25AR30-04

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AR 30:4 - Is "wokeness" really a religion?

In this issue:

OPUS DEI - preying on vulnerable Catholics — even children — "to fill its numerary ranks"

REINCARNATION - the available evidence "certainly does not compel such a belief"

WOKEISM - "stark contrast to … the narrating cosmology of the U.S."

Apologia Report 30:4 (1,693)
January 31, 2025

OPUS DEI

"The case against Opus Dei" by Gareth Gore (National Catholic Register, Jan 14 '25) -- Gore reports that "there's an insidious underbelly to the organization that most members know little about. Opus Dei is at its core an alleged abusive cult that preys on vulnerable individuals and even children to fill its numerary ranks." Many former Opus Dei numeraries are cited <www.tinyurl.com/2t4zaxwj> by Gore.

   Gore recognizes that this warning is "likely to come as a shock to many who have come into close contact with Opus Dei over the years. The organization has successfully inserted itself into the very fabric of American Catholicism: the previous head of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is an Opus Dei priest; the organization runs several schools across the country and is present near Ivy League campuses; it also offers spiritual guidance to some of the country's most influential Catholics.

   "There's good reason for this misapprehension: Opus Dei has been very successful at marketing itself over the years."

   Gore gives voice to the labor abuse of "celibate men and women charged with doing all the work, that of recruiting ordinary married Catholics as members and providing them with spiritual direction. There are hundreds of numeraries in the United States. They live highly controlled existences in gender-segregated residences across the country.

   "The Vatican is well aware of this abuse and is currently reviewing a 2021 complaint lodged by dozens of women, who are former numeraries from Argentina and Paraguay. According to The Associated Press, they allege labor exploitation and abuse of power and of conscience.

   "In 2024, federal prosecutors in Argentina accused Opus Dei of human trafficking and labor exploitation. <www.tinyurl.com/u7v5azj2> The organization is accused of systematically seeking out adolescents and girls from impoverished communities, of coercing them into joining Opus Dei as 'numerary assistants' — effectively unpaid domestic servants — and then trafficking them around the world. Prosecutors seek to summon four Opus Dei priests to testify, per AP." <www.tinyurl.com/6y4jr96s>

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REINCARNATION

"Do You Believe in Life After Death? These Scientists Study It" by Saskia Solomon (New York Times, Jan 3 '25) -- "Is reincarnation real? Is communication from the 'beyond' possible? A small set of academics are trying to find out, case by case."

   Who are they? The current research team at the Division of Perceptual Studies, or DOPS, <www.tinyurl.com/4dcrp3vj> a parapsychology research unit founded in 1967 within the University of Virginia's school of medicine, include: recently retired director Jim Tucker, David Acunzo, Marina Weiler, Elliot Gish, Marieta Pehlivanova and Philip Cozzolino.

   Solomon notes the department's leadership succession after that of founding director Ian Stevenson, and explains: "Each of the division's researchers has committed their career - and, to some extent, risked their professional reputation - to the study of the so-called paranormal. This includes near-death and out-of-body experiences, altered states of consciousness, and past lives research, which all come under the portmanteau of 'parapsychology.' They are scientists that have strayed from the usual path.

   "DOPS is a curious institution. There are only a few other labs in the world undertaking similar lines of research - the Koestler Parapsychology Unit at the University of Edinburgh, <www.tinyurl.com/muud9x94> for instance - with DOPS being by far the most prominent. The only other major parapsychology unit in the United States was Princeton's Engineering Anomalies Research Laboratory, or PEAR, <www.pear-lab.com> which focused on telekinesis and extrasensory perception. That unit was shuttered in 2007." 

   In describing their work, Solomon reports that "The team has logged hundreds of cases of children who claim to remember past lives from all continents except Antarctica. 'And that's only because we haven't looked for cases there,' said Dr. Jim Tucker, who has been investigating claims of past lives for more than two decades. He recently retired after having been the director of DOPS since 2015."

   Solomon adds that "researchers have yielded findings they believe are interesting. The strongest cases, according to the DOPS researchers, have been found in children under the age of 10, and the majority of remembrances tend to occur between the ages of 2 and 6, after which they appear to fade. The median time between death and rebirth is about 16 months, a period the researchers see as a form of intermission. Very often, the child has memories that match up to the life of a deceased relative.

   "And yet for all of this meticulous work, Dr. Stevenson was aware of the limitations of past lives research. 'The evidence is not flawless, and it certainly does not compel such a belief,' he explained in a lecture at The University of Southwestern Louisiana (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette) <www.tinyurl.com/5bph5wx7> in 1989. 'Even the best of it is open to alternative interpretations, and one can only censure those who say there is no evidence whatsoever.' ...

   "The researchers hope that the idea of the mind surviving bodily death will be better understood in the years to come - and taken more seriously.

   "'I doubt there's going to be one finding or one study that suddenly convinces everyone that we need to change how we understand reality, but I think it can encourage people to explore that,' Dr. Tucker said, referring to the work that has been done in the field of past lives research in the last century."

   Tucker concludes: "I think it's a more hopeful view than the idea that this is just a random universe that is meaningless. Of course, people find this in their religion, but if people could see that there is this aspect of themselves that continues, it could help with grief and death anxiety, and, you know, hopefully help people treat each other a little better." <www.archive.is/5tan7>

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WOKEISM

"Wokeness Was Never a Religion" by Katherine Dee (Dispatch, Jan 6 '25) -- "At the height of 'wokeness' (or 'social justice' if you like), writers like Helen Lewis and John McWhorter speculated that it might be 'our new religion,' supplanting Christianity at a time when society was becoming increasingly secular."

   Dee suggests how Wokeness might have been interpreted as a religious experience: "George Floyd, the black man whose death ignited nationwide unrest in the summer of 2020, seemed to have been sanctified, with murals of his face prominently placed in almost every major American city. Politicians and celebrities regularly, and quite publicly, engaged in what seemed like ritual acts: Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer wearing Ghanaian kente cloths, people posting black squares on Instagram, or Gal Gadot enlisting her closest celebrity friends to sing John Lennon's 'Imagine.' Corporate America, accelerating beyond the stale diversity trainings and sexual harassment workshops that characterized '90s and '00s 'political correctness,' rushed headlong into the era of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Ordinary people confessed their privilege and internalized biases compulsively. Some still ended up 'canceled,' while others fearfully retreated into self-imposed exile before the mob could cancel them first.

   "It was a strange (and possibly ongoing) cultural moment. Yet describing this phenomenon as a religion never felt entirely accurate.

   "There was no divine or supernatural element, for one. McWhorter might argue that not all religions need one, but it seems like a glaring blindspot. What, then, is the difference between a religion and any other belief system? While figures like George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor, and - more recently, though to a much lesser extent - Jordan Neely took on a kind of mythic, folk-hero-like stature, they lacked truly religious character. ... There was no church and, as anyone who has been 'canceled' could attest, no promise of redemption or transcendence. ...

   "In a 2023 article <www.tinyurl.com/3tzkxafe> published in The Atlantic, Tyler Austin Harper proposed that wokeness is not a religion so much as a New Age-inspired self-help grammar. Harper argued that the culture of 'doing the work' - often expressed in corporate DEI initiatives - reflected a broader American obsession with ongoing personal improvement. ... Racial sensitivity training, Harper pointed out, has historical roots in the Human Potential Movement's 'encounter groups.' Many specific and distinct features of wokeness were born of New Age thought. ...

   "There are many important differences between wokeness and any manner of New Age thinking. In fact, what annoys many woke people about New Age philosophy is how deeply libertarian it is. ...

   "It stands athwart the idea that anyone can succeed with the right mindset, an axiom that lies at the heart of New Age belief systems. Manifestation is downright insulting in the face of something as overbearing and insidious as 'white supremacy.' ...

   "I would argue wokeness stands in stark contrast to what we might consider the narrating cosmology of the U.S. ...

   "Manifestation and prosperity gospel, two sides of the same coin, are instructive here as well, both built on the premise that focused intention - one urging you to 'ask the universe,' the other to pray to God - can directly influence life in the physical world. ...

   "From one angle, then, wokeness can act as both a kind of filtering mechanism and a coping mechanism to the 'lift yourself up by the bootstraps' mindset. ... It's not that you didn't work hard enough, it's that you're being stopped. You're being oppressed. It's the material that's getting in the way. Wokeness explains what forces are preventing you from self-actualization. ...

   "Wokeness is the great regulator that emerges near the breaking point of any system: academic departments facing resource shortages, media markets oversaturated with voices, or a worldview that assumes everyone can succeed with the right mindset. It says the system is rigged. It emerges directly as a critique of the American Dream to those who feel it's not working and are not appealed to by other explanations - to name just one, regulations that impede the growth of new industries. 

   "Or put another way: When our shared religion says 'Yes,' wokeness retorts with an unbelieving 'No.'" <www.tinyurl.com/ypkz35tp>

   Just redefine and repackage it (and "we're lost in space all over again").

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