God Builds Cathedrals From Our Bricks of Charity, Chastity and Cheerfulness, (Commencement Adress at Willows Academy, NC Register, June 5, 2024)
Educational Bankruptcy: Progressive Religious Zeal And The Rise Of Victimhood, (The Daily Wire, May 22, 2024)
The Sadness of the Woke, (NC Register, March 22, 2024)
7 Ways to Keep the Wokeness Out of Your Home and Away from Your Kids, (TOH, March 4, 2024)
Your Grandma’s Propaganda Is Out of Fashion, (The Blaze, December 5, 2023)
How Wokeness Puts Its Defenders In A Chokehold — And How To Help Them Out, (The Federalist, November 3, 2023)
Woke Ideology Is a Murderous One, (Washington Examiner, October 26, 2023)
Priests in the Public Square, (NCRegister, October 13, 2023)
California Bills Keep Pride Marching Long Past June, (The Daily Wire, July 6, 2023)
The Long March Through the Soul, (The American Mind, July 7, 2023)
The Strong Man Is the Holy Man, (NCRegister, June 16, 2023)
The Unplugged Life Is Worth Living, (NCRegister, June 14, 2023)
Championing a True presentation of Womanhood, (NCRegister, April 11, 2023)
The Devil Behind the Grammys Curtain, (The Epoch Times, February 7, 2023)
Authoritarianism Without Authority, (The American Mind, November 28, 2022)
Good Fathers Will Change the World, (Theology of Home, October 21, 2022)
Innovative Steps to Reclaim a Human Way of Life for the Next Generation, (Newsweek, October 14, 2022)
Abortion Reveals Two Types of Men, The Epoch Times, July 12, 2022
Schools’ Misgendering Rules Will Create Compliant, Fearful Children Perfect for Totalitarianism, (The Federalist, (June 23, 2022)
A Christian Response to Pride Month, (Theology of Home, June 7, 2022)
The Sea and the Soul, (Institute for Human Ecology, June 2022)
Try a Little Tenderness: A Subversive Mother’s Day Message, (The American Mind, May 6, 2022)
Dear Science: What if Kids Need Their Moms?, (Catholic Answers, February 23, 2022)
The Two Commandments of Tyranny, (Catholic World Report, February 9, 2022)
Suppression of Dissenting Voices Is a Feature, Not a Bug…, (Catholic World Report, January, 2022)
Not My Kids, (The American Mind, December 2021)
Above Us Only Sky: How Ideology Manipulates Reality & Reverence as the Remedy, (Acton, November 2021)
What Proponents of Bodily Autonomy Miss, (National Review, September 2021)
Our Rainbow Religion, Which Lets Us Become as Gods, (The Stream, July 2021)
Can Catholics Get Woke?, (Catholic Answers, June 2021)
‘Woke’ Catholic Schools Offer Poison in Place of the Gospel, (National Catholic Register, May 2021)
Why Dr. Suess Matters, (Catholic World Report, March 2021)
How Does Society Measure Mothers?, (TOH Blog, February 2021)
Can Christians Go Woke?, (TOH Blog, December 2020)
Thomas Howard and the Wonder of Our Earthly and Heavenly Homes, (Catholic World Report, October 2020)
The Desperate and Dystopian Attacks on Amy Coney Barrett, (Catholic World Report, September 2020)
The Woke Mob Plays God, (The American Mind, September 2020)
If the Child Porn in ‘Cuties’ Surprised You, You Haven’t Been Paying Attention, (The Federalist, September 2020)
Why Michelle Williams Had to Justify Sacrificing Her Child for Fame, (The Federalist, January 2020)
The Radical and the Damned, (The American Mind, December 2019)
Kanye West, a Free Man Talking, (The Federalist, October 2019)
Why Women Love the Home But Not Being a Homemaker, (The Federalist, September 2019)
Finding Home amid Ruptured Relationships, (National Review, August 2019)
Is Sexual Autonomy Worth the Cost to Human Lives?, (The Federalist, May 2019)
We Hide the Truth About Abortion Because it Condemns Us All, (The Federalist, April 2019)
Why the Notre Dame Fire Pierces our Hearts, (Off the Cuff/Theology of Home April 2019)
The Symbolism of Light in Advent (Favorite Catholic Things/Theology of Home, December 2018)
Here’s the Danger of Weaponizing Legitimate Suffering for Revenge (The Federalist, October 2018)
How Theology of Home Makes Men Heroic (Helena Daily, October 2018) SEE BELOW
Bad Music and Liturgical Tinkering Make Clericalism Worse (National Catholic Register, September 2018)
Decide Today Whom You Will Serve (National Catholic Register, August 2018)
Virtue Signaling Is Now A Cheap, Prolific Substitute For Actual Virtue (The Federalist, July 2018)
Since Its Debut 20 Years Ago, ‘Sex And The City’s’ Profoundly Unrealistic View Of The World Has Hurt Women (The Federalist, June 2018)
Takeaway Message from the Met Gala: The Sexual Revolution is Tired (National Catholic Register, May 2018)
Bishop Barron and the Sermon at the Royal Wedding (National Catholic Register, May 2018)
Nurturing Deep Friendships Even when You Disagree (Theology of Home - Off the Cuff, May 2018)
Wonder and the Sea at Isla Mujeres, Mexico (Favorite Catholic Things, April 2018)
Love is Beautiful (Favorite Catholic Things, March 2018)
When Your Toddler is a Tyrant (Helena Daily - Off the Cuff, June 2018)
Decorating with the Glorious Easter Lily (Favorite Catholic Things, March 2018)
The Iconic Turtleneck (Helena Daily - Our Favorite Catholic Things, March 2018)
———Can Christians GO Woke?———
by Noelle Mering
There is a recurring movie scene, some version of which might be familiar to most, where a woman, fed up and visibly disgusted, gets in a car and tells the driver to take her anywhere but here. Her aversion to what she is leaving behind is palpable and her destination is irrelevant.
It’s a funny encapsulation of that feeling of having had enough with such intensity that we are consumed by the thing we are rejecting. But in reality, of course, we all know that the thing we choose ultimately matters more than what we leave behind. It’s a version of an old Chesterton quote, “The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.” Battle should be for the sake of something.
In the great undoing of 2020 a quieter, but no less consequential, upheaval has been the rapid Wokening of American Christians. While many who “get woke” follow the path of exodus forged by the nones, others choose to remain as Christians and seek to bring new energy to the religious Left by advocating Woke activism as the authentic outgrowth of their faith. Jesus, they say, would have marched in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement in reaction to racial injustice, or embraced feminist ideology in reaction to harms done to women, or renounced the judgmentalism of traditional sexual norms.
Muddying and exacerbating the discussion is the fact that our political disagreements are often shallow sloganeering devoid of necessary distinctions. We tend to make complex policy issues seem black and white, while foundational principles we cloud with complexity. Part of political wisdom is knowing which is which.
But beyond the political there is a real dynamic of Christians going Woke in reaction to personal wounds that should not be dismissed. Perhaps we have experienced hypocrisy, harshness, or scandal in a more orthodox Christian community, and, well, the solution just might be to become a faith defined by its reaction to, and rejection of, all of that. While reasons vary, the common thread is grievance and a strong desire to distance themselves from more conservative Christian associations.
We can easily recite a litany of grievances propelling people to establish this distance. For example, we all know that Woke Christians are incensed by Donald Trump and his supporters, but a less frequent and more constructive conversation concerns not what they are rejecting, but what they are choosing. Ideas lead us somewhere and the destination will come eventually, and perhaps surprisingly if we remain consumed by the thing we've left behind. Ideology, once internalized, will play out its internal logic and will take us places regardless of whether or not we intended to go there. Once the destination is reached we might little remember what it is we left.
What are Woke Christians choosing? The term ‘Woke’ refers to the state of being alert and attuned to the layers of pervasive oppression in society. While it originated specifically with regard to racism, it has since broadened to include other areas of what is considered social oppression commonly understood to be along the lines of gender, race, and sexuality. Specific incidents of injustice are used to reinforce the larger goal of the ideology that all human interaction be seen as a power contest. New horizons of grievances must be continually sought, for outrage is both the sustenance and currency of the movement, and division is the product. Growth for the Woke movement is measured by fracturing.
While the orthodox Christian understanding of personal identity is informed by all sorts of attributes and circumstances, at his core, each person, made in the image and likeness of God, is an irreducible subject with an intellect directed toward truth and a will oriented toward the good. Because truth and goodness are transcendentals of God, at the core of our identity, by our very nature, we are defined in relationship to him. In addition to being distinctly human by our capacity to reason, we achieve our purpose, and are most fully ourselves, in relationship with Love himself. While orthodox Christians are certainly not immune to being fueled by grievances, the defining logic of Christianity is a corrective for such errors.
In contrast, for the Woke, we are not to understand ourselves in proximity to the goodness of God, but in proximity to the evil of society. Whereas membership in a family is personal, membership in the political tribe is abstract. Each person belongs by virtue of being an instantiation of a movement. But while sharing in group membership is necessary, it is not sufficient. What is demanded is to share the ideology as well. It is the ideology, not the individual, which must flourish.
For example, if oppression is at the very core of womanhood (as the Woke say), then woman’s perfection exists in fighting her oppression and striving for power. A pro-life woman then is denying something central to her womanhood. A conservative gay man is inauthentic and not able to represent the gay community. A conservative man of color will have his blackness questioned. This is echoed in a recent statement by the main author of the New York Times’ 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones. “There is a difference between being politically black and being racially black.”
Someone who is racially black can be dismissed, ignored or vilified by the movement if his politics contradict the movement. In lacking the correct political consciousness, such a person is said to be repressing the core of her identity and cannot have an authentic voice nor should she have a platform. While empowerment and diversity are the stated goal, uniformity and ideological power are the actual goals. You are only important insofar as you further their agenda.
Woke ideology is a powder keg combination of postmodernism on top of Critical theory, as established by the Frankfurt School. The point of the movement is to destabilize, fragment, and eradicate hierarchy, history, meaning, and fundamental human identity. We see this in the dissolution of any stable conception of a human being. A person must be nothing in order to be anything. This is epitomized in the increasing realization among some feminists who rightly see the transgender movement as dependent upon the erasure of any meaningful concept of woman.
It is easy to overlook or dismiss the more sinister drives of the movement, but to do so is a negligent ignorance. For example, the current pet cause on the Left of transgenderism is not a quirky one-off effort to include a small group of people, it is an ideological bomb meant to eradicate a stable conception of human nature. Maybe that seems like an esoteric philosophical point until we realize that every tyrannical regime justifies fundamental assaults on its citizens by first demolishing the integrity of bodily dignity. We begin by instrumentalizing our own bodies. We end with justifying the instrumentalization of the bodies of others.
Similarly, we can try to overlook the avowed Marxism of the Black Lives Matter movement. Maybe it was just an eccentric peccadillo that their statement of beliefs included such things as queering the culture and disrupting the nuclear family. How odd for a movement about racial justice! Except that these are perfectly natural and explicit goals for Woke grievance culture. Abolish the family! Defund the police! Smash the patriarchy! Why do we not take them at their word?
Revolution is not born from a stable society of whole persons. It comes from a divided society that is populated by a wounded citizenry who see revolution as their righteous solution. In fact, so many of the wounds which lead people to this sort of tribalism are rooted in pathologies that are encouraged and celebrated by Woke ideology: the dissolution of the family as the primary cell of human society, the rejection of sexual mores that served to protect the health and integrity of the dynamics between men and women, the uncompromising support for abortion which has left millions of women with a depth of pain and remorse that they are not allowed to acknowledge. These wounds are useful to the cause of revolution, and so rather than resolve them, Woke ideology seeks to exploit them, “rubbing raw the sores of discontent" as Saul Alinsky would say. The same ideology that creates these wounds is not going to serve as a remedy for them.
In my upcoming book, Awake, Not Woke (TAN Books, Spring 2021) I examine the origins, dogmas, and indoctrination of the Woke movement. It is a revolution which elevates will over reason, the group over the person, and human power over higher authority. What is rejected—reason, the person, and authority—are the three characteristics of the Logos himself. The Logos is the mind of God, communicated in the person of Jesus Christ, who is the author of, and authority over all. It is he who is the ultimate target of the Woke revolt. It is a war of words against the Word. Once the internal logic of the movement is understood it becomes impossible not to see the patterns as they have played out time and again in Maoist China, Pol Pot’s Cambodia, Stalinist Russia.
If we have suffered wounds from rampant infidelity to Christ, we won’t resolve them by a different sort of infidelity to him. The division between orthodoxy and ideology among Christians has reached a new level of obstinacy. Both sides fear the other poses an existential threat to their core values. And in a way both are correct. Woke ideology is a jealous god and will not coexist with Christ in the heart of man. One or the other will eventually triumph, one through annihilation or the other through redemption.
——-Theology of Home Makes Men Heroic——-
by Noelle Mering
While we were in the throes of babies and toddlers, my husband would often walk through the door after work with groceries, take the baby, pour me wine and make a family dinner with his free arm. I remember on some days being too exhausted to reciprocate with much except an ardent feeling and expression of gratitude to him, for him. That image of him still stands in my mind as the image of heroic manliness.
Another good father and husband we know once said that when he arrives home he says to himself, “It’s showtime.” It’s his way of reminding himself that the crux of his day belongs to the moment he comes home from work and crosses the threshold into home. Rather than collapse on a sofa with beer and TV and be done for the day, he intended instead to bring his greatest efforts and positive engagement to his home life.
These anecdotes and others like them reverberate in my mind in contemplating what Theology of Home means for men. What they exemplify is a proper ordering of work and home that translates into specific small acts of love which echo throughout the family.
To say that home ought to have primacy over work for men and women is not to say work is unimportant, or that we shouldn’t develop professional skills, or seek to advance careers. A job doesn’t need to be seen strictly as a means to an end; it can be a good in itself insofar as it is ennobling and sanctifying and care should be taken to ensure it be done well. But it is a subordinate good to the good of home. Home isn’t a mere launchpad for a man’s success out there — rather his success out there is for the sake of home.
If a man sees his work life as some sort of parallel good, divorced from the good of home, the two disparate goods will tend to become rivalrous, for the family wants from the father what is their due: to have a significance in his eyes and to see that his actions in the home are of greater import than those of his career.
It’s not difficult to see how these two goods become inverted. 21st century Americans look to career for so much: an identity, the expression of some core passion, a measure of success and worth, a measure of where we stand in relation to others. It’s a compelling part of life and the cultural stoking of its importance has coincided with the modern attenuation of home life. These ambient messages grease the slide for us all to descend into an exaggerated view of work at the expense of home. Compounding that is the unavoidable fact that jobs often include deadlines and pressure which can understandably claim a more immediate urgency than that of home life. All of this, creates a tendency to subvert home for work, even without an explicit intention to do so.
But there are good reasons to be wary of such a tendency. When men fail to privilege home above work as expressed in how they live each day, it has a domino effect on the family, and therefore society, in several ways.
Firstly, the husband can grow to see his family as a burden getting in the way of his higher purpose which is his career. He begins to see his principal identity as derived from work, and his primary relationships that of employer and employee. Home then starts to adopt similar characteristics, his family may be subconsciously reduced to the equivalent of employees in his charge.
Secondly, the mother’s mission is trivialized. She begins to sense her own work at home is not their common life’s work but merely her burden to endure in service of a higher mission that is his alone and for which she has not acquiesced. If work is a separate and vying good to home it’s more natural that she begins to want that separate good for herself even at the expense of home life, which now has diminished in value for her as well.
Thirdly, their unity of purpose dissolves. The often tedious work of home is elevating and ennobling when acknowledged by both husband and wife as a taking part in an extolled good, valuable in itself and for the sake of their ultimate end of beatitude. Without this unity of purpose these duties seem merely menial and heavy — and merely menial and heavy work will quickly feel suffocating and oppressive for whomever shoulders it. Resentment calcifies like a tumor as husband and wife become competitors rather than allies.
Finally, there are repercussions for society that might be obvious but are worth spelling out. Sons will learn about manhood and daughters about their worth in the eyes of men in large part based upon what axis a father orients his life. Both will begin to understand God’s love through their father. Far less than their father’s job promotion, children will remember how their dad prioritized their mom and them in the small details that make up the composition of their childhood. It’s not the work of one evening or a trip to Disneyland, but it’s the quiet persevering work of a lifetime. This work, cheerfully and generously done, will reverberate into society and future generations. The neglect of it will as well.
The stories we tell as a culture about the dynamics between husband and wife matter. When men and women are united in giving preeminence to home the story can be one of families working in concert, with generosity and gratitude exchanged back and forth with a currency that multiplies with each exchange. It’s the story of ordinary people living their quiet shared purpose, a purpose that saturates their hearts, and inclines their wills toward God and one another. This love story is transformative and extraordinary precisely because of the seemingly everyday subjects and acts which constitute its operations.
For too long we’ve repeated the cultural lore about the domineering and distant man, and the oppressed and under actualized woman, both wanting to break from the tedium of middle class values. The modern response to this has been that we’ve valued home too much and at too great an expense. What this critique fails to see is that home feels like a prison not because we’ve given it too much importance but because we’ve given it far too little.