Is “Wokeness” a Religion?

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Is “Wokeness” a Religion?

April 1, 2026

50 min

The Democratic Party is the home of the religious “nones.” And yet it is also a bastion of wokeness and language policing. With its desire to maintain its own purity, its own creeds, and its own take on “original sin,” is wokeism on the left becoming its own kind of religion? Join Matt and Shadi as they unpack the status of the Left today. Shadi examines the intersection of his own political and religious identities, noting the ways the Left requires religious people to reduce themselves to fit its mold. Matt talks about the ways he noticed the Left become disoriented after Trump’s second win. And together they ask: Is wokeness a religion?

HOST
Shadi Hamid
Shadi Hamid is a columnist at The Washington Post and Senior Fellow at the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
HOST
Matthew Kaemingk
Matthew Kaemingk is Professor of Public Theology at Theological University Utrecht and Senior Fellow at the Center for Public Justice. He also co-directs the Templeton Pluralism Fellowship.

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Is “Wokeness” a Religion?

Is “Wokeness” a Religion?

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