24 Jun
2010

Posted in: Nonviolence
By Eddie    1 Comment

The imago dei deserves our love

The social contract rootage of a moral imperative or legal provision, to which modern thought usually resorts in order to explain when something is right or wrong, would lie in calculations about what kind of society you get if life is protected or if it is not. This kind of thinking generally calls for the protection of the life of the good, and of those who protect others, but it usually also accepts sacrificing the lives of those who are judged to be evil.

The humanism of Jesus, or his “perfect love,” is rooted in respect for the personhood of the neighbor, even if he may be the bad guy. He is respected not because of his goodness or productivity but for the sake of his self as person, an image of God. A creative force is an alternative way to find one’s path through ethical discourse. One rejects force not to keep one’s hands clean or to keep one’s conscience confident, but for the sake of the personhood of the neighbor.

- John H. Yoder, The War of the Lamb, 149

This is absolutely vital. When we call someone or some group evil or bad, we dehumanize them, making it easier to hate them, to justify or rationalize, doing violence to them. If they are not human, then they do not bear the imago dei, the image of God, as referred to by God himself in the early part of Genesis. We need to realize and live out the clear truth that all mankind, every individual human being, was created in the image of God, and therefore not deserving, not worthy of, our hate and anger. We must love everyone.

It is not up to us to decide which fellow human beings deserve to live, and who deserves to die. We are not tasked with the judgement call of who is worthy of or time and sacrifice, and who gets nothing of the sort. Bin Laden was created in the image of God. He deserves all the love we can muster. But that’s an easy one. The neo-nazi next door deserves our love. The man breaking into your home and threatening your family at 11 PM deserves our love. The homeless couple who smell incredibly bad and have vocal run-ins deserve our love.

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