A dark and disquieting influence has infiltrated the modern church, casting long shadows across the pulpit and pews alike. Though this enemy began in a far subtler way—cloaked in the guise of social enlightenment, a pied piper playing the seductive melody of “woke” culture—it’s become a brazen foe, clad in pitch and spewing forth blasphemy. It calls itself “progress,” a higher consciousness, a deeper understanding of justice, but it is, in truth, a sophisticated seduction by worldly wisdom. It’s a cultural chimera, bearing the promise of societal redemption but ultimately leading to division, dissension, and a devastating drift from Scripture’s divine clarity. The church, to our dismay, is ensnared in this snare, her lampstand dimmed by this beguiling fog of false wisdom.

Brett McCracken, a “highly esteemed” (I say that tongue-in-cheek) contributor to The Gospel Coalition, recently re-tweeted: “White Christians in America must partner with, listen to, defer to nonwhite & nonwestern Christian leaders. We need humility, hope, revival.”

On the surface, his appeal for unity, humility, and revival may appear commendable to the undiscerning eye. However, it’s the presuppositions behind the tweet that require closer scrutiny, specifically the notion that one ethnicity should “defer” to another.

To be clear, the Bible encourages believers to bear with each other, to listen, and to learn from one another (Colossians 3:13). The church is diverse, made up of God’s elect from every tribe, tongue, and nation. However, the Bible never singles out one ethnicity to take a backseat, to “defer” to another, as McCracken suggests. This idea, candidly, is a distortion of Scripture. In fact, Paul makes the exact opposite point in Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Paul’s declaration clearly dismantles any hierarchy based on race, social status, or gender and asserts the equality of all believers in Christ. In God’s family, no ethnicity has a greater say or lesser voice. There’s no premium section or economy class. We are all on level ground, on equal footing at the foot of the cross.

McCracken’s assertion that white Christians should “defer” to nonwhite Christians contradicts this biblical truth. It fuels division, not unity. It subtly feeds into the worldview of the “woke church” movement, which fosters guilt, resentment, and division rather than the biblical model of unity, forgiveness, and reconciliation. It imposes the secular concept of power dynamics and Intersectionality onto the church, undermining the glorious reality of our equal standing in Christ.

To be clear, McCracken’s tweet is not well-intentioned, it is merely a logical outpouring of his indoctrination by the woke church movement. Solutions to social ills—whether real or perceived—do not lie in promoting one group of people over another. That’s Marxism, plain and simple. In fact, as I wrote in another article, the woke church movement is actually a damnable heresy. But the only solution to these things lies in promoting Christ and His kingdom and obedience to His commandments—the Great Commission.

Our aim, therefore, should be to uphold biblical truth in the face of cultural pressure, to reject worldly wisdom for divine wisdom, and to contend for the unity Christ died to achieve. Anything less is an injustice to the gospel we claim to uphold. In this fight, there’s no room for compromise, and there’s no time for complacency. The stakes are too high, and the Gospel is too precious. As Martin Luther stated in the face of adversity, “Here I stand, I can do no other.” And neither should we.