Wokism: The Moral Theology of the Devil

Thomas Merton had their number

Protesters that shut down a talk on gender ideology at McGill University in January. PHOTO BY DAVE SIDAWAY /Montreal Gazette

I’m currently reading New Seeds of Contemplation by American Trappist Catholic monk and wonderful writer Thomas Merton. Recently, I got to a chapter titled, “The Moral Theology of the Devil,” and I was blown away by what an accurate description it was of the modern woke progressive mindset.

The chapter begins:

The devil has a whole theology and philosophy, which will explain, to anyone who will listen, that created things are evil, that men are evil, that God created evil and that He directly wills that men should suffer evil.

Simply replace “evil” with “bigoted,” “phobic,” “hateful,” or “alt-right” and you have a description of the attitude that characterizes progressive movements like gender ideology and critical race theory. Humans are bad and must be perpetually scolded to “do better,” even though nothing we do will ever actually be good enough.