In 1600s New England, many Puritan churches had someone called a tithingman. He would hold a long staff and either sit above the congregation in the balcony or walk up and down the aisles. Whenever he spotted someone dozing during a sermon, he would hit the person with his staff to wake the person up. (One end of the staff had a feather for a gentler way to wake the elderly and small children.)1 Once the parishioner was suitably awakened, that was the end of it. Even in 17th century New England, no one would dream of trying to destroy the livelihood of a dozer–your dozing would be held against you for the rest of your life.

The light punishments imposed by the Puritans are not strong enough for the Wokists. If you fall asleep during a Wokist sermon, they want you to suffer for a long time.

On June 29, 2020, a theater professor at Marymount Manhattan College was watching via Zoom a mandatory anti-racist Wokist sermon. On the video feed, she appeared to be asleep (she denies she was asleep and claims her glasses just made it look that way).2 Wokists students jumped into action, getting almost 2,000 signatures demanding that she be fired.3

The Wokists are zealots, and they are dangerous.

 

Footnotes

1. https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/hellfire-whippings-woodchuck-bites-perils-puritans-sleeping-church/; http://www.reformedreader.org/puritans/sabbath.puritan.newengland/sabbath.puritan.newengland.chapter6.htm

2. https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=15268

3. https://www.change.org/p/jill-stevenson-and-mary-fleischer-mmc-performing-arts-for-racial-justice