'Wokeness is a Secular Religion': New Book Shines Light on Dangers of 'Woke' Corporate Culture

"Wokeness" has become so pervasive across America's institutions from schools to corporations that author Vivek Ramaswamy argues it meets the Supreme Court test for religion. 

"Wokeness is a secular religion. It isn't a religion based on God. It isn't a religion that offers a path to redemption, but it is a secular religion nonetheless," Ramaswamy, author of Woke, Inc. tells CBN News.

In his new book, Ramaswamy lays out legal solutions for people who've been fired for not ascribing to this religion of wokeness. 

"When you have a moral vacuum that runs that deep, that's when secular dark religions like wokeness start to fill the void as we have seen the things that used to fill that void: patriotism, faith, hard work on the decline or nearly disappearing – that's what allows 'woke-ism' to effectively become opium for the American soul," Ramaswamy explains.

The son of immigrants, he's a product of ivy league schools, and founder of Roivant Sciences, a biotech company that's developed an FDA-approved drug for prostate cancer.
  
This year he stepped down as CEO of his company to focus on a cultural cancer he believes is threatening the American dream that allowed him to achieve so much.

"In the name of diversity, we have actually sentenced true diversity of thought to execution," he says.

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He proposes adding political speech and belief to the list of protected classes, which he says is needed to fight a form of discrimination reaching scary heights.

"In my opinion, it is certainly far more rampant than racial discrimination which we instead obsess over and we need to apply those standards evenhandedly," he says.

And now as multi-national American companies like Coke, Disney, and Nike impose this new religion – he says foes like China are benefiting at the expense of the United States. "What they've recognized is that American wokeness – they even have a word for it – this is cultural weakness."

Because he says, America's greatest asset on the national stage isn't our military might, it's our moral standing.

"They get companies like Disney, or Nike, or associations like the NBA or celebrities like LeBron James to criticize the United States relentlessly about alleged social injustice but they do not say a peep in China – in fact, many of them actually praise China and the reason they do it is because that is their condition to be allowed to enter the Chinese market."

And he says the hypocrisy is astounding.

"One of them is Disney's hypocrisy, in particular, saying they could not shoot a film in the state of Georgia if Georgia passed an anti-abortion statute – the equivalent of a heartbeat bill a couple of years ago but last year they shoot Mulan in the Xingjiang province of China literally ground zero of the Uighur human rights crisis and not only do they stay silent – at the end of the film they actually praise China – they thank the Xingjiang authorities at the end of the film in the credits – you can see it today. Those are the same authorities who are responsible for enslaving the Uighurs," he says.
  
Tech companies, he says, are also using the woke corporate culture to their advantage. 
  
"What you're seeing right now especially in big tech is big government is now dispatching big tech to do through a back door what it could not directly do under the constitution – namely to censor political speech and alleged hate speech and misinformation that it did not like to see online."

All while enjoying legal protection from liability. In his book, Ramaswamy argues – if tech companies are acting as agents of the state, then they should be bound by the First Amendment to the Constitution.

He hopes his book will help Americans wake up and realize what's at stake.

"This isn't a country that you inherit. It's a country that you have to play a role in building and part of the role that you play in building it is actually espousing the beliefs that define this country," he says.
 
Ramaswamy wants Americans to once again celebrate the values that bind us, such as the American dream. He sees more and more people waking up from that dream and says once you wake up you forget what it's all about.