What is the 'vibe shift' – and what does it mean for the Church?

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There is much talk about a significant change in the culture of the West that is happening at present, dubbed a 'vibe shift', which could become very significant for the church and for Christians in the months and years to come.

For many years, the echelons of power of the West have seemed to be firmly set in the same ideology – secular, liberal, and increasingly left wing – and opposed to Christianity. This has permeated all the mainstream media, political and government organisations, academia, and other parts of the establishment. They are perceived to be hostile to people who have more socially conservative positions – witness for example, the ostracisation of author JK Rowling for expressing a 'gender critical' opinion – which is the belief that biological sex matters, and that women's spaces must be reserved for those with XX chromosomes. Many university campuses and other powerful organisations have 'cancelled' people who are considered to have the wrong opinions on anything from immigration to marriage, Palestine to political parties.

But there are some signs that this ideology, often called 'woke', may be on the wane, and with it the associated beliefs that encourage hostile battles between demographic groups, and progressive ideas about sex, family and gender.

Evidence of a swing to the 'right' both politically, and towards Christianity, come from many sources – though increasingly the terms 'right' and 'left' are deemed insufficient to describe our turbulent and confusing public politics.

The strongest evidence of a political shift is the resounding triumph for Trump in the US elections, despite the years of outright hysteria and hatred that were directed towards the property tycoon via all means of establishment power such as academia and the media. There is also more support for 'populist' right wing parties in Europe.

Evidence of a change in stance towards the Christian faith includes the public conversion of former Muslim Ayaan Hirsi Ali and other influential commentators such as ex-Navy Seal and podcaster Shawn Ryan, controversial commentator Russell Brand, and the wife and daughter of Jordan Peterson, if not the man himself just yet. Reading between the lines of the work of other high profile commentators, there are other converts who are not yet discussing their beliefs publicly.

This shift is even affecting Hollywood, long seen as a propagator of liberal beliefs and hostile to the faith. Christian actor Neal McDonough recently told Glenn Beck that the movie studios are suddenly showing an interest in films about faith, which he has "never, ever" seen happen before.

The recent proclamation of the Gospel by Christian apologist Wesley Huff during a long interview on the influential podcast of Joe Rogan – who also seems to be taking an interest in Christianity lately – is another.

Our church leaders are starting to notice, and there is a lot of talk about change "on the ground" with more openness in the general public to the faith. "Another aspect of the vibe shift - lots of people have a fresh interest in Jesus and Christianity," said UK head of the Evangelical Alliance Peter Lynas recently on X. "The Jesus Vibe Shift is real," said Anglican priest Fr Jon Beadle on X.

Lynas went further on a video, saying that he believes the "Overton window" is shifting – the limits of what is deemed to be acceptable or popular in society. He perceives the change to be more in favour of family and children and tradition. "There's also a faith shift going on, Christianity is definitely becoming more acceptable again," he said in a response video on X. "The openness to faith is good, it's great, particularly among men, an area where the church has struggled."

Political vibes

Much of the negativity aimed at Christianity in recent years is political rather than religious, and related to what was once called "family values". For example, when former Conservative MP and practising Christian Miriam Cates – who is known to be one of the few actual conservatives in the mostly liberal Conservative party - said that it's best for a child to be with their biological mother and father on Times Radio, it caused outrage. Just expressing opinions that would have been perfectly normal just a few years ago, such as the belief that biological sex matters, or that nations should restrict and defend their borders, have been harshly oppressed by some figures on the liberal/left.

These recent attacks follow many years of condemnation of other socially conservative positions that many Christians hold, such as that marriage is for men and women, questioning modern 'feminism', or that abortion is wrong. US evangelicals have also received a lot of criticism for their support for Trump.

But the latter appears to be becoming more socially acceptable. In his last inauguration ceremony, organisers struggled to find an artist who would perform. The fact that singer Carrie Underwood agreed to sing "America the Beautiful" this year was described as a "total vibe shift" by The Free Press.

Further evidence of a rejection of "woke" ideas includes the recent announcement by Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg that his many social media companies – including Facebook and Instagram – will stop censoring posts about "topics like immigration and gender" that are "out of touch with mainstream discourse".

"It's a trip to hear Zuckerberg use the term 'legacy media'," said conservative Christian commentator Megan Basham on X. "If that's not evidence that the vibe shift is not just political but cultural, nothing is."

As well as Meta, other large corporations are reducing their controversial 'Diversity, Equity and Inclusion' (DEI) programs, such as online sales giant Amazon, supermarket chain Walmart and fast food company McDonald's.

Implications for the Church

If this 'vibe shift' is real and long-lasting, it will lead to a considerable change for the Church, which has long struggled to adjust to living in a hostile culture. It has become used to an establishment that criticises its traditional teaching on marriage and abortion, and openly seeks to celebrate promiscuity, multiple sexualities and genders, among other things.

Many churches have responded to this so-called 'progressive' environment by either adopting these beliefs themselves, or by restricting their discussion of these subjects in order not to offend or deter people from the Church. Members of these congregations might become very confused if the public's ideological stance changes – and may even cling on to liberalism as the 'inclusive' or 'non-judgemental' option for a Christian.

Churches that have held to more conservative and traditional ethics might initially celebrate this 'vibe shift' that is more in line with their beliefs, at least on the surface. But Jesus is not just someone who teaches strict sexual morals, nor is he just a tradition to be upheld. He teaches radical love, generosity, forgiveness, and the complete surrender of self to God and his purposes through the transforming power and love of his resurrection. This is radically different to both progressive 'wokism' and traditional political conservatism. A 'vibe shift' is only spiritually good if it helps people to find genuine surrender, love, trust and faith in Christ.

Heather Tomlinson is a freelance Christian writer. Find more of her work at https://heathertomlinson.substack.com or via X (twitter) @heathertomli