We live in such crazy times. We have lost our way and are
walking down a road to lunacy that will be difficult to come back from. We have
always identified ourselves by our attributes. I am a white, American, Catholic
male. That paints a pretty good picture as to the group I am in but it tells
you almost nothing about the person I actually am. We have gone to an extreme
by attaching our self-worth on these attributes we have absolutely no control
over. Every minority has their own “pride” month. We are allowing ourselves to
be separated from one another based upon unchangeable attributes like skin
color, sexual orientation, and genitalia.
The civil rights fight that ran from the Civil War through
the sixties was about one group of people with an unchanging attribute trying
to get another group of people to see and accept them as people. They weren’t
looking for special treatment. They were looking for equal treatment. Martin
Luther King’s dream was that his children would someday be seen as Americans
who were black and not as blacks who were American. See the person first, not
the attribute of that person.
Many in today’s culture have forgotten that lesson and are
demanding to be accepted according to their attributes. We are regressing, re-segregating
ourselves into like groups. Then the groups demand to be respected above other
groups. How many stories are out there of bakers or florists being sued because
they would not bake a cake or make flower arrangements for a same sex marriage?
The same sex couple uses the same argument the blacks did when they fought for their
civil rights. It was wrong for a restaurant to deny service to a black person
or to require them to sit in a special section just because of their skin
color, therefore, it is also wrong for a baker to deny the same sex couple a
cake for their wedding day simply because they are of the same sex. The
argument sounds logical on the surface but is not really the same.
Blacks were denied service because people did not see them
as fully human. They did not view them as people with equality to themselves.
This is not the truth with a same sex marriage. The baker is not denying
service because the baker believes that the same sex couple are not fully
human. The baker is refusing service because the activity goes against their
conscience and they do not wish to participate in it. This is not
discrimination but exercise of conscience. Now, if the baker had a brick and
motor store and denied the same sex couple to enter that store because they are
gay, that would be discrimination that should never be tolerated.
The devil is very crafty. A house divided cannot stand. He
is doing everything he can to get us to divide ourselves. Once divided our
culture cannot stand and we will look upon our brother with hate in our heart.
Because I fear what is different I cannot look at you, who are different from
me, with anything but fear and hate. I cannot see the person you are because I
cannot see past the attributes of the person you are. These are truly the devil’s
times.
“Then
God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let
them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the
cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the
earth. God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him;
male and female He created them.” – Genesis 1: 26-27
So what does it mean that God created us in his image? What
is God? God is love and from that love flows justice and mercy. We were created
in the image and likeness of love. Not just any type of love. We were created
in the image and likeness of agape, sacrificial love. Love is greatly
misunderstood today because the word love has been redefined and abused. For
many love is a feeling. A feeling is directed inward. It is something inside
me. Sacrificial love is never directed inward. Agape is not a feeling, it is an
action. It is to will the best for a person despite what is best for the self. I
do not have to be attracted to you, to lust after you, desire you, or even know
you to love you. All I have to do is to will the best for you, to put your
genuine wellbeing first and I will have loved you.
If we all were created in the image and likeness of God we
all are a reflection of God. When I look at you I look at the face of God. When
I look at you I shouldn’t see a black or a white, a straight or a gay, a male
or a female. I should see a person with God endowed dignity deserving of my
love and respect. This is the way every Christian is called to treat every
person, Christian or not, that they come in contact with. We are not to espouse
hate or division. Let not an evil word leave my lips.
Jesus was God. Jesus hung up being God to become one of us,
to die for us. He freely chose to die for what someone would consider the
lowliest among us. If God, the creator of everything, respected the lowliest
among us enough to give his life for that person I owe that person the same
level of respect. Jesus loves the homeless, the poor, the drug addicted, the
homosexual, the transgender, the Muslim, and the atheist. If Jesus loves these
people and willfully died for them I must love them as well. Their worth as
people is tied directly to their dignity and not to their attributes.
Do not give in to the devil’s attempts to divide us and pit
us against ourselves. Love your brother as you love God, with your whole heart,
your whole mind, your whole strength, and your whole being. Stop referring to people and grouping them by their attributes. They are not black people or white people or gay people or Muslim people or conservative people or liberal people. They are people, people made in the image and likeness of God. Love them first.