The Mother of ‘Woke’: How ‘Civil Rights’ Poisoned America
"Sexual orientation is no different than race. We have captured the liberal establishment and the press. You have neither the faith nor the strength to fight us, so you might as well surrender now.”
The Civil Rights Movement of 1964 was never truly about ending segregation and discrimination according to race, it was always about power and Neo Marxist ideals and forcing social change by selecting and empowering a vulnerable group to be on the proletariat side of the dialectic.
“You can either let us marry people of the same sex, or you will abolish marriage altogether…” (Warren, 1987)
Coming in June, Voddie Baucham will release a new book about this very topic titled It’s Not Like Being Black: How Sexual Activists Hijacked The Civil Rights Movement. Armor of Truth has been given the privilege of an advanced copy of the book and we will be writing a full review on it after it is released. This article is to give you a solid foundation for understanding the battle we are in today with the most crucial information about it, and to highlight the importance of Baucham’s new book. As a teaser, Baucham writes in the introduction,
“You may think all of this happened overnight. I assure you, it didn't. What we are witnessing now is the result of a long series of ideological shifts, court decisions, political maneuvers, and educational strategies whose aims still have yet to be fully realized. And at the heart of much of the change is the idea that the battle for the rights of so-called "sexual minorities" is the latest front in America's civil rights struggle, stemming from a single lie that took root in our culture: "Sexual orientation is no different than race." (Baucham, 2024. Introduction, page 5)
The Pendulum Swings Left
On the surface, Civil Rights has always been portrayed as a moral crusade to end racism. The benefit of time and the diligence of some brave voices, like Baucham’s, reveals that the movement was less about achieving racial equality and more about leveraging circumstances to instigate broad social change by empowering a marginalized or “vulnerable” group to serve as the proletariat in a complex dialectical agenda driven by Neo-Marxist ideals.
Neo-Marxism extends classical Marxist theory by focusing on cultural and social factors alongside economic class struggle. Herbert Marcuse, a leading Neo-Marxist thinker, argued that oppressed minority groups could become the new revolutionary force in society. Marcuse's influence on the intellectual climate of the 1960s cannot be understated. He asserted that
"[T]he needs of oppressed minorities, together with those of students and other educated segments of the population, can turn into explosive material in the struggle against the established society" (Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man).
The Civil Rights Movement was at first a strategic mobilization of African Americans as the new proletariat. By highlighting the systemic injustices faced by black Americans, leaders of the movement aspired to challenge and change the existing social order. In "Critique of Dialectical Reason", Jean-Paul Sartre, a contemporary of Marcuse, wrote,
"The revolutionary struggle is the struggle for power, not simply for the abolition of particular oppressions" (Sartre, 1960).
This underscores the idea that the ultimate goal was to shift power dynamics fundamentally. Civil rights legislation has given progressives control over the most important levers of government. Progressives have maintained that control, and will continue to dominate as long as the public fears being called racist, homophobic, transphobic, or a climate/science denier or anti vaxxer, etc.
Christopher Caldwell, author of, The Age of Entitlement, in a speech at Hillsdale College in 2020 said,
This “civil rights” model of governance by Executive Orders, Litigation, and legal redress has become the model of, as Barack Obama put it, “the total transformation of the United States of America.”
It has not come about from a love of truth or any commitment to justice founded on transcendent, immutable principles. The cause of our current state of deep moral, spiritual, and rational decline is easy to pinpoint. Again, as de facto leader of third-wave Progressive doctrine, Barack Obama, said in The Audacity of Hope,
“Implicit in [the Constitution’s] structure, in the very idea of ordered liberty, was a rejection of absolute truth.” (Obama, 2007)
Obama’s statement suggests that the Constitution was deliberately designed to be a “living document,” able to adapt and change over time as the nation and its values evolve. His use of the phrase, "ordered liberty" implies that individual freedoms must be balanced to maintain social order.
Since the 1960s, Radical Progressives, including the former President, assert that the Framers believed that the truths and values people hold can change over time, and thus, they intentionally avoided being overly prescriptive or dogmatic in the Constitution. A blinding contradiction rears it ugly head here. What the Framers were anticipating was exactly such a tyranny as this; a group aspires to power claiming absolute authority rests some set of facts apart from the true common good and apart from the will of “Nature’s God.”
“Civil Rights has turned out to be the mightiest instrument of enforcement the country has ever seen… the largest undertaking of any kind in American history. …The re-interpretation of America’s entire history and purpose in light of its race problem is the main ideological legacy of the last 50 years.“ (Caldwell 2020)
As philosopher and psychologist William James called it, this is “The moral equivalent of war…” (James, 1910)
Since the 1960s, the Democratic (Progressive/Liberal) party has prevailed politically, a fact made clear by the progressive decay of America’s sense of morality and the loss of reasonable discourse in the public square. Over this period of half a century, Americans have divided themselves into two incompatible cultures. A slow swinging of the pendulum further to the left.
Official cultural narrative insists the Civil Rights Act of 1964 brought the country together at a time when it was being pulled apart. What it really is is an unprecedented concentration of power that created new crimes involving discrimination in many walks of public and private life and crippled The First Amendment.
Lyndon Johnson and the drafters of civil rights legislation insisted that these extra-constitutional, or un-constitutional mechanisms would be necessary to “flatten the curve” of racism. If the spirit of the law was to humiliate Southern bigots and overturn Southern segregation, the letter of the law put the entire country and all of its institutions under threats of lawsuits and prosecutions for discrimination. When the work of civil rights legislation was done, when “de jure segregation” was stopped, these powers were not stopped, scaled down, or reassessed. On the contrary, they intensified. (Caldwell, 2020)
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Confused Faith
Martin Luther King Jr. has consistently been refereed to as a man of God doing the Lord’s work of seeking justice for the disenfranchised. King’s faith, however, is not so clearly defined leaning more toward Enlightenment principles than the Law of God. Nevertheless, King often made powerful appeals to moral imperatives. Radical Marxists know well that cries for justice readily rev up the innate sense for justice inside us all.
Beneath the surface of King’s appeals was a sophisticated strategy clearly aligned with Neo-Marxist principles. King himself acknowledged in his Letter from Birmingham Jail, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." What is plainly seen now some 60 years after the castration of the Constitution is that universal appeals to justice can be effective tools to gain mass support for a revolutionary agenda, a seeming paradox that confirms humankind is created in the image of a just God.
"But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." (Amos 5:24 ESV)
"Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause." (Isaiah 1:17 ESV)
But when human beings turn their heart away from the will of the living God, this innate sense of justice can easily become distorted and confused with the desires of a godless cultural movement. We are easily led astray from what is true, good, and beautiful when we “listen to our heart” or rely on our own sense of justice.
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9, ESV)
"...They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them." (Romans 2:14-15 ESV)
Too often, in the name of civil or human rights, men have taken up a cause because it seemed right or felt like the right thing to do without realizing they had turned completely from God’s will, lost the ability to think clearly, and taken up the cause of the enemy which is undoubtedly anti-human.
"See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes." (Ecclesiastes 7:29; ESV)
Deviation from the plain teaching of the whole counsel of God will always result in a corrupted sense of justice, leading to moral and ethical confusion.
"For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God…Claiming to be wise, they became fools...God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done." (Romans 1:21, 28; ESV)
The Marxist Homosexual Origins of Civil Rights
It was known early on that the Civil Rights Movement had been co-opted by agents with an ulterior motive. Civil Rights activist Bayard Rustin was a member of the American Socialist Party, the Communist Party USA, a radical Marxist, and homosexual who was mentored by Gandhi himself. Rustin, of course, became a key advisor and strategist of the Civil Rights Movement, once saying,
Today, blacks are no longer the litmus paper or the barometer of social change. …The new “niggers” are gays. . . . It is in this sense that gay people are the new barometer for social change. . . . The question of social change should be framed with the most vulnerable group in mind: gay people. (Schmidt, 2020)
But what most people are likely not aware of is that Rustin was the force behind the scenes shaping Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s public image and messages. Most notably, Rustin was the ideological influence behind many of King’s most famous works. Rustin was King’s ghostwriter which means he spoke for King as King.
“I Have A Dream”
Rustin’s most notable contribution was to the most historic moment of the Civil Rights movement, the iconic, “I Have a Dream" Speech. Rustin contributed to the overall planning and messaging of the event, ensuring the speech aligned with the broader goals of the movement.
"The Montgomery Story"
Rustin helped King draft speeches and strategic communications during the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-1956), which was King's first major leadership role in the Civil Rights Movement.
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Additionally, Rustin drafted key statements, policy documents, and speeches for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the organization founded by King to coordinate nonviolent resistance against segregation.
The "Letter from Birmingham Jail"
Rustin’s influence is seen in the strategic framing and rhetorical style of this letter written by King while imprisoned in 1963.
Strategic Documents and Plans
Rustin played a crucial role in developing the strategic documents and plans for various civil rights campaigns, including the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, for which he was the primary organizer.
Bayard Rustin’s work extended beyond mere ghostwriting; he was instrumental in advising King on the philosophy and tactics of nonviolent resistance, influenced by Rustin’s own Quaker beliefs and his study of Mahatma Gandhi's methods. Rustin, the Marxist homosexual’s behind-the-scenes role was fundamental in shaping the strategic direction and rhetoric for the MLK front of the Civil Rights Movement. King was well aware of Rustin’s homosexuality, his status as a registered sex offender (Schmidt, 2020), and affinity for mingling black social justice with gay social justice. The movement was a subversive tactic from the start.
Some recognized the appropriation of blacks in America and heavily critiqued the subversive social agenda. Malcolm X, for instance, was wary of alliances that seemed to use the black struggle for broader ideological purposes. He cautioned,
"The white liberal differs from the white conservative only in one way: the liberal is more deceitful than the conservative... both want power, but the white liberal is more dangerous" (Malcolm X, 1965).
He wasn’t alone. This statement highlights the suspicion that some leaders within the movement harbored regarding the true intentions of their allies.
The True Enemy of Civil Rights is Christ
Fast forward 50 years to 2015 and the landmark Supreme Court decision on the Obergefell v. Hodges case. Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy declared that the Constitution allows persons to define and express their identity lawfully and to marry someone of the same sex lawfully. Baucham writes
“This lie came to a head in 2015, when the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Obergefell v. Hodges—the case that overrode every existing state law and constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman.” (p. 6)
(see Justice Kennedy’s opinion below in, “OBERGEFELL v. HODGES,” June 26, 2015)
As the movement marched on through the decades the primary antagonist, perhaps a better term is literary foil, of the movement has been the system and “The Man.” Today, the agenda has advanced into position to attack its ultimate intended target, Jesus Christ and His faithful followers.
In 1987, Steve Warren of the activist group ACT UP, wrote an article in, The Advocate, a magazine for homosexuals. He titled the article, “Warning to the homophobes” and its rhetoric is chilling. The language containing commands, demands, and threats rings out like the message heard from so many woke campus protesters and drag queen story hour advocates of our day. The delusion of woke tolerance is to remove anyone they cannot tolerate so the world will contain only people like them. Warren wrote,
“Henceforth, homosexuality will be spoken of in your churches and synagogues as an “honorable estate. You can either let us marry people of the same sex, or better yet abolish marriage altogether… You will be expected to offer ceremonies that bless our sexual arrangements. …You will also instruct your people in homosexual as well as heterosexual behavior, and you will go out of your way to make certain that homosexual youths are allowed to date, attend religious functions together, openly display affection, and enjoy each other’s sexuality without embarrassment or guilt. If any of the older people in your midst object, you will deal with them sternly, making certain they renounce their ugly and ignorant homophobia or suffer public humiliation. You will also make certain that… laws are passed forbidding discrimination against homosexuals and heavy punishments are assessed… Finally, we will in all likelihood want to expunge a number of passages from your Scriptures and rewrite others, eliminating preferential treatment of marriage and using words that will allow for homosexual interpretations of passages describing biblical lovers such as Ruth and Boaz or Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.” (“The Year 1987 and Steve Warren of ACT UP ‘Acts up’ and Issues a ‘Warning to the Homophobes.’”)
Warren finishes with a direct threat.
Warning: If all these things do not come to pass quickly, we will subject Orthodox Jews and Christians to the most sustained hatred and vilification in recent memory. We have captured the liberal establishment and the press. We have already beaten you on a number of battlefields. …You have neither the faith nor the strength to fight us, so you might as well surrender now. (ibid.)
The most recent victory of the false Civil Rights movement has come in the battle for the elimination of religious freedom protections by attacking God’s good institution of marriage. Many so-called Conservatives supported the “Respect for Marriage Act,” which confused the legal definition of marriage by protecting same-sex marriages in America. Even worse, each state must acknowledge whatever another state allows to be called marriage, opening the door for all manner of debauchery.
The time is now fast approaching when churches that refuse to honor the corruption of God’s definition of marriage will be charged with crimes. The Progressive demons of equality for “sexual minorities” has hijacked the already compromised Civil Rights movement, appropriating the movement’s progress toward its own ultimate end, which is the removal of faithful Christians from public life.
"Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the Lord understand it completely." (Proverbs 28:5, ESV)
It’s Time To Count The Cost
The Civil Rights Movement of 1964 undeniably achieved some important goals fighting racial segregation and discrimination. However, we cannot fail to take advantage of the gifts of hindsight and our intrepid cultural watchmen, like Voddie Baucham, who have blown back the veil on the complex interplay of ideologies that have shaped our nation over the last half century. We now know, as Baucham explains, Neo-Marxist radicals and homosexuals were informing King’s movement and much of the leadership of the Civil Rights movement. This evidence proves that it was a calculated effort to disrupt and transform America far away from its traditional values and order by anointing a vulnerable group and empowering it as a protected class to play the role of the oppressed proletariat in a modern day Soviet-style active measures corruption and overthrow of the greatest and freest nation in the history of the world.
In conclusion, some well-meaning Americans, and even many Christians might ask, “Why do you care what someone does in their own bedroom?” The notion that allowing “unseen” sins to go unrebuked because “they’re not hurting anybody,” is naively flawed from the start. There are many good reasons to stand for God’s truth when the nation has turned from it. Baucham writes,
“What is ultimately wrong with the idea of celebrating “people loving each other” is that it creates a new moral standard, which is no standard at all. It redefines “love” as anything that brings one pleasure. It redefines “hate” as anything that argues for a moral standard other than hedonism. It redefines “evil” as anyone who believes there is such a thing, and “extremism” as any view to the right of Karl Marx. And that’s to say nothing of its redefinition of men and women and its obliteration of pronouns.” (Baucham, 2024. Conclusion [Chapter 12], p. 182)
Soli Deo Gloria!
Please help Voddie launch his book and overcome censorship!
Voddie writes:
“I knew there would be opposition to this book, but I was naive about the obstacles I would face. Facebook is suppressing my posts. Instagram has rejected ads promoting the new book. Both consider the book objectionable because it addresses the pervasive and increasingly aggressive 2SLGBTQIA+ movement.
You can play a key role in getting around some of these obstacles.
Here’s what I’m asking you to do:
Join our Launch Team (https://www.voddiebaucham.org/itsnotlikebeingblack/)
When the book arrives, read the book and share a review
If you use Facebook or Instagram, go to my socials and share the posts and ads about the book on your socials.
You can also download the promotional material here and post directly on to whatever platform, site or socials of your choice.”
Sources and References:
Baucham, Voddie T. It’s not like being black: How Sexual Activists Hijacked the Civil Rights Movement. Simon and Schuster, 2024.
Caldwell, Christopher. "The Roots of Our Partisan Divide." Speech, Hillsdale College. February 25, 2020.
James, William. “The Moral Equivalent of War.” McClure’s Magazine, August 1910.
Kennedy, Anthony, Ascot. Supreme Court Justice. LII / Legal Information Institute. “OBERGEFELL v. HODGES,” June 26, 2015. https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/14-556#writing-14-556_OPINION_3.
King, Martin Luther Jr. Letter from Birmingham Jail. 1963.
Malcolm X, and Alex Haley. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. New York: Ballantine Books, 1965.
Marcuse, Herbert. One-Dimensional Man. Boston: Beacon Press, 1964.
Obama, B. (2007). The audacity of hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream. Canongate Books.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. Critique of Dialectical Reason. London: Verso, 1960.
Schmidt, Samantha. “Arrested for having sex with men, this gay civil rights leader could finally be pardoned in California.” Washington Post, February 5, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/01/21/bayard-rustin-gay-pardon/.
Sekou, Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru. “Gays Are the New Niggers.” Killing the Buddha, October 2, 2019. https://killingthebuddha.com/mag/damnation/gays-are-the-new-niggers/.
The Truth Shall Set You Free. “The year 1987 and Steve Warren of ACT UP ‘acts up’ and issues a ‘Warning to the homophobes,’” July 18, 2013. https://thetruthshallsetyoufreeblog.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/the-year-1987-and-steve-warren-of-act-up-acts-up-and-issues-a-warning-to-the-homophobes/.
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