CLARENCE PAGE: If ‘woke’ is a religion, why not ‘Trumpism’?

Americans don’t ever bounds their religions to the astir beatified of beliefs.

Pollsters who support way of specified matters study that the numbers of religiously unaffiliated — describing their spiritual individuality arsenic atheist, agnostic oregon “nothing successful particular” — present stands astatine 26 percent, up from 17 percent successful 2009, according to Pew Research.

Some telephone it the “rise of the nones,” abbreviated for non-believers. But that doesn’t mean they person abandoned each trappings of religion. Americans don’t bounds their religions to the astir holy. Sometimes their devotion is bound tightly with their politics.

That thought came to caput arsenic I mused astir John McWhorter’s latest book, which bears the timely rubric “Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America.”

A Columbia University linguist and intelligence provocateur, peculiarly successful his analyses of contention relations, McWhorter is popularly known — immoderate would accidental infamously — for giving dependable to the self-made voiceless. He says galore would similar to accidental oregon rise questions successful our satellite of fickle connection etiquette but hesitate to talk up for fearfulness of inviting “a punch successful the nose.”

I winced astatine archetypal erstwhile I saw successful his rubric yet different setback for my struggling run to erase the connection “woke” from today’s societal and governmental discourse. But McWhorter, successful his ain provocative way, really joins that combat from different angle.

He argues that definite strains of today’s anti-racism question and its advocates person efficaciously turned the origin into a signifier of religion, demanding strict obedience and unluckily muzzling specified niceties arsenic nuance and debate.His aim, arsenic helium puts it, is to explicate “why thing truthful destructive and incoherent is truthful charismatic to truthful galore bully people” and “why truthful galore Black radical are attracted to a religion that treats america arsenic simpletons.”

Appropriately, McWhorter forgoes existent woke manner by spelling “Black” with the accepted lowercase “b.” That statement besides goes on.

But, 1 asks, has the taste left, on with immoderate large institutions and companies, gone excessively acold successful embracing anti-racist ideas?

I person to accidental yes. Pundits and others person recovered ample fodder successful commentary astir unfair presumptions of “white privilege” and “Black victimhood” that don’t ever basal up nether person examination.

I inactive bristle, for example, implicit a achromatic Chicago instrumentality prof who had to look a disciplinary process past twelvemonth for quoting the N-word successful class, speechmaking it from the substance of a tribunal case.

Or the San Francisco schoolhouse board’s determination to region the sanction of Abraham Lincoln, among different humanities figures, from nationalist schools due to the fact that of his questionable policies toward Native Americans, a determination that 1 genitor rather correctly said sounded “almost similar a parody of leftist activism.”

Sorry, it’s real.

But if wokeness has taken connected spiritual overtones successful the passions of immoderate believers successful the superheated ambiance pursuing the execution of George Floyd, truthful has its opposite, commonly known arsenic Trumpism.

This often occurred to maine arsenic I was trolled by immoderate of my much colorfully blimpish readers during Barack Obama’s rise, particularly with messages referring to him arsenic “your Savior.”

But with Donald Trump’s astonishing emergence to the White House, I was amazed and impressed by the aforesaid level of boisterous devotion, lone by a antithetic subset of Americans.

I person since been further impressed by Trump’s occurrence successful energizing multitudes of conservatives to instrumentality implicit the Republican Party, peculiarly with the assistance of achromatic evangelical Christians, among whom his approvals soared supra 80 percent.

Those numbers look to person held up truthful remarkably well, adjacent aft immoderate of his devotees attacked the Capitol connected Jan. 6, that astir nary Republicans tin expect to person a accidental to triumph a superior without his blessing.

Those who effort bash truthful hazard banishment arsenic “RINOs,” oregon Republicans successful Name Only, arsenic does anyone who fails to amusement implicit devotion to his dominance.

One tin instrumentality specified comparisons lone truthful far, of course. Religion is simply a strategy of content and worship of a superhuman controlling power, dictionaries say, particularly a idiosyncratic God oregon gods and grounded successful religion arsenic overmuch oregon much than logic.

That’s wherefore I similar to support my authorities and religion arsenic abstracted arsenic possible. My religion tells maine that God is infallible. Politics has yet to nutrient anyone who deserves that level of devotion, and I don’t expect that it ever will.

Contact Clarence Page astatine cpage@chicagotribune.com.