Christian charities: Christianity and wokeness don't mix

Some of the largest charities that help millions of Americans in their time of need are faith-based:  Habitat for Humanity, The Salvation Army, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and the YMCA, to name a few.  Many of these institutions are well-known for helping millions of people in their time of great need.

These organizations are threatened in their virtuous works by wokeness.   Cultural institutions, by their very nature, are vulnerable to social passions, and the strongest passion of our ages is the plague of wokeness.

Wokeness is a set of far-left ideologies that purport to support diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). In practice, they're extremely divisive. The Salvation Army, for example, asked its white members to repent on America's behalf for its racism. It continues to have its local leaders attend unconscious bias training – implying that the hardworking Salvationists are closet racists.

But Americans are some of the most generous people on the planet. A survey conducted by Vanguard Charitable revealed that 60% of Americans continued their annual charitable giving despite rising inflation and economic uncertainty. Two-thirds of Americans have donated to charity in the past year. Donors to charitable causes may have an idea about what they are supporting, but the beneficiaries of charity are not immediately apparent. When Americans donate to a charitable cause, they do so out of the goodness of their heart with no regard for race or any other immutable characteristic.

And yet, proponents of the woke ideology seek to undermine colorblind giving in favor of equitable distribution. DEI, and its academic arm of critical race theory (CRT), argue that America is an irredeemably racist country that needs equity to fix institutional oppression. Colorblind giving and race grievance theories do not mix. 

There is a pressing spiritual matter here as well. Christianity is inherently a colorblind religion, which also does not mix with the teachings of wokeness. Galatians 3:28 says “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” 

There are various narratives in the gospels that reinforce the principles of colorblindness. When Jesus was judged harshly by the Samaritan woman who refused to give him water on the account of him being Jewish, Christ admonished her from her prejudices. Not only was her bigotry upended, but the entire town also shed its beliefs and adopted a colorblind mentality.

It is important for Christian organizations to remember the lesson of the Samaritan woman. Wokeness does nothing more than pit groups against each other, rather than recognizing everyone as fundamentally individuals. Wokeness assumes that people of a certain identity are inherently oppressed or disadvantaged in society, without regard for their particular circumstances. All of these principles are anti-Christian and should be admonished as harshly as the Samaritan woman. 

What will happen to charitable giving when Christian charities begin to preach the narrative that certain groups of people are more oppressed than others, as the Salvation Army did in the past?  

Nothing good can come from such divisiveness. 

Colorblindness is the only tenable path to continue towards. Being colorblind is not a political or social statement, it is a universal recognition of Christ’s love for all people. Many organizations are reasonably wary about making determinative political statements in this era of division and chaos. But if affirming the Gospels is now seen as political, that is a problem with the culture, not any given organization. 

Charitable giving brings us together. And for Christian organizations, it reflects the good-willed nature of the faith. As Acts 20:35 says “In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.”