Several times during his confirmation hearings this week, Pete Hegseth invoked his “lord and savior, Jesus.” Yet he employed the reference more as a shield or lifeline than an indication of Christian humility or kindness. A big part of what made Hegseth so objectionable was his utter lack of humility; throughout, he exhibited the bravado and smug self-satisfaction of a schoolyard bully. His target was anything that could be described as “left-wing woke.” The irony is that if Jesus were alive today, He would be “woke.” 

What exactly are Republicans afraid of? What are they critical of when they smear someone (or something) as “woke”? 

The earliest known use of the idea “woke” comes from African American culture, where it signified social awareness. To be woke was to be awakened to the harsh reality of racial inequality in this country, the lack of equal opportunity in a land that prided itself on exactly that.  In 1962, the New York Times published an article by William Melvin Kelley titled “If You’re Woke, You Dig It” that captured the essence of the Civil Rights movement. During their incarceration in Mississippi, Freedom Riders often sang the gospel song, “Woke up this morning,” the only lyric of which Mr. Hegseth might like to know is “with my mind stayed on Jesus.”

Yet today’s Republican Party seems threatened by anything left of Barry Goldwater, whose candidacy for president of the United States not only coincided with the birth of “wokeness” but helped bring it about. Remember that southern Democrats and Dixiecrats switched to the Republican Party when Goldwater campaigned against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The South voted reliably Democratic for a century until President Harry S. Truman established his Committee on Civil Rights and issued his Executive Order 9981 to end discrimination in the military in 1948. After President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina bolted from the Democratic Party as the only states other than his home state of Arizona to support Goldwater. 

When Ronald Reagan invited the nation to “make America great again,” his targeted base knew he harkened back to the times before Truman and LBJ.  Also, we needn’t look so hard for the “again” to which Donald Trump wishes to return, presumably that same time when America was oblivious (as in “asleep”) to racial and social injustice.

In his opening statement before Congress, Mr. Hegseth claimed, “I know what I don’t know.” Maybe not.  He may want to reconsider his commitment to Jesus, whose mission was to reveal God’s love, humility, and kindness---all things the hopeful Secretary of Defense seems to abhor. Given the position to which he aspires, it is unsurprising that Hegseth concentrated on “warfighting and lethality,” but his arrogant and dismissive tone, combined with his smarmy attack on Trump’s “enemies within,” seemed decidedly un-Christian. To be woke is to be kind, to be Christian.  For some unknown reason, Pete seems to think kindness, sensitivity, and concern for the suffering of others are tantamount to weakness. 

The Bible is full of awakenings. Many of the apostles experienced spiritual awakenings in their journey with Jesus, awakenings marked by revelation, repentance, recognition, and transformation, all defining elements of “wokeness.” The Old and New Testaments of the Bible advocated awareness of the suffering of others and called believers to respond with compassion, mercy, and justice. 

In Exodus 3:8, when God called Moses, He said, “I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them...”  In Matthew 22:37-40, Jesus highlighted the importance of loving others by recognizing their suffering and caring for them as you would care for yourself.  Isaiah 1:17, “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed.” Micah was all about social justice; Micah 6:8, “And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” James the brother of Jesus, also known as James the Just, emphasized that faith must be accompanied by action, specifically, awareness of and response to the suffering of others. Awareness and wokeness are one and the same. 

So, wake up, Pete Hegseth.  Wake up, Republicans. Your behavior and agenda are nothing like that of your supposed lord and savior. God wants you to be woke.