Mainstream church group alarmed after Free State Project IDs 'woke' churches
Aug. 26—A website that promotes the Free State Project has begun identifying "woke" churches in New Hampshire, a move that has alarmed the multi-denominational National Council of Churches.
As of Thursday, about 100 churches were identified as some degree of woke.
"Woke" is a slang term that the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines as "aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)." The term also can be used pejoratively by those who disagree.
Many of the churches made the list for displaying a LGBTQ+ pride flag. One church was noted for its donations to the NAACP, others for mask mandates and one for flying the Ukrainian flag.
"Anytime churches and communities of faith are targeted, and listed in this way, it raises our level of alert," said the New Hampshire Council of Churches said in a statement by the Rev. Heidi Carrington Heath, its executive director. She said there is no immediate cause for alarm.
"NHCC explicitly condemns the use of 'woke' in this case a racist dog whistle designed to incite white supremacist behavior, and activity," the statement read.
Heath said this comes as the state has seen an uptick in incidents of public shows of white supremacy, including distribution of anti-immigrant flyers in Nashua and banners hung over highway overpasses in Portsmouth.
A leader in the Free State Project said the left-leaning Council of Churches is making a political issue of the publication of a list of churches that outwardly express their beliefs.
"(The Council of Churches) is a political organization frustrated that the Free State Project and liberty are doing so well in New Hampshire," said Jeremy Kauffman, a board member of the Free State Project and a Libertarian candidate for the U.S. Senate seat in New Hampshire.
Kauffman said churches can't publicly fly flags and then complain if they end up on a list. He also said the website does not attack the churches.
Four Manchester churches were on the list. At least one — Gethsemane Lutheran Church — flies a rainbow flag on its property. An email to the church administrator was not immediately returned.
Comments on specific churches
The list appears on LibertyWin.org, a website that showcases the Free State Project and similar efforts in the state. It was tweeted out by the Free State Project.
The data base lists hundreds of churches across the state and categorizes them in terms of their denominations. One of the descriptors includes information on whether a church is woke. Most churches have no description one way or the other.
Some of the more unusual comments made about churches on the list included:
* "Slight indication of wokeness: has a 'Alternative Energy Green Team Committee' for their new building." (Bedford Community Church).
* "May be more political than desired: pastor pushed the vaccine and delivered anti-Putin/Russia rants as a sermon." (St. Philip Greek Orthodox Church, Nashua).
* "Probably very woke." (Trinity United Church, Seabrook).
* "Calls out Marxism on Facebook." (The Christian Life Fellowship in Swanzey).
According to the website, the effort was the creation of a Christian member of the Free State Project who wanted to help libertarians moving to New Hampshire find churches that matched their beliefs.
"Some will take 'wokeness' in a church as an indication that the church is compromising on its faith for political clout or to bend to cultural pressure while others will see it as the church adapting its principles to fit with the times," the website states.
The website includes an entry for Judaism but provides sparse detail and does not identify individual temples.
In an email, a spokesman for the Episcopal Church of New Hampshire said the church was aware of the website. The email stressed that the Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire, all Episcopal bishops and all churches across the country support gay marriage.
In her statement, Heath said the language of racism contradicts the Gospel, and LGBTQ+ people are made in God's image and likeness.
"It is crucial we say loudly, clearly, and with one voice that hate has no home here in New Hampshire," Heath said.