(CP) Canadian psychologist and cultural commentator Jordan Peterson recently criticized the infiltration of what he called "woke" ideology into Protestant churches, warning that many Christian institutions are straying from their core values in favour of cultural trends to the detriment of society.
In an interview with The Christian Post at the premiere of the film Am I Racist? featuring his Daily Wire colleague Matt Walsh, the 62-year-old author pointed to the prevalence of rainbow flags outside many Protestant churches as representing a deeper abandonment of foundational Christian beliefs in favor of what he called "hedonistic pride."
"We should be concerned by the capture of the Protestant churches by the woke rainbow mob," he said. "In Canada and Great Britain, most of the mainstream Protestant churches are covered with rainbow flags. When the Christians start worshiping hedonistic pride, something has gone dreadfully wrong."
Peterson said the embrace of identity politics by some churches is a dangerous shift away from the core teachings of Christianity and poses a threat to the integrity of the faith, particularly for younger generations who might be more vulnerable to cultural trends.
But even conservative Evangelical churches are not immune to problems, the We Who Wrestle With God author said.
"There's no shortage of bad actors as well in the Christian community of the sort that the atheists tend to object to," he said.
"The fundamental problem with religious enterprise is that it can be captured by the psychopathic narcissists, and that's what you see in the Gospel story. Christ is persecuted most intensely by the Pharisees, the scribes and the lawyers ... the Pharisees are religious hypocrites who use religion for their own self-aggrandizement. That's a real danger in the religious enterprise, and especially the more Evangelical forms of Christianity have been prone to being overrun by self-serving charlatans. That's a problem."
Peterson advised Christians to be grounded in skepticism — not of faith itself, but of those who would misuse it. "By their fruits, you will know them," he said, stressing that the Scripture verse is useful when determining whether religious leaders are genuinely committed to the faith or merely using it for their own purposes.
"You have to pay attention to the fact that not everybody who says 'Lord, Lord is going to enter the Kingdom of Heaven,'" he said.
Though not a professing Christian, Peterson frequently discusses Christian themes, values and Biblical stories in his work and has stressed the cultural and moral significance of Christianity, especially in the context of Western civilization. He once wrote that "The Bible is, for better or worse, the foundational document of Western civilization, of Western values, Western morality, and Western conceptions of good and evil."
Despite his concerns about the state of modern churches, the father-of-two told CP he finds hope in a growing trend: the revival of church attendance, particularly in conservative circles.
Exposing children to traditional religious values, he said, could be key in navigating the complexities of modern life — especially in the age of social media.
"We are seeing a revival of church-going, especially of the more conservative type," Peterson said. "And I suspect that's probably also useful. Providing [children] with something like exposure to classic religious ideas is necessary."
According to Peterson, biblical ideas offer an ethical framework that can help children navigate the temptations and dangers of modern technology, from pornography to the social isolation caused by overexposure to screens.
"One of the things that screens do to kids is interfere with their ability to play, make friends, and interact socially," he said. He urged parents to limit their children's exposure to electronic devices, especially during the critical developmental years. "At least [children] should stay away from electronic phones until they're through their fictional play period — so at least ten years old," he advised.
The Beyond Order author also stressed the importance of teaching children to be intelligent consumers of content. He encouraged parents to engage in open conversations with their children about what they are watching and why, helping them navigate the complex digital landscape.
"You have to expose them to the world of ideas," he said. "You do that by paying attention to what they are consuming, making sure the channels of communication are open and communicating with them about what it is that they're watching and why."
While Peterson acknowledged the role of social media in fostering division, he rejected the idea that Americans are as polarized as they might appear. Drawing on polling data from a "liberal-leaning friend," he suggested that the majority of Americans, regardless of political affiliation, agree on key issues.
"What we're seeing is that bad actors are garnering a tremendous amount of attention online and fostering political polarization," he explained.
These manipulative figures, according to Peterson, are exploiting social media to create an illusion of greater division than actually exists.
"This isn't a new phenomenon," he added. "This happens to cultures quite frequently, when the psychopathic manipulators get the upper hand, and that's when you have extremely damaging revolutions. But it isn't because people are actually polarized. It's because the bad actors have crawled out from underneath the rocks and are having free reign. Some of that is a technological problem because we don't know how to regulate social behavior on social media platforms ... you can say whatever you want, and you're not held responsible for it. This has led to a terrible deterioration of public discourse that's very dangerous."
