By Emily Pelley
You can’t go too far today without hearing a reference to “woke” culture. “Woke” describes this realization that social norms, including language, are used to perpetuate prejudices and phobias. To be “woke” means we must be “awake” to how discourse is used to control us.1
Our culture has faced a dramatic shift in worldview over the last hundred years. As the age of information and globalization has taken root, it is all too common to encounter arguments against faith and religion. But instead of a progression of enlightenment, we have, in fact, been sold another religion, all under the guise of science and reason. In a recent interview, British journalist Melanie Phillips described the current cultural moment as an “age of unreason”2—a time when evidence and observation are vilified as hateful when they are used to challenge someone’s assumptions about the world and themselves. I believe this age of unreason finds its roots in Queer Theory.
What Is Queer Theory?
Queer Theory is an ideology that claims all categories of sex, gender, and sexuality have been socially constructed to control people.3 “How are these categories constructed?” you might ask. Through words. Discourse. Those ways of speaking about something that legitimize one truth claim over another.4 Queer theory was an idea that came out of postmodernism, the concept that we all have our own truth. Therefore, according to Queer Theory, we must be liberated from the oppression of “normal.”5
The word “queer” refers to something that falls outside of binaries or what is considered “normal.” It can also be used as a verb—”to queer” means to cast doubt.6 According to Queer Theory, to call something normal is to perpetuate oppression against those who seemingly do not fit into the “normal” categories of sex, gender, and sexuality. This is where the acronym LGBTQ+ comes to life, uniting people who fall into the minority gender and sexuality identities.
Queer Theory first started to take shape in the 1960s. John Money, known as the father of gender theory, laid the groundwork for this rejection of the gender binary.7 The term “Queer Theory” was first coined in 1991 in Queer Theory: Lesbian and Gay Sexualities by Teresa De Lauretis.8 People like Judith Butler have since built upon these foundational ideas to create Queer Theory. Butler argues that we are not born knowing our gender, but rather, it is socially constructed. She argues that our identity is ultimately a fiction from which we must break free.9
At this point, if you are scratching your head, wondering what this actually means, you are not alone. Queer Theory, by its very nature, values incoherence and illogic, making it hard to understand.10 It is inherently anti-science, holding to the belief that such discourse is simply a manifestation of unjust power that is internalized by society and used to oppress minorities.11 Enter stage left—the age of unreason.
How Does Queer Theory Play Out in Culture?
While you may not hear Queer Theory discussed too often by name, you have no doubt heard its message repeated across many parts of our culture today. In the postmodern attempt to let everyone “live their own truth,” our culture has allowed for Queer Theory and the demonization of normal to take root. We have called good (God’s perfect design for male and female) evil, and we have called evil (the rejection of God’s design) good. We can look at so many examples in the Bible of how God created this world with intentionality (Gen. 2:15; Isa. 43:7; Gal. 3:28; Mark 10:6) and humans as his image-bearers (Gen. 1:27, 2:7).
I wonder if there has ever been a more confusing time to be alive. Confusion prevails in almost every area of culture today. What is true? What is fake? How can we know? The questions flow in faster than the answers.
As this ideological insistence on a plethora of truths has taken hold, we now have individuals who believe themselves to be entitled to determine their own “truth,” and everyone else is expected to “live and let live.” So, for example, when you raise questions about the biological reality of sex, you are bringing unwelcome, even hateful, challenges to people’s well-being.
Therefore, any evidence brought forth that would challenge someone’s predetermined assessment of reality must be silenced and banned from public spaces. Professors are sent for court-ordered re-education training12, journalists are fired13, and healthcare workers are prosecuted14—all because their conclusions about reality come into conflict with this ideology that dismisses those who speak out as using their power to oppress minorities.15 The power this deceptive ideology has over our culture today is palpable. But I want to remind you of the words of Jesus, when he was telling the people to hold to his teaching: “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).
In an Age of Unreason, Let Us Stand for Truth
What is true? We are not meant to be the center of our own universe. We are not the arbiters of truth and reality. Jesus Christ is the truth. Our divine Creator and Savior has done the heavy lifting for us by dying for our sins and rising to life so that we get to spend our lives discovering truth—discovering more of Jesus each day. Does that mean we will all walk, talk, dress, and act the same? On the contrary, if we are all made in the image of God, we are called to love people of all varieties! While we are all unique, we are also part of God’s unifying plan for humanity.
What we do know is that we are all made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26), even if our behavior doesn’t match that identity. What Queer Theory has shown us is a desperate move of hurt people seeking restoration and wholeness among other hurt people. The well-intentioned, yet misguided, adoption of Queer Theory can be seen as a human attempt to help people. Being desperate for a place to belong, we watch people who don’t feel like they fit manage to find connection and support within the LGBTQ+ community. While our frustration with this poor ideology may be justified, we must remember that the people in this movement are broken and in need of a Savior—just like us.
We are often warned in the Bible about deception (e.g., Eph. 5:6; 1 Cor. 15:33; Gal. 6:7). Being scared into silence by an ideology that has made language evil and oppressive is not showing love to those caught in it. We do have an enemy, but it is not normative discourse. Our enemy is Satan, the father of lies. We must speak the truth (2 Cor. 10:5). We must push back against an age of unreason and pray for grace to love people who are deceived.
References:
1. Own Strachan, Christianity and Wokeness (Salem Books, 2021).
2. John Anderson, “When Truth Becomes ‘Right Wing,’” John Anderson Media, February 28 2025, accessed Aug 24, 2025, https://youtu.be/g7Hf21j3yBA.
3. Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay, Cynical Theories (Pitchstone Publishing, 2020).
4. This is known as phallogocentrism—a belief that social reality is constructed by language that privileges the masculine. Adrienne Rich, “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence,” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 5, no. 4 (1980), 631-660.
5. Pluckrose and Lindsay, Cynical Theories, 89.
6. Merriam-Webster, s.v. “queer,” accessed May 12, 2025, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/queer.
7. John Money, Sex Research (Holt Reinhart, 1960).
8. Teresa De Lauretis, Queer Theory: Lesbian and Gay Sexuality (Indiana University Press, 1991).
9. Judith Butler, Gender Trouble (Routledge, 2002).
10. Pluckrose and Lindsay, Cynical Theories, 90.
11. Michael Foucault, “An Introduction,” History of Sexuality: Volume 1, trans. Robert J. Hurley (Penguin, 1990).
12. “Ontario court rules against Jordan Peterson, upholds social media training order,” CBC, last updated August 28, 2023, accessed August 24, 2025, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/jordan-peterson-court-case-decision-1.6943845.
13. “News Reporters fired over ‘Anti-Pride’ Memo”, CatholicVote, last modified July 5, 2023, accessed August 24, 2025, https://catholicvote.org/news-reporters-fired-over-anti-pride-memo/.
14. “The case of Amy Hamm: free speech, women’s rights, and professional discipline,” Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, last modified August 22, 2025, accessed August 24, 2025, https://www.jccf.ca/court_cases/nurse-faces-suspension-after-endorsing-safe-spaces-for-biological-females/.
15. Foucault, History of Sexuality: Volume 1.