When my son’s teacher told me he assigned The Wave for the freshman this year, I mistook it for The Big Wave by Pearl S. Buck and thought, “Aw, that’s nice.” But when he described the book as a true story about social experiment in high school gone terribly wrong, I knew I was totally mistaken and that I had to check it out for myself.
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A Brief Summary of The Wave
Based on true events from a Californian school in 1967, this novel follows a high school teacher’s social experiment which sought to prove to his skeptical students how the German people could have remained silent midst the growing threat of the Nazis. How could they possibly have allowed such a group to increase in size and power? How could they have turned a blind eye to the atrocities those fascists were committing?
Teacher Ben Ross thus designs an experiment for his class, introducing them to a well-disciplined group called The Wave. Fit with a motto, salute, rules of decorum—and most importantly, a strong leader—The Wave surges students and teacher alike with feelings of power and belonging. A sense of collective thinking over individualism inspires these students to take The Wave so seriously that, within a week, it leaks outside of the classroom and seeps into the entire student body.
Soon, feelings of superiority and strength convince the group that anyone who’s not for them is against them. Personal threats and even physical harm ensue, and as parents and teachers alike respond in an uproar, Ben Ross is left to figure out how to stop the monster machine he’s created before it gets even further out of hand.
A Fitting, Cautionary Tale
As intriguing as the rough plot sounded, I was skeptical. Sure, in sociology courses, I’ve studied the Stanford Prison Experiment from 1971, so I know that people (impressionable students especially) can be swept away by role-play, blurring the lines between fantasy and reality. But turning a whole classroom into a bunch of fascists merely through peer pressure? Come on.
But then…
I thought about BLM. I turned on X and saw more of the anti-ICE riots. I remembered the very real, very poisonous TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) that continues to sweep the nation, and I realized that absolutely!—people can be swayed to do anything. Impressionable people can be mobilized into committing verbal and physical abuse—and outright domestic terrorism—simply through the gentle nudges of peer-pressure, propagandized media, and bitter “leaders”—leaders that include social media influencers, celebrities, professors, pundits, and politicians. The book puts it this way:
If you study the types of people who join these cults, they’re almost always people who are unhappy with themselves and their lives. They look at the cult as a way of changing, of starting over, of literally being born again. (72)
It was something Laurie herself had been trying to deny for days, but it just wouldn’t go away. The Wave was scary. Oh, it was just great if you were an unquestioning member. But if you weren’t… (85)
I recently wrote an article about how angry the news of late has made me—see “Evil, Vengeance, and the Love of God”—and yet I wonder if that’s not the point. Granted, if we’re “taking sides” in America right now, I’m happy to be on the side of peace, prayer, and law-and-order (see the nation’s 2 varied responses to the deaths of Charlie Kirk and Renee Good). But should we rally be taking sides? Of course not. So who’s trying to tear us all apart and why?
Fascism—a Buzz Word and a Reality
The Left will tell you till your ears bleed that Donald Trump is a fascist for enforcing ICE raids—but your ears are probably bleeding, because the Leftist mob is beating you upside the head while they scream in your face, loot your store, and set fire to your car. Why? Because those who stand up against “fascists” like Donald Trump are themselves behaving like actual fascists—anti-fascists like Antifa and its ugly, stubble-ridden sister-organization, Trantifa—who use anger, violence, and mob-mentality to terrorize communities until they get their way by force.
How did we get here? I know I’m way off my review of The Wave (which was great, by the way), but it’s got my blood boiling. We got here, because our nation has stepped so far away from enforcing justice that crime finally pays, the loudest voices get heard, and riots work. Culpability, it seems, is a thing of the past.
A Christian Response
When these discussions come up, I’m honest: I would love to seem more Antifa members in prison, not because of who they are but because of what crimes they’ve committed. I would love to see more Trantifa terrorists and assassins detained and convicted for the terror they peddle and the lives they end. I would love to see more Somalian fraudsters charged and expelled from the country for their shameless piracy.
It’s not un-Christian for me to think this way. A government (especially one founded on Judeo-Christian principles) exists to protect its people, to punish crime, and to keep the peace. What I would love to see is the bare-minimum of true social justice, and thanks to ICE, the FBI, and DOJ, we’re starting to see it. But we need more than mere investigations or catch-and-release. We need charges, convictions, and punishments. We need justice.
My wife asked me last night, “But what about the illegal immigrant who comes to your church? How is a Christian supposed to respond to that?” Of course, we love that person! What’s great about this life is that we can both stand against evil institutions and yet love individuals. I gave the example of prostitution: I can protest against legalized prostitution, preach against it, fight it, and even hate it. But when I meet a prostitute, I can also love her as a human being and do everything I can to help rescue her from the evil institution that’s trapped her.
The same goes for illegal immigration, trans-identities, homosexuality, pornography, abortion, etc. etc. I can love the sinner but hate the sin. It’s not that hard.
Conclusion
You can probably tell these issues have been on my mind for a while. I don’t know how deep the students’ discussions about this book will go in class next week, but it has certainly stirred my thinking.
Nazi Germany wasn’t that long ago, and I fear that both America and Europe are open to welcoming it back with open arms, thanks to the influence of wicked people in high places. It easily could be as antisemitic and anti-Christian as the original Nazi force—just look at how the fascists took over a church service this week!
There, but for the grace of God, go we—and only through his wonderful Gospel do any of us have hope for peace in this life or the next. As Romans 5:1-5 testifies:
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
©2026 E.T.