faithful Christians. It resulted in WMAL revealing to the community the dangerous racial identity politics promoted by Platt and MBC staff. Listen to this segment from O’Connor & Company. And that was only one example. There were many radio shows and articles published highlighting Platt’s Wokeness.
That is a victory. A huge victory. Exposing is almost as good as defeating because it limits and constrains the expansion of the Woke Revolution.
Though, pay attention: The lesson from McLean Bible Church is: the internal letters written by then current and former elders along with longtime ministry leaders calling Platt to repentance did not result in repentance or regime change. The church continued its precipitous decline. However, it provided a critical grounding for the grassroots organization. In other words, the practical needs a theoretical framework. In many regards, the Statement on Social Justice and The Gospel is one such conceptual work of broad utility.
The counterrevolutionary movements of 1688 and 1776 required these types of justifications. (Both the Glorious Revolution and the American Revolution were not truly revolutions because they worked to reclaim existing rights from a regime institution revolutionary oppression of those rights. Also, 1215 at Runnymede should be included in this same tradition.) In 1688, William of Orange justified his moves against James II as the defense of the liberties of England and the Protestant faith. In 1776, the Declaration of Independence outlined the justification for action against George III over the move of king and parliament into tyrannies. In a similar way and in a very real sense, the remonstrance offered to Platt became a key indictment of Platt once the arrogant pastor refused to harken the voice of the people in the pew.
The stand of McLean Bible Church faithful Christians was simply a demand the church and Platt return to biblical orthodoxy and that it respect the rights of church members.
Once private and personal means were exhausted, a young core of McLean Bible Church members created a resistance movement. These faithful Christians cited works by John MacArthur and Voddie Baucham in their critiques of Platt’s racial identity politics.
It is worth repeating here, the leadership of this movement at MBC was largely young millennials along with Generation X. That is not to say older members were not involved. But it is important to recognize that young church members took the initiative to organize and use technology to begin a movement.
Technology played a significant role in the Reformation. It was through the creative use of printing that Luther and the other Reformers spread their message. Technology today offers even greater options for spreading information and coordinating operations.
This group seized upon a McLean constitutional quirk that required a supermajority to affirm new elder candidates. An organized opposition caused the first slate of elders to suffer defeat.
This was a humiliation for the Woke Regime of David Platt. Instead of dealing with opposition in good faith and seek resolution. Platt doubled down.
Platt’s response was an overreaction. In a July 4 sermon, Platt declared his opposition (many actual members of minority groups) of being racists. Platt resorted repeatedly to this smear of his opposition. In a July 8 sermon, he repeated with more specific allegations of racism that were part of a larger pattern of lies. The result was to render himself a caricature. His desperation in clinging to power revealed that his regime lacked legitimacy.
Once legitimacy is gone, it is only a matter of time until the ossified regime crumbles or is rendered so incapable that it ceases to matter as revolutionary force.
Either outcome is good; however, it requires courage, cunning, and the fortitude to persist when Big Evangelical Elites slander you.
While every church is different, there are certainly lessons that you could learn from McLean Bible Church.
Conclusion: Save the Church and Save America
This, of course, it not a finished guide to the Counterrevolution. Add your thoughts. Share your concerns. We must adapt to the battle of ideas if we are going to win.
This battle now must shift from the large denominational institutions to the local church. It is the local church that forms the sinews of denominational power.
The Woke, Crypto-Woke, and the tribalist Useful Idiots of Big Evangelicalism operate from these local institutions with impunity. How many in their local churches know their pastors are promoting Critical Race Theory or supporting the liar and laughingstock Ed Litton?
This presents conservatives with a great opportunity. It is also the conservative duty to warn these churches of the dangers they face from Woke pastors. Thus, it is a convergence of both duty and opportunity.
Seize it and take the initiative.
The Woke Shepherds of Big Eva are failing to care for the flock. They pillage it and fail to tend the flock. They make themselves fat while the flock starves for biblical teaching.
Reform your church, find a new one, or lead dissidents within your congregation to form a new church.
[1] The Holy Bible: King James Version, Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version. (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), Eze 34:1–6.
[2] Voddie Baucham, Fault Lines, p. 195.
[3] Owen Strachan, Christianity & Wokeness, p. 26.
[4] See Voddie Baucham, Fault Lines, p. 195, and Strachan Christianity & Wokeness pp. 24-26.