There is way speak about a big change within the culture of the West that is occurring at present, dubbed a ‘vibe shift’, which could change into very significant for the church and for Christians within the months and years to return.
For a few years, the echelons of power of the West have gave the impression to be firmly set in the identical ideology – secular, liberal, and increasingly left wing – and against Christianity. This has permeated all of the mainstream media, political and government organisations, academia, and other parts of the establishment. They are perceived to be hostile to individuals who have more socially conservative positions – witness for instance, the ostracisation of creator JK Rowling for expressing a ‘gender critical’ opinion – which is the assumption that biological sex matters, and that ladies’s spaces have to be reserved for those with XX chromosomes. Many university campuses and other powerful organisations have ‘cancelled’ people who find themselves considered to have the fallacious opinions on anything from immigration to marriage, Palestine to political parties.
But there are some signs that this ideology, often called ‘woke’, could also be on the wane, and with it the associated beliefs that encourage hostile battles between demographic groups, and progressive ideas about sex, family and gender.
Evidence of a swing to the ‘right’ each politically, and towards Christianity, come from many sources – though increasingly the terms ‘right’ and ‘left’ are deemed insufficient to explain our turbulent and confusing public politics.
The strongest evidence of a political shift is the resounding triumph for Trump within the US elections, despite the years of outright hysteria and hatred that were directed towards the property tycoon via all means of firm power reminiscent of academia and the media. There can also be more support for ‘populist’ right wing parties in Europe.
Evidence of a change in stance towards the Christian faith includes the general public conversion of former Muslim Ayaan Hirsi Ali and other influential commentators reminiscent of ex-Navy Seal and podcaster Shawn Ryan, controversial commentator Russell Brand, and the wife and daughter of Jordan Peterson, if not the person himself just yet. Reading between the lines of the work of other high profile commentators, there are other converts who aren’t yet discussing their beliefs publicly.
This shift is even affecting Hollywood, long seen as a propagator of liberal beliefs and hostile to the religion. Christian actor Neal McDonough recently told Glenn Beck that the movie studios are suddenly showing an interest in movies about faith, which he has “never, ever” seen occur before.
The recent proclamation of the Gospel by Christian apologist Wesley Huff during a protracted interview on the influential podcast of Joe Rogan – who also appears to be taking an interest in Christianity recently – is one other.
Our church leaders are beginning to notice, and there’s lots of speak about change “on the bottom” with more openness in most people to the religion. “Another aspect of the vibe shift – plenty of people have a fresh interest in Jesus and Christianity,” said UK head of the Evangelical Alliance Peter Lynas recently on X. “The Jesus Vibe Shift is real,” said Anglican priest Fr Jon Beadle on X.
Lynas went further on a video, saying that he believes the “Overton window” is shifting – the bounds of what’s deemed to be acceptable or popular in society. He perceives the change to be more in favour of family and kids and tradition. “There’s also a faith shift happening, Christianity is unquestionably becoming more acceptable again,” he said in a response video on X. “The openness to faith is sweet, it’s great, particularly amongst men, an area where the church has struggled.”
Political vibes
Much of the negativity geared toward Christianity in recent times is political quite than religious, and related to what was once called “family values”. For example, when former Conservative MP and practising Christian Miriam Cates – who is thought to be certainly one of the few actual conservatives within the mostly liberal Conservative party – said that it is best for a toddler to be with their biological mother and father on Times Radio, it caused outrage. Just expressing opinions that may have been perfectly normal just a couple of years ago, reminiscent of the assumption that biological sex matters, or that nations should restrict and defend their borders, have been harshly oppressed by some figures on the liberal/left.
These recent attacks follow a few years of condemnation of other socially conservative positions that many Christians hold, reminiscent of that marriage is for men and ladies, questioning modern ‘feminism’, or that abortion is fallacious. US evangelicals have also received lots of criticism for his or her support for Trump.
But the latter appears to be becoming more socially acceptable. In his last inauguration ceremony, organisers struggled to search out an artist who would perform. The indisputable fact that singer Carrie Underwood agreed to sing “America the Beautiful” this yr was described as a “total vibe shift” by The Free Press.
Further evidence of a rejection of “woke” ideas includes the recent announcement by Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg that his many social media corporations – including Facebook and Instagram – will stop censoring posts about “topics like immigration and gender” which are “out of touch with mainstream discourse”.
“It’s a visit to listen to Zuckerberg use the term ‘legacy media’,” said conservative Christian commentator Megan Basham on X. “If that is not evidence that the vibe shift is just not just political but cultural, nothing is.”
As well as Meta, other large corporations are reducing their controversial ‘Diversity, Equity and Inclusion’ (DEI) programs, reminiscent of online sales giant Amazon, supermarket chain Walmart and fast food company McDonald’s.
Implications for the Church
If this ‘vibe shift’ is real and long-lasting, it’ll result in a substantial change for the Church, which has long struggled to regulate to living in a hostile culture. It has change into used to an institution that criticises its traditional teaching on marriage and abortion, and openly seeks to have a good time promiscuity, multiple sexualities and genders, amongst other things.
Many churches have responded to this so-called ‘progressive’ environment by either adopting these beliefs themselves, or by restricting their discussion of those subjects so as to not offend or deter people from the Church. Members of those congregations might change into very confused if the general public’s ideological stance changes – and will even cling on to liberalism because the ‘inclusive’ or ‘non-judgemental’ option for a Christian.
Churches which have held to more conservative and traditional ethics might initially have a good time this ‘vibe shift’ that’s more in keeping with their beliefs, at the least on the surface. But Jesus is just not just someone who teaches strict sexual morals, neither is he just a practice to be upheld. He teaches radical love, generosity, forgiveness, and the entire give up of self to God and his purposes through the reworking power and love of his resurrection. This is radically different to each progressive ‘wokism’ and traditional political conservatism. A ‘vibe shift’ is simply spiritually good if it helps people to search out real give up, love, trust and faith in Christ.
Heather Tomlinson is a contract Christian author. Find more of her work at https://heathertomlinson.substack.com or via X (twitter) @heathertomli
