Back during the Cold War, the phenomenon of the Anti-Anti-Communists arose. They did not call themselves that, not that I remember. And they would have been outraged if you suggested they were allies or agents of the Soviet Union. Suggesting they actually were Communists themselves was beyond the pale. But they always pushed back against those staunchly opposing Communism, against those advocating a Reaganesque hard line against Communists.
Many of these Anti-Anti-Communists just happened to always push the same policy goals the Soviet Union was pushing, such as the Nuclear Freeze, withdraw of U. S. aid for anti-Communist forces overseas, opposition to Reagan’s anti-missile defense programs, and so on. But those were just coincidences. They weren’t agents or even useful idiots of the Communists — don’t you dare even think that! Instead many of them were “peacemakers” in the church. Oh yes, just about every respectable mainline denomination had their “peacemaking” ministries, which just happened to support Soviet policies . . . by coincidence, of course.
What brings back these memories?
There is now a phenomenon, particularly within relatively orthodox churches, of the Anti-Anti-Woke. They would brush you aside if you suggest they are woke, perhaps with dismissive laughter. But you can rely on them always pushing back against those actively opposing trans indoctrination in public schools, CRT anti-white racism, DEI programs and other wokeness.
The pushback might be in the form of concerned tone-policing. The pushback might be in weaponized compassion for “victims” of alleged injustice, compassion designed to vilify those who oppose wokeness. In church contexts, you can bet on verses wrenched out of context, misinterpreted, and used as weapons against you. (This podcast from Anne and Matt Kennedy is excellent on how “speaking the truth in love” is misinterpreted.) The pushback might come in the form of above-it-all disdain for involvement in “culture wars.” However it comes, if you stand up against wokeness in any worthy fashion, you can know pushback will come from the Anti-Anti-Woke.
Perhaps the most infamous of the Anti-Anti-Woke is David French. Oh, he is oh-so “conservative” and “evangelical.” Yet when people began noticing and opposing drag queen story hours, he defended these grooming times as “blessings of liberty.” You don’t want to oppose liberty, do you?
French is the archetype of those “conservative” and “Christian” grifters who talked a good game, as he did for years, until things got real. Then they cowered before the Regime and assisted the Regime by opposing real conservatives and faithful Christians who actually had the courage to stand up against woke evil. All while being paid by his keepers to be a token “conservative.”
Most Anti-Antis are not as prominent as French, of course. Most are people unknown to most. During Pride Month, they are more concerned that us mean opposing Christians might “hurt” the feelings of the alphabet people or actually might get — God forfend! — angry than they are concerned about the Proud people parading their perversions in front of children and pushing them down the throats of the rest of us. Take an excellent and slightly angry recent post of Rod Dreher exposing the predations of the Pride crowds. Actually take the comments pushing back, please:
Ah Rod – I fully respect your views on Transgenderism but… why so angry?
Anger is one of the seven deadly sins- and despair is also a sin. Say no to both.
We are called to Faith, Hope, and Love.
[Responding to the above comment.] I don’t always agree with you, Jon. But, I think you are right on the mark here. Many on Rod’s Substack seem enthralled by anger and violence.
I don’t see anyone calling for violence, but I do sense an undercurrent of it in the comments and that it could be justified. I dearly love Rod, but sometimes his stuff veers into outrage porn that, in the end, only seems to inflame the passions.
Love and prayer are our only weapons recommended by Christ.
You get the picture. The Anti-Anti-Woke crowd would rather we cast off being righteously angry “culture warriors” and be nice and winsome instead. They would have us confine our opposition to the predations of the woke to “love and prayer,” private prayer, of course.
And how convenient that would be for the woke. If us Christians with enough moral clarity to oppose wokeness would just go away and hide in our prayer closets, coming out only to throw around some winsome love every now and then, the woke are fine with that. Our newfound winsomeness would be so convenient for them. That would make it easier for them to completely take over and transform society. Then, at their convenience, they can hunt us down and send us to inclusion camps.
Maybe a few of the Anti-Anti-Woke, who so love and respect us and are oh so concerned, will then finally come to our defense. But I wouldn’t bet on it.
Instead the Anti-Antis always seem to ally with the woke. But they aren’t woke, of course. In Christian contexts, they may use a lot of rainbow imagery during Pride Month. But they hold to Biblical moral standards, of course. They may platform and have “brave conversations” with slanderers of the faithful such as Jemar Tisby and Kristin Kobes Du Mez as ACNA’s Bishop Todd Hunter does, but he’s an orthodox Anglican, of course. They may ally with the woke in any number of causes and in any number of ways. But if you accuse them of actually being woke and out of line with orthodoxy, you are completely out of line.
Nonetheless, most Anti-Antis, in and outside the institutional church, are allies of the woke. They can make pious rationalizations for their alliances with evil as much as they want. But one does not love one’s neighbors by assisting the totalitarians against them. One does not further the Gospel of Christ by allying with the ideologies of Satan.
I will say we should avoid wrongfully presuming the motives of Anti-Antis. Some mean well and seek to follow Jesus but have been taken in by the omnipresent woke propaganda and weaponized compassion. With sadness I know of people with good hearts like that, and they are harmed by wokeness, too. Some are just weary of all the societal conflict. Trust that I understand!
But we should not presume good motives either. People who constantly ally with the baddies might be baddies, too. No telling how many use pieties to gaslight and deceive and, yes, backstab. Wolves in sheep’s clothing are out there, and they are well platformed at the New York Times and Christianity Today among other Regime organs.
Whatever their motives, these Anti-Anti-Woke, by constantly allying with the woke in undermining us Anti-Woke, are every bit as wrong as those Anti-Anti-Communists who helped the Commies by undermining the Anti-Communists and, before that, as wrong as those who, right up to the beginning of World War II and even beyond, said the anti-Nazis were being alarmist about Mr. Hitler.
So the winsome whinings of the Anti-Anti-Woke are also to be dismissed, no matter how loving and concerned they sound.
But as you turn away from them, watch your back. Be aware of them. Do not trust them.
