Explorations

Equally Sublime. Equally Ridiculous: Discrimination and Inequality Part 3

So, in the third instalment of this increasingly long-winded epic, we come to this wonderfully beauteous and radical understanding of what it means to be human, an understanding which, I believe, needs to stand at the core of any Christian position to these issues. A Christian approach, we have established, must dispense with all the half-baked, selfish emotive preconceptions that surround most attitudes to discrimination/inequality, and cannot afford misuse nor misinterpretation of scripture. It will therefore require an informed use of both biblical theology and systematic theology.

Systematic theology means fitting all the things the bible says together to build up a coherent picture of God’s will. If you will allow me a little Foucauldian indulgence, whilst biblical theology is diachronic, systematic theology is synchronic. Fortunately, the puzzle of systematic theology has been given to us with the central piece, around which all the others must be made to fit, already in place. The command to love God with our whole being. Everyone (well most people) know now to love someone: by respecting/admiring/adoring them, and by doing stuff to make them happy. This is why we are told that glorifying God and obeying his commands is the WHOLE duty of man. It is the purpose for which we were born and which supersedes all other desires and loyalties.
Its pretty easy to see what an explosive idea this could be in the wrong hands. September the 11th, and various tragedies of history like the Crusades, have often been cited as proof that such thinking is an evil and dangerous threat to civilization. If the God to which you are loyal is glorified or pleased by discrimination, inequality and cruelty, then it most certainly is.

What is God pleased by anyway? How do we show love for him? I mean its not like the owner of the universe is going to be impressed by a dozen red roses and a diamond ring (see Psalm 50:8-12.) Well God made humanity in his image and when you love and admire someone you adore their image and their work, hence the boy band posters and CD’s that linger in the back of many a cupboard as embarrassing reminders of adolescence. So here’s the big amazing, humungous coolness….GOD MADE HUMANITY IN HIS
IMAGE. That makes us amazing and beautiful creatures, the sublime and glorious pinnacle of creation…we rock! There’s something in that Olympic slogan “celebrate humanity”. Loving and serving others is one of the highest possible callings there could be (high enough for God to die for it), and causing them unnecessary harm is a very grave thing indeed, because humans REFLECT god’s image and glory (James), Because they are MADE BY God, because they are LOVED by God, and most importantly, because loving other humans is the one central COMMAND that our God has given us for life (See Mark 12:28-34, John 15:12.) So not only is every human being innately worthy of respect because they carry the image of the Lord of the Universe (see Genesis 9:6), but by valuing them we are giving tangible form to our love for God, to whom we have pledged absolute devotion (1 John 4:19-21).

Now what we must realise is that this is true EQUALLY of EVERYONE PURELY BY VIRTUE OF THEIR HUMANNESS. They apply to both sexes since “in the image of God he created himg; male and female he created them.” They apply to all races since “he made from one man eveyr nation of mankind” (and remember that people in Bible times had contact people of all colours form India to Ethiopia). They apply to all ages, for Jesus said “let the little children to come to me...for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven” and “honour your father and your mother.”, to all places “…”and to all classes, since “Whoever mocks the poor insults his Maker”. This last quote is quite clear…if you disrespect another member of the human race, you insult its creator. People of all colours, classes, genders, ages and abilities demonstrate some facet of the nature of God. Even if we don’t see it, we need to search for it and celebrate it.How arrogant could we possibly be to trample upon God’s reflection?

And yet we do. That’s because nobody’s perfect, No one has given God that absolute devotion he requires (See Romans 3:23). The bible tells us we’ve all failed, both as individuals, and as a collective species, to live up to our calling as his creatures and as his sublime image-bearers. This explains why humans, often look more like lazy, war-mongering, cruel angry screw-ups than sublime beautiful beings. The Bible teaches us that once the image of God is marred even the slightest bit, its no longer up to scratch, it doesn’t matter how much, it is still marred (See Romans 3:23). This is true for other beautiful things, like a set of antiques…once one part of the set is lost, it doesn’t matter how beautiful the rest is, its lost most of its resale value. We’re all part of a massive failure to live out our purpose, and the bible therefore describes us as “dead” (See Ephesians 2:1-10).

Its more than ridiculous its tragic. But once again it’s equally tragic for everyone. The bible is quite clear that NO ONE CAN BOAST (See Ephesians 1 Corinthians 1:28-31; Ephesians 2:10) because we are all alike fallen from grace, we are dead, and in death all are equal. This is one reason why the Bible tells us not to judge…because we will be judged by the same measure, and we will fail (Matthew 7:1-4; Romans 2:1). The other reason is that we are simply not omniscient. Jesus tells a story about a man whose field was sown with weeds by an enemy. The man couldn’t pull up the weeds until harvest time (the next life) for fear of pulling up the good plants (Matthew 15:24-30). These three points together form the most radical part, I think, of a basic Christian approach to discrimination. For they mean that there can be no devaluing of other human beings based on our judgements of real/imagined moral inferiority. If their part of the image of God is marred so is yours, if you have potential to change, so do they. Your pitiful good works are not enough to distinguish you from them, and for all you know you could end up spending eternity with them. This excludes any disrespect for other humans on the basis of creed/sexuality etc., whatever our moral position.

Basically, our value lies in our humanness, no more no less, and since we share that with every other homo sapien on the planet, I see no grounds so far for inequality or discrimination…in fact, I would call it criminal, judgemental, and even irreverent.

posted by Foodfairy @ 11:17 PM