Elon Musk: A “Cultural Christian” battling the “woke virus”

July 26, 2024 EMMANUEL ADEBAYO AJIBOLA

“In a recent interview, billionaire Elon Musk stated that he identifies as a “cultural Christian” and is committed to combating the “woke mind virus” following his experience of being misled into approving his son’s gender transition.

He said, “While I’m not a particularly religious person, I do believe that the teachings of Jesus are good and wise and that there’s tremendous wisdom in turning the other cheek. While acknowledging that “a punch in the nose is sometimes justified when dealing with bullies, Musk states that the pursuit of vengeance is ultimately futile.

The interviewer pressed him to explain in what sense he was not religious, noting how atheist Richard Dawkins recently labelled himself a “cultural Christian” despite not believing in the supernatural aspects of Christianity. Elon Musk responded by saying

“I would say I’m probably a cultural Christian,” noting that he was brought up as an Anglican and baptised.”

Previously, Elon Musk had spoken well of Christianity’s cultural impact in the past and earlier this year argued that Western civilisation is “absolutely screwed if it loses Christianity.”

In December 2021, during an interview with the popular Christian satire site The Babylon Bee, Musk was asked if he would accept Jesus Christ as his “personal Lord and Saviour.” He replied by saying that he admires the principles that Jesus advocated, such as treating people as you wish to be treated.

Further, during the interview, he recounted that in May 2022, an X user asked him to confess to a creator, and his response was, “Thank you for the blessing, but I’m okay with going to hell if that indeed is my destination, since the vast majority of all humans ever born will be there. He also recounted how his 20-year-old son, Xavier, who now identifies as a female named Vivian Jenna Wilson, is effectively dead to him after he was tricked into authorising the chemical transition. He said, “It happened to one of my older boys, where I was essentially tricked into signing documents for one of my older boys, Xavier.” This was before I understood what was going on.

Noting how “there was a lot of confusion” when it happened amid the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic, Musk said he was told that his son might commit suicide if he neglected to sign off on puberty blockers.

“I agree with you that people who have been promoting this should go to prison,” Musk said. “I was tricked into doing this. It wasn’t explained to me that puberty blockers are just sterilisation drugs.”

And so I lost my son, essentially,” he continued. “So, you know, they call it ‘deadnaming’ for a reason, alright? So the reason it’s called ‘deadnaming’ is because your son is dead. So my son, Xavier, is dead, killed by the woke mind virus.”

Musk added that he “vowed to destroy the woke mind virus after that.” Musk’s story about his son was met with both sympathy and backlash.

Last week, Musk announced that he was moving business operations for his companies X and SpaceX out of California, citing a new state law that prohibits school districts from requiring teachers to tell parents if their children identify as the opposite sex.

Musk said that “because of this law and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies, SpaceX will now move its headquarters from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas.”

Responding to California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s approval of Assembly Bill 1955, Musk asked, “So the state is the parent now?”

Musk also added that the headquarters of X would also be moving to Texas.