Friday's blogposts usually review an article that is written by a Christian representing a Christian perspective on an issue. But today's blogpost will be different. Rather than reviewing an article, we will be using an article as a diving board to see how it could be better employed on a particular issue. The article in question here is about man, actually each person, being made in the image of God that was written by Pastor Wes Brendenhof (click here for the article and there for a short bio on Bredenhof).
But we will also use another reference that indicates the direction of thought that many religiously conservative Christians have ever since their culture war's "Waterloo" that occurred in the 2015 SCOTUS Obergefell decision. I refer to that as the "Waterloo" defeat for many of my fellow religiously conservative Christians who saw themselves as combatants in a culture war over the U.S. For many of these Christians saw that decision as the final battle in their losing effort to win the then current culture war. The reference I am referring to is the upcoming Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology. The main topic of that conference is man being made in the image of God. And here we should note that 3 of the 9 pre-conference and conference talks and 1 of the 3 workshops deal with men and women together including marriage and sex (click here for the conference schedule).
Judging from the schedule, my guess is that the role of foreign affairs in relation to the fact that man is made in the image of God will not be addressed. That is why I am writing about that here. But first, lets discuss the article by Brendonhof. His article on claiming that man is made in the image of God is good and should be read--the link to the article has already been listed above. There is nothing to really debate or question in his article. Regardless of our sinful state, man is made in the image of God which means that we partially reflect God in who we are and in our capabilities. Brendenhof briefly discusses how we are made in the image of God in a narrow moralistic sense and how we are made in the image of God in a broader sense. He also mentions how that image has been harmed by sin and how it is in the process of being at least partially restored by regeneration and living in Christ. And all is well and good in his article.
But the key concern is in how we apply our knowledge that we, and all other people, are made in the image of God in terms of the foreign policies we support, oppose, or are ignorant of here. This is an important subject for Christians who live in a democracy because of the responsibilities that democracies place on its citizens. Of course the first word that might pop into our heads when we think of foreign policies is 'war.' We certainly should want to consider that especially since many of my fellow religiously conservative Christians have been eager to support U.S. wars and other interventions either in the name of patriotism or because of their reading of Romans 13. But other foreign policies come into play too such as our immigration and trade policies and how they affect not only us but those who live in other nations.
But there is another reason to consider these issues here. It has to do with a statement I have often heard from fellow American Christians. The statement goes something like this: 'I am a Christian first and an American second.' Those who say that have good intentions in that they want to show that their first loyalty is to Christ and the Gospel rather than to their own nation.
But there is a missing ingredient here, and that ingredient is found in the article written by Bredenhof: that man (a.k.a., each person) is made in the image of God. Therefore there are 3 groups now that are contending for our loyalties: the Church, the nation, and people regardless of the nation in which they live. So would those who say that they are a Christian first then say that they are an American second or that they are made in the image of God second and their membership in the remaining group would be third. Or, should we say that we are made in the image of God first, we are Christians second, and we are American's third. See, the order of those statements show to whom we are most loyal.
Those who would rank being an American above being a person made in the image of God are implying the following about how they apply their knowledge of being made in the image of God. They believe that they should favor policies that benefit America more than they should be concerned as to whether those policies harm others. That is because while we are all made in the image of God, being an American becomes a tie breaker so that I, as a Christian, should tend to be more concerned about how foreign policies affect my fellow Americans and minimally concerned, if at all, about how they affect people in other nations. So there, one's national identity acts as a tie breaker.
However, if we are to take the fact that each person is made in the image of God seriously, then shouldn't we use that fact as a trump card that overrides one's concern for their fellow Americans. Thus, if there is a foreign policy that benefits Americans but hurts those from other nations, rather than favoring it because our American citizenship acts as a tie breaker, our being made in the image of God should override our concern for the interest of our fellow Americans because other image bearers of God are being harmed. And so we have at least one globalism that we need to embrace. That globalism is that each person is made in the image of God. And thus we have a Christian responsibility to oppose those policies that abuse or exploit those from other nations even if they benefit my own nation.
Using our national identity as a tie breaker in determining what policies I should support minimizes the humanity, or the image of God according to the article referenced, of people from other nations. Using national identity as a tie breaker sets us up for the sin of showing partiality--something not smiled on in the New Testament.
However, if we use the belief that each person is made in the image of God as a trump card, then we can't support policies that favor our fellow Americans if they abuse or exploit people in other nations. And the reason why we can't is because each person from other nations is made in the image of God and that should be more important to us than what our national interests are.
Using one's national identity as a tie breaker can eventually result in tribalism. And tribalism is the the way of the world. And Paul exhorts us in Romans 12 not to conform to the ways of the world. Rather, we should be more respectful of the image of God each person has than their national identity.
References
- https://agradio.org/essential-latin-for-reformed-christians-imago-dei
- https://bredenhof.ca/about-wes-bredenhof/
- https://www.alliancenet.org/made-in-gods-image?mc_cid=a9a459c4ec&mc_eid=66203a5a62
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